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Thursday, December 2, 2010

Crime BREAKING: Hate Crime Reported in SE—Man Perceived as Gay Beaten While Walking Home

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 3:01 PM

Suspect in the anti-gay beating.
  • Suspect in the anti-gay beating.
The police are looking for help tracking down the suspect in a terrible anti-gay beating that occurred November 1st.

According to the Portland police alert that went out today, a man was walking home alone from a friend's house just after midnight on November 1st and had to cross over the scary, barbed wire-encircled pedestrian walkway that goes over the train tracks at SE 16th and Brooklyn. This is an unsettling area—there is not much light at all and neighbors built an unpermitted skatepark at the base of the walkway, in part because the land was derelict and a magnet for crime.

At the bottom of the overpass, a man described as 6'1, muscular, white with freckles, and blond "made remarks" to the victim's about his sexual orientation. The muscular man, who was on a bike and accompanied by a friend on a bike, proceeded to severely beat the victim, leaving him unconscious on the street with serious head and abdominal injuries.

"He was just walking home," says Portland Police Detective Kevin Warren, who is investigating the assault as a bias crime. "He was minding his own business." According to Detective Warren, the victim is out of the hospital now.

This is a terrifying reminder that hate crimes happen even in the heart of Portland, where we feel safe. Crimes against people based on their sexual orientation or gender now outnumber reported racial hate crimes in Portland, based on the police stats. In 2010 so far, there have been 55 reported bias crimes, 21 of which were due to gender or sexual orientation compared to nine due to race.

Last spring, several men in drag were assaulted downtown for their orientation, sparking discussions between the queer community and police. The attacks eventually led to the formation of a downtown Queer Patrol.

If you have any information about this case or the suspect, please call 503-823-HELP or leave an anonymous tip here.

UPDATE: A couple people in the comments were asking about why it took the police a month to send out a notice about this case. Public Information Officer Lt. Kelli Sheffer says that the detective on the case was following up some leads right after the beating, but they didn't pan out so now the police are looking to the public for help. "They need some help, the leads they were looking at didn't work out," says Lt. Sheffer.

Also, here's a photo of the site of the crime on SE 16th and Brooklyn that I took earlier this month. Imagine it without the friendly skaters.

DSCN3471.JPG

 

Comments (11) RSS

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1
Why did they wait a month to ask us to look out for the assailant??
Posted by torridjoe on December 2, 2010 at 3:05 PM · Report
2
Why did it take the PPB 30 days to notify the public or ask for help with identifying this suspect?
Posted by Graham on December 2, 2010 at 3:05 PM · Report
3
@torridjoe & Graham: Yeah, the sketch appears to be dated 11/4. They *really* wanted to find this guy, didn't they? Apparently not.
Posted by Todd Mecklem on December 2, 2010 at 3:11 PM · Report
4
The overpass on Powell a block away has a nightly homeless encampment that's gotten pretty large over the last couple of months. There looked to be about 10 or 12 people crammed in there, last time I drove by.

No reason to think this guy was associated with them. But is that area kinda going bad?

It's worrying that they were able to build a guerrilla skatepark without authorities noticing (?) but if people actually use it maybe that's the best thing that could happen?
Posted by Reymont on December 2, 2010 at 3:14 PM · Report
5
Also, typo in the headline - 'perceived." Frowny face.
Posted by Reymont on December 2, 2010 at 3:14 PM · Report
6
lol @ typo.

i'm also confused as to why police withheld this information? did you ask them?
Posted by ajnpdx on December 2, 2010 at 3:22 PM · Report
7
If a different type of person had been beaten that severely in a different (say, more upscale) part of town, that sketch would've been on the local news shows four weeks ago, I'd bet. But I suppose that's always the way, isn't it?
Posted by Todd Mecklem on December 2, 2010 at 6:34 PM · Report
8
'Fuckin' Powell, awesomely white trash...
Posted by TageSavage on December 2, 2010 at 9:56 PM · Report
9
I'm not sure why this is surprising to anyone. Despite Portland's reputation for being a tolerant mecca there are loads of knuckleheads here. 5 years ago a friend was visiting who had grown up in SF--we were going to a show at Berbati's, and while waiting for the headliner to go on we walked down Burnside to go to Mary's. While walking, a giant red SUV filled with a bunch of black guys dressed all in red (which was an interesting sight itself) pulled up alongside us and started howling and screaming at us---"Fucking faggots!!!! Gay-ass motherfuckers! Come on--kiss! Fucking queers!" among many other things. We weren't really sure what to do--just looked at each other and shrugged and kept walking. The part I remember most was how worked up they were--it was unbelievable--and although the both of us aren't gay, it was pretty unsettling. What do you do in a situation like that? Shout something back and get beaten? We laughed it off, but it was funny when we were away from them--"I thought Portland was a pretty liberal town," my friend said.. Unfortunately, there are assholes everywhere, and my sympathy goes out to the poor guy who was beaten--makes me just fucking hate people.
Posted by jake on December 3, 2010 at 2:18 AM · Report
10
By "after midnight on November 1st," I'm reading that as basically Halloween night. Right? Not that that information could narrow anything down, but maybe someone at a Halloween party in that neighborhood that night saw two random meat heads trolling around on bikes that night?
Posted by martin on December 3, 2010 at 4:02 AM · Report
11
I used to live right across the street from that overpass, and it's always been a magnet for problems. The police presence in that area has always been pretty minimal, so it's not surprising that someone was beat up, or that the kids were able to build a skate park. The interesting thing is that there are a lot of high-priced homes in the area. It's a weird mix of industrial and residential. It sucks that assholes had to take out their issues on someone who was just minding their own business. All I can recommend it be careful when you are crossing the bridge at night. There are too many trolls living under it who are looking for an excuse to cause problems.
Posted by kimmy47 on December 4, 2010 at 11:47 AM · Report

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