Let's raise a toast to the Rev. Louis Braxton for standing up for the rights of another human being!
Four Queens thugs beat priest from the DailyNews by BY PAUL McNAMARA, NICOLE BODE and ETHAN ROUEN DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Wednesday, July 9th 2008, 12:54 AM
Four punks spewing hateful language at a transgender woman outside a shelter for gay and transgender young people in Queens beat up a priest who attempted to thwart their tirade, police said.
The teens started harassing Alessandra-Michelle Carver, 21, as she was dancing in front of Carmen's Place in Astoria about 10:30 p.m. on Monday.
"One of them hit me with a garbage can," she said. "Then his friends started joining in."
With the help of other shelter residents and the Rev. Louis Braxton, who runs the shelter, Carver was able to scare them off.
But minutes later, the boys came back armed with metal poles, empty paint cans, belts and a miter saw. "Father was trying to make peace with them, but then one of them hit him in the back of the head with a paint can," Carver said. "He fell to the ground, and they kept hitting him."
The other residents fended off the attackers, and when the teens finally fled, they ran past Metropolitan Transportation Authority police officers, who nabbed them and charged all four with assault as a hate crime, gang assault, weapon possession and harassment.
"This is a place where we come to regroup and get away from that abuse," Carver said of Carmen's Place, which houses eight people ages 17 to 24.
Those arrested were Tyreek Childs, 17; Trevaugn Payne, 16; Shara Mozie, 17, and a 15-year-old whose name was not released because of his age.
Braxton, who shrugged off the attack after being treated for cuts and bruises at Mount Sinai Hospital of Queens, said men are often threatened by transgender women. "I think that young men see these striking girls, and they're attracted," he said. "And when they find out they are male, they don't know how to handle it and act out in rage."
1 comment:
I came from Queens and that sort of stuff (the crime/violence) was why I moved so many years ago.. but I had hoped some of that had stopped or decreased at least.. well glad they got caught.. interesting the take the priest had of it.. ignorance, fear, and feeling threatened in some weird way.. the attackers kind of mirror bullying and bullies on so many levels and why young people can be so capable of hate crimes in the first place.. I think education at the earliest age is the key and what's lacking..
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