E.N.D. PRESIDENT CONDEMNS "HATE CRIMES" AGAINST GAYS, MUSLIMS IN NYC; CALLS FOR "EMERGENCY TASK FORCE"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) October 5, 2010 --

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E.N.D. PRESIDENT CONDEMNS "HATE CRIMES" AGAINST GAYS, MUSLIMS IN NYC; CALLS FOR "EMERGENCY TASK FORCE"

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New York N.Y. October 5th, 2010: End Discrimination Now, the equality activist group which has publicly denounced the failure of New York’s Judiciary and regulatory agencies to enforce Federal and State Anti Discrimination Laws, announced today that it was “outraged” by the horrific trend of hate crimes in Manhattan and five boroughs of New York against gay men and Muslims. “Law enforcement has done a remarkable job of rounding up the suspects and arresting them, but the trend is very disturbing and potentially a precursor to broader attacks against all protected class groups”. E.N.D.President Jordan warned. E.N.D.applauded Eye Witness News (Channel 7)’s coverage of the situation after it announced that two separate acts of hate crimes against gay men occurred in quiet neighborhood bars in the Chelsea and Greenwich areas of downtown.

In one incident at the historic “Stonewall Inn” in the tony West Village, a 34 year old gay man was viciously attacked by two young men from Staten Island while in the men’s room. The men apparently approached the gay man and inquired if he was gay, on Sunday morning, at a Christopher Street bar when one of the perpetrators approached him in the men’s room and asked if he was gay, law-enforcement sources said. He also asked him what kind of an establishment it was, prosecutors said. On being told it was a gay bar, Francis used an anti-gay slur and told the victim to get away from him, assistant district attorney Kiran Singh said.

"I don't like gay people. Don't pee next to me," the assailant is alleged to have said, according to the prosecutor.
Francis, 21, then demanded money, punched the victim in the face and continued beating him after a co-defendant blocked the door, tackled the victim and held him down, Singh said. The victim was treated at a hospital and was released, she said.

The attackers defense lawyer said his client “wasn’t violent” and that “it wasn’t a hate crime”. END criticized that pretext as “unpersuasive”. “You have a heterosexual man going to a neighborhood gay bar early in the morning and he winds up assaulting a gay man. It was not his neighborhood, he was the intruder. And he obviously wasn’t there for tea”, END President Jordan surmised.

Ironically the bar was the location where President Obama recently lauded as a historic site for civil rights advances for gay people. The president of the Anti Violence Project also was shocked: "Even in a bar like the Stonewall Inn, which started a huge part of the gay rights movement _ even the Stonewall Inn is not immune to this sort of violence, despite all of the work that they do to create a safe and tolerant atmosphere," President Stapel said. "It's incredibly sad."

Hours before that attack, several other men viciously attacked two men for kissing and hugging inn the gay neighborhood of Chelsea, according to authorities.Both attacks are being treated as anti-gay bias incidents, police said.

There has also been a disturbing rise in hate crimes against Muslims, E.N.D. reported. In the most high-profile incident, late last month, NYPD arrested a 21-year-old white film student after he allegedly stabbed New York City taxi driver Ahmed Sharif. The suspect, Michael Enright, reportedly asked Sharif if he observed Ramadan before slashing him across the neck and arm, all while yelling, “This is a checkpoint!” At least three others have been physically attacked across the country, including a Sikh 7-Eleven attendant who was allegedly punched in side of the face by an assailant who thought he was Muslim.

At least six mosques have been targeted with graffiti, arson or had windows smashed. In Queens, a drunk man entered a mosque and urinated on prayer rugs while yelling “terrorists.” In Nevada, a wall was spray painted with, “Burn the Koran? Why? Just burn Muslims.”These incidents, drawn from a scan of national and local press, are likely just the tip of the iceberg. Abed Ayoub, legal director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), a national advocacy organization, says the ADC has received hundreds of reports of attacks this year alone. Some reports, he says, are of violent attacks while others are hate speech. A spokesperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, another national advocacy group, says the organization’s offices have similarly been flooded with reports of violence against Muslims.

E.N.D. believes these hate crimes are related and were “foreseeable”. “You have a bad economy and scarce jobs which means a lot of angry people. We know from history that allowing bias to go unchecked can lead to disastrous events.” Jordan said, referencing the Holocaust, which began when Germany underwent a serious economic crisis. END has frequently warned of the perils of unchecked discrimination in the workplace, where many hate crimes begin. Jordan cited a disturbing rise in discrimination complaints as reported by the EEOC across all protected classes, and rising unemployment for the same as major indicators of a “definite trend”. E.N.D has previously criticized the Court System in New York for “not enforcing the Laws and actually rewarding corporate employer violators who allow “cultures of discrimination”. E.N.D. also indicated that the marked rise in discrimination was being masked by regulatory groups like the EEOC. “These markers are precursors of trends which cannot be ignored. We need to proactively and prophyacticly address these societal ills before they become epidemic”.

E.N.D. has called for a “Multi Stakeholder Task Force” consisting of large employers with a record of compliance with minority advancement, academic experts, legislative and judicial representatives and advocacy orgs to “come together to define the problem and create a Mandate for real Change”. “This is partly a legal problem”, Jordan said, “We need to tighten all of our laws related to discrimination, hate crimes against ethnic and gender groups, and violent crimes against women and we need to hire tough minded judges and prosecutors that won’t pander to criminals, whether they be white or blue collar. It is also an economic problem. People are scared, and our leaders are going to have to be sensitive to that and propose specific plans to generate jobs and kick start the NY economy. Desperation is the breeding ground for hate”. Jordan is also concerned about the elderly and disabled, who are prime targets for societal predators and encourages orgs that support these vulnerable populations to “reach out” and for people to "ask for help, whether it is a need for an escort to help that person if they have to travel around the city, especially at night or if they are being targeted.. “Call 311 and ask for information and call 911 if there is an emergency”.

“People think that because they are not in a protected class under attack that it’s not their problem. But Discrimination is a zero end game, and it must be prevented by having zero tolerance policies in the workplace, in public institutions, in government”. Jordan said. As Martin Luther King Jr. said "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere".

Any organizations interested in joining E.N.D in this Task Force should contact the organization at 212 535 3369, or President Jordan at 917 596 2319 or send an email to info@enddiscriminationn.

More information can be found online at http://www.enddiscriminationnow.com

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