London's gay
rights leaders are demanding that police do more to stop a
growing number of deadly gay bashings that have taken
place in and around the city this year. Ben
Summerskill, chief executive of the gay rights group
Stonewall, told The Guardian newspaper
that the number of antigay hate crimes has risen 8.5%
over the past year--while other types of hate crimes
have fallen about 4%.
This is "people swinging their fists, not just
shouting at people in the streets," he told the
newspaper. "And this is in London--not those
places that might be even less tolerant. I don't know the
statistics for Grimsby, Kettering, or Shrewsbury, but
indications are that in some places people have become
socially withdrawn; gay people are becoming a social
category rather like old people, who prefer not to go
out at night out of fear of violence."
The latest gay man to die was 24-year-old
Jody Dobrowski, who had lived in London since
2001. On Friday he was going to visit a friend when he
was beaten to death in a well-known cruising area. Officials
at Scotland Yard told reporters that the killers were
so enraged that they had "no use for a weapon." Their
fists and feet were "enough to inflict the injuries to
the head, neck, and chest from which Mr. Dobrowski
died in hospital at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday," according to
The Independent newspaper.
In the past month alone three assaults have
occurred in the area where Dobrowski was killed.
On September 13 a victim escaped from being stabbed
with a piece of wire by poking his assailant in the eye.
Two weeks ago a man was beaten unconscious by three
attackers in the same area, according to The Independent.
Peter Tatchell of the gay rights group Outrage!
told The Independent that "it is unlikely to
be [the attackers'] first queer-bashing attack, and unless
they are caught, it may not be their last. These
killers could kill again."
The latest national statistics on antigay crime
show that between April 2004 and March 2005, 317 cases
had a "homophobic element." There were 190 guilty
pleas, but only 34 convictions at trial. A quarter of the
cases were dropped because the victim refused to testify.
Officials admit the latest attacks may be only
the tip of the iceberg.
"The level of hate crime is high, and the level
of reporting is low. Very few homophobic attacks are
reported--far lower than the level of reported
attacks of general violent crime," said Tor Docherty, chief
executive of the gay group Galop, which counsels victims of
homophobic attacks. "People come to Galop about
attacks they don't want to go to the police over, and
we then refer them to the police." (Chad Graham,
Advocate.com)
