MUST SHARE: Alledged Hate Crime (LGBT) in Greenville SC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 03, 2011

Contact: Elke Kennedy
Sean's Last Wish
www.seanslastwish.org
(864)-884-5003
elke@seanslastwish.org

Another alleged hate crime in upstate SC in less then 4 weeks

Greenville, SC - In the early Sunday morning hours, May 1, 2011, Vonte Fuller was hanging out at Sideline's Sports & Spirit's when a man came out of nowhere and poured a pitcher of beer on him. From there it quickly escalated, he got a beer bottle smashed over his head and several other men joined in and broke more beer bottle's on Fuller's head, face and arm while spewing anti gay slurs like "I hate you faggots and ... you punks make me sick, and you are all going to die slow".
Instead of assisting Fuller, the club security kicked all involved parties out of the bar and let the attackers leave. Finally someone called 911.

Police didn't take a statement or write a report from Fuller after visiting him in the hospital because Fuller didn't know his attackers. Only after Fuller went to the police with his family late Sunday afternoon was a police report filed.

This is an outrage. Whether you like the victim's sexual orientation or not, or whether the victim knows his attacker or not (in most cases the attackers are strangers anyway!) the police officer has the duty to write a report of a crime. (see attached link)
http://www2.wspa.com/member-center/share-this/print/?content=ar1792856

This is the second attack in the upstate of SC in less than four weeks. If you remember, Joshua Esskew was attacked on April 9, 2011 in Rock Hill SC by several people. The FBI is investigating that case as a hate crime. Even though there was a video of the crime, it took authorities over 3 weeks to make an arrest.

South Carolina is one of the five states that does not have hate crime protection laws. However, there is a federal hate crime law now in place that allows the FBI to assist in the investigation of any alleged hate crime based on sexual orientation or gender identity or any bias.

Local authorities are not investigating this case as a hate crime because we don't have hate crimes in South Carolina. I call on the FBI and urge them to investigate this as a hate crime and to charge these men with a hate crime for this brutal crime, that was clearly the result of Vonte Fuller's sexual orientation.

Elke Kennedy, mother of a gay son who was murdered in May 2007, is outraged by this happening again and again. Her statement is "We need to send a message loud and clear that this type of crime will not be tolerated in South Carolina. In addition we really need to look at our laws".
Elke and her organization Sean's Last Wish, which was established shortly after her son's murder, will help in any way she can to assure that justice prevails.

Every hour of the day a hate crime is committed in the United States and every six hours, four times each day, a hate crime is committed against someone from the LGBT community. Every nine days an LGBT person gets murdered.

There is no information available about the attackers and no arrests have been made.

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For more information, see: www.seanslastwish.org




The mission statement of Sean's Last Wish is to empower people through educational diversity programs, non-violent conflict resolution and individual involvement in the community.