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Three charged with stomping gay man at Forest Hills; mother says her lesbian daughters would never do that
By adamg on Fri, 02/24/2012 - 3:19pm
Felicia and Erika Stroud and Lydia Sanford
Three women were arraigned today on charges they stomped a man and yelled homophobic slurs at the Forest Hills T stop on Sunday evening.
Felicia Stroud, 18, Erika Stroud, 21, and Lydia Sanford, 20, were released on bail of between $100 and $500 at their hearing at West Roxbury District Court, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office, which says it is planning an addition charge of assault and batter with a dangerous weapon - a shod foot - against the three.
The investigation by Transit Police detectives suggests that the victim was walking up a stairway at Forest Hills station at about 6:40 p.m. when the defendants were walking down and toward him. The victim and Felicia Stroud brushed or bumped one another as they passed.
That unremarkable incident allegedly prompted Felicia Stroud to shout homophobic slurs at the victim as he continued up the stairs. The three defendants are accused of turning and following the victim up the stairs, continuing to shout obscenities and slurs, then beating and kicking him before fleeing on foot.
The Globe interviewed the Strouds' mother, who said her daughters were incapable of such a crime, in part because they are themselves lesbians.
Innocent, etc.
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Comments
clockwork orangea
Interesting turn of events, someone out there must have video footage check out girls fighting@ForestHillsstation on you tube.
Incapable?
We have a winner!
Sure, if my teens were accused of something horrible I would want to know what really happened and if the charges were fair, but I wouldn't say that they are incapable of such things. It would be a rude surprise, and difficult to grasp, but they are humans, not angels.
Sounds like mom's blinders may be part of a larger problem.
Every time I've seen the cops
Every time I've seen the cops at that station they're standing in group of three or four near the newsstand with their backs to the crowd. It seems to me like they're just killing time until they have to respond to something that's already gone down instead of actually keeping the station safe. Wanna bet the women were walking three across up the stairs at a snails pace and the guy tried to squeeze between them? That kinda thing happens all the time on the stairs and the escalator there, never mind boarding a bus. These girls need to learn not to sweat the small stuff.
D-I-S-R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me
How did they know he was gay?
I often wonder in these type cases how the assailants know the victim is gay? I mean, it's not like race or physical handicap where it's obvious that the victim is in a specially protected class.
Were they yelling slurs?
It actually doesn't matter if someone is gay - if the people are attacking him or her out of hate and are yelling anti-gay slurs, etc. while they attack, then it is a hate crime.
Let me ask you this..
I've seen the bump and brawl dozens of times and the terms faggot and cocksucker are almost always bandied about by either participant. Does that make all of them hate crimes?
Yes
That is all.
Boy, I'm glad
you're not a lawyer.
Yes...
because then people wouldn't get to call my dark-skinned friend from Bangalore the n-word while beating him or get away with a hate crime. Horror of horrors.
Do you introduce him
as your dark-skinned friend from Bangalore?
Just wondering.
No
I've only ever referred to him by his given name. A bunch of assholes in Philadelphia saw his skin color, dropped the n word on him and then beat him for $35.
Were you one of those assholes?
Well, I'm an
asshole, though I'm not of the Philadelphia assholes. Are you a local asshole or are you just visiting from Philly? Either way, it's always nice to welcome a fellow asshole to Boston!
Hmm...
NaranjaLine told a personal story as an illustration of why the actions of the assailant make the attack a hate crime, not the background of the victim. You responded with jokes.
Given that information, I'd say that your status as an asshole -- in name or in deed -- is pretty much confirmed.
Hmmm...mmmm
First off, I asked a question in regard to a statement made by another commenter. Narijuana, whom I did not ask the question, decided to give their own answer. An answer that Narawhatsis declared as absolute.
I then made a statement designed to show how foolish that statement was, given the intricacies and infinite variations of circumstances that exist in all street fights. Naja-goo-goo then related the story of their encounter with street violence as a way of validating their absolute declaration, and a way to declare that they actually know a dark skinned person who was a victim of a hate crime.
It was then that I replied with a joke, which was met with more declarative therapy and finally an unfounded accusation that I may have committed a hate crime in Philadelphia.
Given that I have declared in this forum several times in the past that I am indeed an asshole, I took no umbrage and inquired if the commenter was a fellow asshole. I take some small degree of pride in being an asshole, it's something I do well. Then you go and put your two cents in, to which I can only respond that there were three assailants, not one.
Most of us aren't homophobic
Unlike you, most of us are proud of our identities and want other people to identify us correctly, so we dress and talk and act in a way that suggests membership in the group. A lot of us wear pride symbols on our bags or whatnot. Certainly not everyone, but a good number. I usually pretty reliably read whether people in any given setting are one of us.
Missing the point
Who'd have thought you and O-FISH-L would have so much in common? SwirlyGrrl got it right - hate crime depends on the words and actions of the assailant, not the victim.
And your "reliable read", when applied to the context of a crowded T station, is just plain laughable, and borderline obnoxious.
What, specifically, is that way?
" so we dress and talk and act in a way that suggests membership in the group"
I am a gay male. You are telling me that there ia a specific way to "dress and talk and act" that "identifies" me as gay? Specifically what is this way I should be talking, dressing and acting to be so identified? Maybe I'll give it a try sometime.
Women claim anti-black attack
Note to Dan Hausle: You were not live in West Roxbury, you were live in Jamaica Plain, where West Roxbury District Court is.
Channel 7 news is so
crappy. Not only the mistake about the location of the courthouse, but 18-21 year old females are women not girls as he stated.
Copy of the police report
Channel 4 posted a copy.
Heh
The lone guy that got assaulted started it by taking a swing at this group.
Yeah right.
Criminals, they don't breed them bright, do they?
Read the Police Report
The police report seems to back up the ladies story. There is no mention of homophobic slurs or anti-gay statememts. It looks like the cops didn't believe it was more than your average orange line brawl as the girls were sent on there way. The report does state the beatdown took place on camera. My guess is the media got a hold of the story and it became a game of round up the usual suspects.
It does nothing to confirm or
It does nothing to confirm or deny or the gay-bashing angle, it simply says they had exchanged words. The fact that they might be lesbians doesn't rule out them calling the man a f**got as they stomped him. Common sense tells you it's highly unlikely that this man initiated a physical altercation with the three women.
read it more carefully, anon
See the end of section 3 - the officer filling out that report says he interviewed the suspect. So all of what you read in section 4 is what the young woman charged with assault told him, not what the alleged victim said. That guy gave his statement to two other officers who were called in (see section 2). You'd need to get hold of their witness report to see what he had to say about slurs et al.
Pennies
Bail is only $100- 500? Pennies for a hate crime. Add a couple zeros to that amount please!
Bail isn't punishment
It's to keep people around that are a flight risk, or those that are very dangerous and are accused of heinous acts to the community.
Getting into a fist fight isn't exactly meeting that bar.
Deja vu
As soon as I read this story, I figured O-Fish-L would try to shift the blame for the attack, to the victim of the attack, exactly as he's done before:
http://www.universalhub.com/crime/20110710-three-t...
Of course, it's only when the victim is gay.
The rest of the time, there'd be really strong, immediate condemnation for attacking & stomping someone, for something as pointless as brushing past each other in the subway. But not this time.
Despite stories like this (and some of the resulting comments), it seems that so many of those prejudices that were taken for granted by much of society in "the old days", are steadily dying out and things are changing for the better.