Community Alerts

AVP is outraged by an incident of police violence that occurred in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn on Sunday, June 3, 2013. Three openly gay men, Josh Williams, Ben Collins, and Antonio Maenza, reported that they were walking past the 79th Precinct when an NYPD officer accused one of the men of public urination and attacked him, throwing him against a police car. The officer was joined by other officers who also attacked the man, throwing him to the ground and pepper spraying him while he was in handcuffs. The survivor was handcuffed tightly, causing lacerations. The survivor's injuries were treated at a hospital, where he was again restrained with wrist and ankle cuffs. The group of officers also arrested the other two survivors. AVP has obtained video of the assault from the survivors, which can be viewed here.

The New York City Anti-Violence Project is investigating reports of an eleventh incident of anti-gay violence to occur in New York City this month. The latest incident occurred on Wednesday night, May 29th in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. The survivor, Bronx resident Kevin Kiaddi was with friends in Prospect Park when they encountered a group of men. According to media reports, when Kiaddi offered one of the men a soda, the group began beating him and shouting anti-gay slurs. According to the same reports, five men have been arrested and are charged with gang assault and hate crimes charges. AVP is working with the survivor in this most recent, brutal attack. AVP is also reaching out to community partners, as well as New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the Hate Crimes Task Force of the NYPD and the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office to further investigate this assault.

The New York City Anti-Violence Project is investigating reports of a tenth incident of anti-gay violence to occur in New York City this month. The latest incident occurred on the J train in Brooklyn on Saturday Night, May 27th, which was reported to AVP by multiple concerned community members this week. A gay man was approached on the train by an individual yelling an anti-gay slur, and then was punched in the face. AVP is reaching out to community partners, as well as New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the Hate Crimes Task Force of the NYPD and the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office to further investigate this assault.

The New York City Anti-Violence Project is investigating reports of a ninth incident of anti-gay violence to occur in New York City this month. The latest incident is being reported on the New Civil Rights Movement Blog, after going viral on Facebook on Saturday. LGBTQ activist Eugene Lovendusky, a member of the group Queer Rising, which has been an integral part of the response to recent bias attacks, reports that he was attacked himself on Friday night, May 24th in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. A close friend reported that Lovendusky had been attacked by a group of 9 to 10 men who shouted anti-gay slurs and punched him in the jaw.

  Read the full text of AVP's Community Alert here.

The New York City Anti-Violence Project is outraged to hear of eight public violent anti-gay attacks, one of them fatal, that occurred in New York City in May. According to multiple news sources, at around 5 a.m. this morning, a gay couple was attacked on Broadway, between Prince and Houston Street, by two men shouting anti-gay slurs. The two men, identified as Fabian Ortiz, 32, and Pedro Jimenez, 23, have been arrested and charged with assault as a hate crime.