Homophobic Harassment During Gay Pride (Minneapolis)

[MinneapolisMatt]

Run time: 02:14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfW9inRkTpU   Posted on YouTube: June 28, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: June 30, 2009 By DU Member: MinneapolisMatt Views on DU: 3570

 
This is NOT me, but I was at Pride this weekend. Pretty sad.

[imdjh]

1. So the cops do nothing

A gay man is being followed and harassed by a group of 8-10 boys yelling epithets and stupidity, and the cops don't even ask the man if he needs help?

Two of those boys appear to be wearing dresses. What is that about?

[Downtown Hound]

3. If those kids had been protesting the RNC

They would have been gassed, pepper sprayed, shot with rubber bullets, and shelled with flash bang grenades. But threaten a man's safety and harass him, and la da da dee dah, just a' walk on by.

[MNLeftie]

8. No laws were being broken, I guess...

And the majority of the boys in that clip are Somali, not black. Minneapolis has, I believe, the highest population of Somali immigrants in the country. I'm not up on Somali culture, but seems to me most of those boys speak pretty good English and are now benefiting from their new status as citizens of the US and its educational system along with the instilled hatred that comes with it.

Very sad. A minority mocking a minority...not to mention ugly.

Sad

[imdjh]

11. I didn't say that the cops should have arrested the kids.

However, that no laws were being broken is debatable. The "more info" in the video said that the kids threw rocks- that is a felony in Florida, surely it's against the law in Minn.

My thought was that the cops should have injected themselves in the situation, corrected the kids, protected the victim, and sent everyone on his way.

I strongly suspect that had a group of ten white youth been screaming racial epithets at a black man and bouncing down the street behind him- the cops or other concerned citizens would have stepped in.

Adults are supposed to correct ill behaved youth, especially menacing ill behaved youth. How else are they going to know that their behavior is unacceptable?

[Mulehead]

13. Minneapolis/St. Paul has a very large Somali immigrant/refugee

population, as well as large Hmong and other immigrant refugee groups due to very activist local churches that do a tremendous amount of excellent sanctuary/settlement work (they always have, even back in the day). Those kids were probably children of Somali immigrants, hence the long flowing shirt. They are just teen and pre-teen boys, most likely struggling with their own "double" identities (as children of immigrants and as neo-Black Americans) and sexualities, and like lots of teen-aged boys running in packs tend to do, were just stupidly engaging in some macho "Lord of the Flies" BS. Of course this doesn't excuse them; and if their parents saw them, they'd probably get corporally sanctioned really good.

And why would anyone expect the Minny cops interrupt a hate crime in progress? As a group, like most big city cop gangs, the MPD is largely populated by naturally authoritarian reactionary personalities who hate what they don't understand or perceive to the their Others, and as an institution has always been heinously reactionary, going back to the Progressive/Wobbly era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, continuing on in the 1930's, when they violently tried to break the Teamster rebellions of 1934 and 1936, and during the civil rights riots of 1965 and 1968, when they sicked the dogs and fire hoses on and cracked open many a Black person's skull, and the May day riots of 1970 (when I experienced my first tear gassing at the University of Minnesota protesting the Vietnam Holocaust), right up to the GOP humpfest in St. Paul last summer. In 1934, the fledgling Teamsters Union, which had declared a strike against the Citizen's Alliance (a reactionary business group which was established by the bosses who owned the food and grain wholesale industry, and who hired lots of finks, Pinkertons, especially, and had the Chief of Police, Johan Schultz or Straus, I forget which, firmly in their pocket), for their refusal to allow the Teamsters to legally organize the loading docks of the food and grain wholesalers located within the Minneapolis Farmer's Market, as was their right to collectively bargain, according to Article 7a of the new National Recovery Act. The Teamsters actually declared Minneapolis to be an "open" city and a worker's Soviet in July of 1934 and formed barricades and flying pickets at all the main roads leading into the city, which led the Citizen's Alliance to whip up a cop/boss/fink riot against the Teamsters and Carpenter's Unions at the Minneapolis Farmer's Market, during which two Citizen's Alliance dandies in jodphurs and pith helmets (really!) had their heads fatally ventilated courtesy of some well swung 2x4s, before the Socialist mayor of Minneapolis(yes, that's right, Joe the not-a-Plumber/is-a-Douchebag, an elected Socialist! mayor), Floyd B. Olson, sent in the MN National Guard to restore order (break the strike).

Of course, the idea that Minneapolis had a socialist mayor, Minnesota a socialist senator (August Lindbergh, Lucky Lindy's dad), or that Fargo, ND, had an elected Communist Mayor in 1913 (well respected leftist and feminist author Meridel LeSueur's father), and that many American cities have rich, proud histories of labor radicalism, has been largely erased as a by product of post 1940s McCarthyism and J.EdgarHooverism Redbaiting (Hoover having been blackmailed by the Mafia over his closeted homosexuality into allowing them to take over the Teamsters Union), and the officializing narratives of the reactionary mainstream kkkorporate media and the history books, the same virulent strain of reactionary Redbaiting we see rearing it's ugly head today courtesy of reactionary (a word I much prefer to conservatives) dolts like Sarah Failin, Joe the Skinhead, Michelle Bachmann, Rushbo and Billo, and their fellow travelers in the Whigpublican party (and the Blue Dogs, for that matter). But it is also interesting to also note that the same state/city that excreted a foul turd like Michelle B. also sent Paul Wellstone (DFL-Democratic Farmer Laborite Party) and Keith Ellison (DFL and a practicing Muslim) to Washington.

Spread the word: Socialism is as American as Mom and Apple Pie, and certainly nothing to apologize about to the reactionaries.

[dflprincess]

15. There is no excuse for that behavior

no matter their age of cultural background. And, there is no excuse for Minneapolis police not stopping it. The little thugs should have been rounded up and held until their parents came and picked them up.

Just a note, Michelle Bachmann does not represent Minneapolis or St. Paul. Some of the northern suburbs are in her district, but it also takes a swing north into some of the nuttier areas of the state.

[imdjh]

22. Helluva post! I'm still chuckling, I haven't heard anyone called a fink in years. Thanks. nt

[Truth2Tell]

30. great post mulehead. Moar please. nt

[HelenWheels]

2. Minneapolis police among the worst

They showed how bad they were during the Rupuke convention. So disappointing as I always thought MN was a progressive state.

[imdjh]

5. Notice what the one kid does when he realizes he's being photographed?

It's an effective tool. Gay people should always have a whistle and a camera. San Francisco isn't the only city where the whistles will work.

[Seldona]

24. I heard at least one 'Oh shit!' when one looked at the camera, or saw the cops.

Then it looked like he turned and ran. I think you're right. This was heading south in a hurry until the kids realized they were on tape. I don't understand the lack of police action either. That is particularly disturbing.

Glad no one was injured. You could almost feel their energy building as they realized they had the guy scared.

[imdjh]

27. The Minneapolis Police are saying that those weren't police officers

From: Allen, Robert D.
Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 12:49 PM
To: Quezada, Heidi P.
Subject: RE: Homophobic display at Pride celbration

Upon reviewing the tape, it is clear that the "officers" are not
Minneapolis Police officers. They appear to be private security
officers.

While the Minneapolis Police Department can not be everywhere, we had
several officers, many of them members of the GLBT community, working at
Pride. Had 911 been called, we would have responded immediately.

While hate speech is not illegal, the type of harassment demonstrated in
this video is, and the Minneapolis Police Department would have welcomed
an opportunity to address it.

Deputy Chief Rob Allen | Patrol Bureau |
Minneapolis Police Department | 350 South 5th Street |
Minneapolis, MN 55415 | 612.673.2776 office |

[Downtown Hound]

4. Sad and sick

I can never really fathom what it must be like to have to go through this. I'm a 6'4" 215 pound straight white guy. I never get harassed by anybody. Seeing this only gives me a brief glimpse of what some people go through every day just for being different from others. Amazing that this man can stay so calm and upbeat about it. I guess that comes from years of experience, which is also something that makes me sad.

[imdjh]

7. He was afraid, and rightfully so.

If there hadn't been a camera on him, he might have been stomped. Those kids have no upbringing, but those cops have training and they should have recognized a dangerous situation and dealt with it.

[vanbean]

23. How did they know he was gay?

[Downtown Hound]

26. They asked him

It's in the description of the video if you double click on it and go to youtube.

[snake in the grass]

6. How soon they forget. n/t

[AlinPA]

9. It is sickening especially that such young kids are doing it. Learned in Sunday school?

[Seldona]

10. That is where is starts.

And ends up on a street corner like this.

[imdjh]

12. You think those kids go to Sunday school?

I went to Sunday school. I never learned to harass people or threaten them, or throw rocks at them in Sunday school. I'm on board with the idea that gay bashing preachers promote violence, but those preachers are actually pretty rare. I was raised in two sects, Catholic and Protestant and I never got the hate indoctrination.

[heliarc]

17. You should check out the movie Jesus Camp.

I'm not so sure the gay bashing is rare... maybe it's not the majority, but it's certainly prevalent.

[Julius Civitatus]

28. Sunday school? Sorry, but those kids are Muslim!

Please take a look at the video again. For anyone that knows Minneapolis, in recent years the city had a major influx of Somali immigration. Those kids look and dress the part (check the robes a handful of those kids wear, and how they speak to each other in a different language when they realize they are being taped).

Not sure if it's politically incorrect to mention it, or if everyone else in this board is dancing around the elephant in the room. If it's because of political correctness, well, I don't give a crap: Those kids very likely come from a region of the globe where it is ok to lynch gay people, or at least their parents come from there. I wonder where these kids get the idea that in America is ok to harass and gang up against someone who's different than them... in the street! In daylight! I hate to see behavior like that, which that you would expect in countries like Iran, right here in the US of A.

Methinks they are hearing a lot of that hateful stuff right at their homes.

[Celtic Merlin]

14. Those cops were complete turds.

Can somebody get a screenshot of that vid where we can see their faces? Perhaps a little public embarrassment added to the video would help prompt a little corrective intervention the next time they see this kind of bullshit.

Last I checked, Minneapolis had a sizable and active gay community. Wonder how much these "officers" would like to have their faces plastered all over town for being douchebags.

Celtic Merlin
Carlinist

[Divine Discontent]

16. cops are cowards and bullies - they stand by when obvious stuff like this goes on - they heard it

just as easy as we did, they should have noticed the guy recording the boys following the one man and taunting. a year or two older and these kids would probably have beaten the man around that corner - it's not funny or cute, the guy wasn't too nervous because he knew they were younger, but he was nervous like all people would have been, and certainly wouldn't have been safe if it was 15-17 year olds doing it - which these brats will be in a couple years - surely, a few of them have homophobic parents and this is where it came from. They all didn't think this way, one or a few did, and started saying things so the rest followed.

[lindisfarne]

18. Write letters to startribune.com. Link to video. citypages.com might also be a good place to writent

[ronnykmarshall]

19. Sick little hatefull brats.

[jhill3rd]

20. I used to live...

in that neighborhood few years back. Loring Park has one of the largest gay populations in the city, and I saw quite a few incidents there. I can tell you that it wasn't just Somali boys either. I saw a gay man get pushed into a bush by a group of white teenagers a week after I moved in.

One time, I was leaving to meet friends, and I saw two grown men beating a gay man in the street to the point of unconsciousness. A small group gay men living in my building were yelling at the brutes from across the street. They were terrified. I ran over to the men, and as soon as they saw my 6'3" 300lb frame running toward them, the got scared and took off in a car. I was able to grab the passengers shirt while he was trying to close the door, but couldn't hold on. My neighbors and I tended to the beaten man and called the police. When the cops got there, they did absolutely nothing.

After that incident, my neighbors began to see me as an ally and I really began to understand the struggle of what gay people encounter daily. Not much happened on that corner anymore while I lived there. Maybe word got out that the "big, black dude" that lived on Spruce St. wasn't having it :)

After seeing this, I see nothing much has changed. It hurts.

[imdjh]

25. cheers to you for taking action

I know that many people have no experience with violence, and they literally don't know what to do when it happens in front of them, however it appears that many people simply aren't willing to engage and accept risk.

Good for you for getting involved. And I have found that when someone does that, when people resist, the violent persons are the ones who no longer know what to do and they take off.

[jhill3rd]

32. That's exactly it.

A bully doesn't know what to do with themselves when someone actually stands up to them. I don't advocate violence, but stand firm and do the right thing.

[Celtic Merlin]

29. You and I are the same kind of neighbor, Mr. Hill.

I watch out for the people who live around me and I believe that they watch out for my family and house, too. Once one neighbor shows some community spirit, it inspires many of the rest to do the same. You and I would make a frightening team, JHill. I'm 6'1" 250lbs myself. When it comes to trouble on my street, I'm like cheap toilet paper - I'm rough, I'm tough, and I take shit off NOBODY.

Troublemakers don't usually make trouble in their own areas - they like to cause problems in other people's areas. They don't like it when the folks who live there fight back, because troublemakers are usually just cowards with transportation. Oh, and DON'T they run like hell when the neighbors come out to get themselves involved!

Celtic Merlin
Carlinist

[jhill3rd]

31. AMEN!!

I think we would make a good team :)

[Alcibiades]

21. I hate to reccomend this thread

Because the behavior of those kids is so shocking it has nothing to recommend it.

[ddiver]

33. Cultures collide: Somali youth harass gay man at Pride

http://minnesotaindependent.com/38101/cultures-collide-somali-youth-harass-gay-man-at-pride

That is the headline from the Minnesota Independent.

...Cultures collided Sunday when a gay man was harassed by more than a dozen Somali youths while heading home after the Twin Cities GLBT Pride Festival. Shouting “I hate gay people,” “Fuck gay people,” and “Gay is not the way,” the youths followed the man for several blocks. The entire incident was caught on video.

Some fucking culture you have there.

[JI7]

34. this was weird, why didn't the cops do anything, and other people walking or standing around

act like nothing unusual was going on. is this common there and that's why they reacted like it was nothing ?

i would like the parents of those kids to see that video. someone needs to teach them that what they were doing was unacceptable.