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Upper East Side Tokers Go Gay Bashing During Pride Weekend
By
Billy Parker
Published Jun 29, 2009
Modified Jun 29, 2009
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By
Billy Parker
Published Jun 29, 2009
Modified Jun 29, 2009
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A former Village Voice staffer in town for the weekend, was jumped, badly beaten and called a faggot by a group of young men on the Upper East Side in the wee hours of Saturday morning. 36-year-old Joe Holladay of Boston was smoking outside the friend's apartment on East 85th near York around 4 a.m. Saturday when the group of five or six men came up to him and hit him with an object, possibly the butt of a gun. Holladay told the Voice, "It's very blurry. But yeah, they said 'faggot.' And the next thing I know I'm in the hospital." A neighbor said they spotted a group of young white men with crewcuts, wearing wife beaters and smoking pot nearby before the attack. It's believed that they hopped in a gold Subaru older model station wagon after the attack. Upon reading about the incident, State Senator Thomas Duane got involved with the possibility of pursuing it as a hate crime and said, "Hate and prejudice of any kind are unacceptable in New York City or anywhere and there is a heightened injustice that this apparently anti-gay incident occurred during Pride Week."
Tagged
assault
gay bashing
hate crime
joe holladay
pride week
upper east side
Billy Parker
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