Note well, people… consider the reported timeline of events and the extraordinary virulent injuries sustained by this courageous gay man in this case…

He was violently assaulted TWICE. He was violently kicked and called a *FAGGOT*, apparently, also while being dragged intentionally to a secondary location in the alley– whereupon he was violently assaulted AGAIN. And THEN he was robbed by, perhaps, a second set of assailants.

Yet despite this fairly explicit reported timeline and chain of events, MPD’s A.C. Peter Newsham has already soft-pedaled this case with an early press conference pronouncement (not attended by Chief of Police Lanier, BTW). Newsham and MPD has claimed that anti-LGBT hate/ bias was only a “secondary” motive to robbery. Really?

MPD’s characterization does set a certain low expectation level for the public– pretty much in favor of MPD not pursuing this case as the SEPARATE and distinct hate crimes by TWO groups of assailants that it may very well have been.

Convenient, huh? That’s especially so, if MPD’s brass believe the LGBT community has a short attention span and that LGBT people don’t really care much about their own public safety (see Chief Lanier’s testimony before the Judiciary Committee just a month ago, 29 February).

Who does MPD think it’s kidding? It is time to consider whether the mistaken policies of the Chief Police, the attitudes of the Chief Police and the mixed messages she is deliberately conveying in public hearings and media talk shows regarding LGBT residents and their public safety are tacitly, however unintentionally, encouraging more violent anti-LGBT hate crimes.