UPDATE TUESDAY: Just a Thought: Sticks and Stones, Kobe and Bret, Sticks and Stones



Sheriff Bruce Bryant

 Last month I posted the story of Joshua Esskew [HERE] who was called an anti-gay slur, hit in the head with a beer bottle, and then attacked by a group of up to eight people. Hate crime, no? No, not in South Carolina where our politicians don't believe in that sort of thing.

But there is some good news now. York County authorities have arrested and charged five men with assaulting Joshua Esskew.

And while these men, er, boys,, er, morons, could not be charged with a Hate Crime in South Carolina--though the FBI is investigating it as such--Sheriff Bruce Bryant, of Rock Hill, South Carolina, says the five have been charged with assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. Those charges carry a prison term of up to 20 years.

All five suspects are from York, South Carolina, and they are: 

Cortezio Laquise Douglas, 21



Lortarius Anthony Duncan, 22



LaJames Mitchell, 22

Darenco Markie Wilmore, 20

Bobby Wilson, 20

The melee started after an altercation between Joshua Esskew and Bobby Wilson, standing in front of the convenience store. Wilson threw a beer bottle at Esskew's head, and when Esskew confronted him, the fight began; soon, the others joined in the beating of Joshua Esskew.

Sheriff Bruce Bryant says the store surveillance video helped in the arrests of the five men, as did those people who stepped up to identify the attackers; Bryant praised their "willingness...to get involved and not let this violent crime go unpunished." 

i praise Sheriff Bruce Bryant and the police from York County for not treating this as just another case of kids being kids, and for realizing the hateful nature of this attack.

Via The Charlotte Observer

Just a Thought: Sticks and Stones, Kobe and Bret, Sticks and Stones

Joshua Esskew stopped at a local convenience store to use the bathroom and maybe get a soda. instead, he was brutally attacked because he's gay.

As he walked into the store last Saturday night in Rock Hill, South Carolina--not all that far from Smallville-someone called him 'faggot.' Esskew turned and asked, "What was that you said?" and then he was hit in the head with a 40-oz beer bottle.

Bad enough, right? Stopping to get a soda, being called a fag and getting a bottle thrown at you. Bad enough, right?

Surveillance video from the store caught at least eight people, who were pumping gas or doing laundry next door to the gas station, rush into the parking lot and join in the beating of Joshua Esskew. Eight people, in all, all strangers, beat a man. But, hey, he's gay.

'Fucking faggot' stepped in a 'puddle of HIV'. Right, Kobe? Right Bret?

Okay, so maybe Kobe Bryant didn't actually throw a punch at Esskew, and maybe he didn't even join the fray beating the man so badly that he spent two days in the hospital, but Kobe Bryant, and anyone else who uses any kind of gay slur, bears some responsibility.

When you mutter, utter, shout, or even mouth, the words, 'faggot', especially when you are an idolized athlete, you are telling people it's okay to hate. It's okay to bash someone in the head with a bottle. It's okay to join a fight because it's just a gay guy.

And perhaps Bret Easton Ellis wasn't in Rock Hill over the weekend, but his homophobic, self-loathing, anti-gay Tweets just might have helped those men throw punches at Esskew.

Kobe Bryant  and Bret Easton Ellis weren't actually in on the fight, but Kobe's easy use of the word 'faggot'as a derogatory term, and Ellis'tauints about gay shows and HIV, helped  to throw the first bottle. 

And because it's accepted by some to call people 'faggot'as a dirty word, or make fun of people with HIV, that South Carolina remains in the dark ages. See, even though Esskew was obviously beaten because he's gay--or at least the attackers suspected he was gay--South Carolina has no Hate Crimes laws.

It's okay to beat gays here, I guess, and it's okay for over-paid arrogant athletes to call us 'faggots' on television, and for has-been authors to Tweet homophobia. And until that stops, and isn't laughed at, or made light of, gay people will still get beaten just for being ourselves.

source