Top Chef Contestant Attacked in Apparent Hate Crime
September 13th, 2007 by Evil Beet
Josie Smith-Malave, who appeared on Top Chef’s second season, and who is openly gay, was attacked at a Long Island bar over Labor Day weekend in what appears to be a hate crime.
Josie and friends were at Partners, in Sea Cliff, Long Island, for a birthday party. The group was initially asked to leave the bar because they were suspected of being with underage drinkers (they deny this), but a bar patron reported overhearing the bouncer saying that the crowd was “getting too gay.” When Josie and her friends did leave, they were beaten in the parking lot by a group of people who were screaming anti-gay slurs. According to witness, the attackers screamed: “I hope you die of AIDS.”
“I’ve never experienced something like that before where people are so angry I didn’t even know where it was coming from,” said Josie.
Nassau County Police Department says they will be investigating the assault as a hate crime, which is a felony in New York.
You know, when I read a story like this, I don’t even get angry anymore. I just kind of feel confused. Like, really? We’re still doing this shit? In 2007? Don’t people have anything better to do than be bigots? I mean, there’s so much free porn available online. Wouldn’t it be nicer to do that? And just how ignorant can you be, buddy? Screaming “I hope you die of AIDS?” At a lesbian?
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Crime happens.. it has no barriers. “By age 18 an American child will have seen 16,000 simulated murders and 200,000 acts of violence.”
Source: Senate Committee on the Judiciary, September 14, 1999
Think about that for a second. Children growing up, prior to the era of television probably never witnessed a murder or saw a person beaten. Violence seems to everywhere. You and your children can see a person’s brains splattered on the Internet, on television, in video games and in movies.
“Because young children cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality, they are especially influenced by what they see on TV. Children under seven are particularly vulnerable to powerful images of violent behavior portrayed in the media.” Source: National Association for the Education of Young Children
Is this statement enough to be concerned? “At least with respect to television and movies, existing research already demonstrates a solid link between media violence and the violent actions of our youth. Dr. Leonard D. Eron, a senior research scientist and professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, has estimated that television alone is responsible for 10% of youth violence.” Source: Children, Violence, and the Media – A Report for Parents and Policy Makers
How do you feel about the violence? What is your value-system about killing, death, and violence? Is it a social, moral, or relational issue for you or does it encompass all three.
Keep making violent bully, slasher films with extreme vulgarity that desensatizes rational feelings and this should be expected to happen more often.
The whole thing is so awful. Just when I think we’ve kind of moved past this kind of sh*t, people chock full of hatred prove me to be naive.
Speaking of hate crime(s):
George W. Bush had been a hate-crime criminal.
George W. Bush did in fact commit innumerable hate crimes.
Bush was absolute evil.
George W. Bush is now sort of like a fugitive from justice.
Bush will go down in history in infamy.
Submitted by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang
B.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
Messiah College, Grantham, PA
Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993
“GEORGE W. BUSH IS THE WORST PRESIDENT IN U.S. HISTORY” BLOG OF ANDREW YU-JEN WANG
andrewyu-jenwang.blogspot.com