This is about as savage an attack as you could imagine....

[cboy4]

yet, unless I'm missing something, it hasn't seemed to have gotten much play on cable news (even though the victims are news people).
=================================================

One of the U.S. victims of a brutal gay-bashing in St. Maarten is going back to the Caribbean island Friday, eight days after the attack.

Dick Jefferson, a senior news producer with CBS, said he was returning to meet with local and U.S. consular officials about last week's incident, in which he and a co-worker were nearly killed outside a Philipsburg bar. Jefferson has criticized police for a slow response to the attack.

http://www.planetout.com/news/article.html?date=2006/04/13/3

====================================================

I'm not sure how anyone else feels about this, but I really do understand why some people say, if you're not a blonde female who's missing.....the cable news shows don't seem too terribly concerned (and I'm white by the way).

edit: typo

[OneBlueSky]

1. I don't know what will happen with this case, but it amazes me . . .

when judges actually give credence to claims of "homosexual panic" as justification for attacks on gays . . . it happens all too often, and is just pure bullshit . . .

[rodeodance]

3. other than an article here on DU, I have not seen nor heard of it.

[darkmaestro019]

11. Me either. Though I did mostly stop going to GLBT-specific news

pages, mostly because the progressive pages I visit were already covering most of the serious news specific to that group of citizens.


Thanks, OP, for cluing us in.

[cboy4]

17. Absolutely, you're welcome. There are a number of reasons why some of

us continue going to the LGBT page, not the least of which is because, well who else really understands gay issues/posts more than gay people.

And it's a little safe haven at times ;)

[BlooInBloo]

20. That was the Jenny Jones defense, wasn't it?

[laheina]

2. That is attempted murder!

I don't think that there is even a punishment bad enough for these people in our penal system.

[rodeodance]

4. Look, one has severe neurological problems (head trauma)

Jefferson and Smith were airlifted to a hospital in Miami. Jefferson was released after surgeons stitched his wounds and placed a titanium plate in his head. Smith had been in intensive care but was recently transferred to the head trauma unit. He suffered severe neurological damage and may have to relearn how to speak.

Jefferson had initially criticized police for failing to take the case seriously. He said the police did not take witness testimony on the night of the attack.

Late this week, Commissioner of Tourism Theo Heyliger called the attack "barbaric and inhumane" and vowed in his weekly media briefing that "these kinds of crimes won't go unpunished in St. Maarten."

Police later told the local newspaper that they have assigned three detectives to the case and the chief public prosecutor said they were talking to witnesses. Police also placed an ad in the paper, asking witnesses to come forward to share any knowledge they have about the attack.

[rodeodance]

5. seems to me keeping it quiet was the intent-would do harm to tourist

industry.

"The longer this case goes unsolved, the more harm the people of St. Maarten are inflicting upon themselves and the reputation of the island as a vacation spot," Jefferson said in a written statement.

[cboy4]

7. You beat me to my post ;)

n/t

[cboy4]

6. Do you notice who the government official is

that finally criticized the attack??

The tourism commissioner!!

I'm sure the fact that the gays and straights fired off e-mails threatening not to go there on vacation unless the government took action had nothing to do with the government finally speaking out. :sarcasm:

[Alamom]

8. Several news articles, but nothing new on Ryan Smith's

condition. The information so far sounds bad for him long term and the authorities are idiots.
(Traveling to these islands may not be safe for anyone. St Maarten is owned by Dutch/French)


Alleged Hate Crime in Paradise

By JEFFREY KOFMAN

April 11, 2006 — They were six friends on vacation in the Caribbean, escaping the last bluster of the New York winter on the easygoing island of St. Maarten.

One of them, Ryan Smith, 25, and 6 feet 7 inches tall, had the resume of a rising star: a graduate of Columbia University, a former White House intern, a former intern at the David Letterman Show, and now a researcher at CBS News.


Ryan Smith was airlifted to Miami where he is now in the intensive care unit of Jackson Memorial Hospital with a crushed skull and brain injuries in a suspected gay-bashing attack.

Dick Jefferson, a friend and colleague who was vacationing with Smith, also suffered injuries and was airlifted from St. Maarten to Miami. He was released from the hospital, but his head bears a huge scar, dozens of stitches, and a titanium plate implanted by neurosurgeons.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/LegalCenter/story?id=1829453&page=1&gma=true&gma=true&gma=true



The part of the island of St. Maarten where the assault took place is Dutch territory in the Caribbean, just like the island of Aruba. It was almost a year ago that Natalee Holloway disappeared in Aruba. Since then, her parents have had an exasperating odyssey through the island's Dutch legal system. Smith's family and friends are bracing for a similar journey.

St. Maarten police, Jefferson said, initially did not want to investigate the incident.

Smith, however, is still in intensive care and cannot talk coherently. His mother said doctors did not yet know her son's prognosis, but she had been warned he faced a very long recovery.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/LegalCenter/story?id=1829453&page=2




AP
Updated: 8:11 p.m. ET April 12, 2006
Jefferson, a senior broadcast producer for CBS' national evening news, described the attack as a hate crime. A U.S. gay human rights group has criticized St. Maarten authorities, saying their response to the case has been sluggish.

The men were airlifted to Miami for medical treatment. Jefferson was released, but Smith's condition was not known Wednesday. Jefferson has said that Smith was severely beaten and that his doctors believe he may have suffered brain damage.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12291269/

[xchrom]

9. these are interesting and connected men -- if the

authorities can ignore a vicious attck like this for so long with impunity -- i guess gay folk know where thet atand in the world, huh?

for me the crime has doubled in the disgustingly slow response.

[FloridaPat]

10. They cover stories that people watch. So the real question is why

does the average person want to watch stories about blond white women in trouble?

[Toucano]

24. "They cover stories that people watch."

I'm with you that the blame goes mostly on the people because the people watch the stories they cover.

The news in completely broken and it won't be fixed until people STOP WATCHING.

[darkmaestro019]

12. Moving my thanks for OP over here where it's more visible, and

I'd like to say I'm damn proud of Jefferson for going back. Brave and noble and a clear and unmistakable way to say that he's not going to let the attackers win.


....may have to re-learn to SPEAK!!?!?! :argh:

That's my one lonely vote, because apparently nobody knows about this and that's my gesture that people SHOULD know.

[bigscott]

13. welcome to our world - nt

[timtom]

15. I am deeply sorry

I only pray for the time when such savage and vicious behavior no longer exists.

I truly empathize with my brothers and sisters who are victimized and demonized. As a person who doesn't think like everyone else, I have felt the sting and pain of ostracization.

[rucky]

14. It's strange how some many "laid back" Carribean nations

are intensely homophobic.

:shrug:

[Mnemosyne]

16. This is so sad and despicable.

What the hell is wrong with people?!!

[cboy4]

18. I'm really very touched by all of the nice responses...

Regardless of our various sexual orientations, I think the one quality that unites so many of us here at DU, regardless of some of our disagreements about politics, is we're humanitarians.

It's what clearly separates us from those on the right.

[sandnsea]

19. A white supremacist tried to buy sarin

Convicted yesterday. He also wanted to set off a nuclear device in DC and mustard gas black people.

Nobody was terribly interested at DU either.

So maybe the media really does know more about what gets people tuned in than we realize.

[cboy4]

21. My beef wasn't with DU. It was with the media for not covering the

story as aggressively as it does when white blonde college women disappear.

Actually, I haven't seen or read anything about the incident you just mentioned either. :shrug:

[sandnsea]

22. Exactly

Maybe the reason the media only covers white blonde college women is because people won't tune in for anything else.

Not even DU got tuned in to a white supremacist trying to buy sarin and wanting to gas black people. It was posted at least twice in the last few days, dropped like a rock, here and at DKos too.

If DU doesn't even get interested in stories that aren't pushed by the media, then how do we expect anybody else to.

Or, like I said, maybe the media really does know what people will tune in to see, and that's why we get white college women.

[cboy4]

25. Maybe the media THINKS it knows what people will tune in to see

I have a hard time believing if Scott and Laci Peterson were both African American, or the student missing in Aruba was an Hispanic from East L.A., people wouldn't have tuned in in great numbers considering how much attention those cases have received.

Maybe I'm wrong....

But, It's the classic rubbernecker syndrome.

When there's a wreck on the freeway, people don't care if the injured driver on the stretcher is black, white, hispanic, asian, etc., EVERYBODY LOOKS as they drive by. It's human nature.

[sandnsea]

27. They don't become big stories here

You think the girl raped by the la crosse team was the only rape in the country last month? DU is just as capable of getting interested in other stories, but it doesn't happen. Even when the stories are posted. If it's not a mainstream story, down down down it goes.

[readmoreoften]

23. Last Spring in NY, a young black gay man was dissected

and disposed of in 4 different subway trash cans. Got all dressed up for a valentine's day date. Someone he met on the internet. They found his leg in a blue trash bag on the subway. I think it made page 17 of the NY Times.

Imagine if this was a blonde woman... you know... someone who REALLY MATTERED. :sarcasm:

(I know that my value only goes as far as people mistake me for a heterosexual woman. My butch girlfriend has little value. If she was dismembered it might make page 5.)

[GRLMGC]

26. It's absolutely horrible that I haven't heard about this until now

Thank you for bringing this to light. It really shows how some people are valued over others which is absolutely despicable.