Since assaulting girlfriend Rihanna in February of 2009, Chris Brown has repeatedly tried, and failed, to convince the public that he is sorry. On Aug. 31, 2009, Brown told Larry King: "When I look at it now, it's just like, wow, like, I can't believe that that actually happened." On Nov. 16, he told Wendy Williams "the steps that I've taken to show that I'm sorry probably have been perceived wrong," adding later in the show that he loves women. And Brown's tribute to Michael Jackson at last night's BET awards failed to correct the public perception problem.

In case you missed Brown's performance, the R&B singer was tasked with performing a medley of Jackson's greatest hits on the award show. He started with "The Way You Make Me Feel," continued with "Smooth Criminal," and sailed through "Billie Jean" before finally arriving at "Man in the Mirror," at which point he collapsed in tears, fist-pumped the air, and exited the stage without finishing the song. Commenter Lizrd described the spectacle this way: "Chris Brown did the Michael Jackson tribute, and then proceeded to cry throughout 'Man in the Mirror' in what I can only assume is a delicious truffle filled with creamy irony, descended from heaven as a gift for me."

Today, commentators are speculating as to whether Brown's tearful denouement was authentic or staged (smooth criminal indeed). The real question is what on earth Brown is meant to be expressing sadness about here. Is it Michael Jackson's premature death? Pelicans covered in oil, which appeared on the big screen during the song? That he assaulted his girlfriend last year? Maybe it's Haiti.

The Washington Post's Celebritology column asks if whatever that was means it's time to forgive Brown for assaulting Rihanna. I can't tell the music-listening public when (if ever) it ought to extend its forgiveness to Brown. But I would suggest that the guy needs to do a little bit more than cry indiscriminately over an undetermined source of sadness in order to get our money back.

District resident Anthony Wright, 42, has been found guilty of "Bias-Related Simple Assault and Bias Threats To Do Bodily Harm" for harassing and threatening a neighbor over a period of two years. The harassment, which centered on his neighbor's sexual orientation, culminated in Wright attacking his neighbor outside his home, threatening to stab him, and then telling him, "They don't lock you up for hitting faggots."

The details, from District anti-hate crime group Gays & Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV):

WASHINGTON DC, May 7, 2010 — A DC Superior Court jury found 42-year-old DC resident Anthony Wright guilty of Bias-Related Simple Assault and Bias Threats To Do Bodily Harm in a June 6, 2009 assault against an elderly man in SE Washington. Wright repeated threats to the same victim on August 27, 2009.

The USDOJ chronicled two years of a nearly constant barrage of name calling and harassment the 67-year-old gay man was subjected to by his neighbor which eventually escalated into an unprovoked attack in front of neighbors and friends on June 6, 2009. Wright was quickly released but continued to harass the victim, proclaiming, "They don't lock you up for hitting faggots."

On August 27, 2009 Wright confronted the victim in his own home and threatened to stab him and was again arrested. Wright was found guilty on both counts on April 28, 2010 and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 12, 2010.

While GLOV commends the work of the USDOJ and MPD to bring the hate crime charges forward successfully, we are anxious to see that Wright recives the maximum penalty for his egregious crimes and for the suffering he caused his victim to endure for so long.

Last week, 27-year-old Christopher McDonald was sentenced to 120 days in jail for his "unprovoked assault on a group of gay women" in Adams Morgan last year. McDonald approached the women while they ate pizza on the 18th street sidewalk. Then, he made derogatory remarks about their sexual orientation and then threatened them with a knife. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, here's an account of the incident:

According to the proffer of facts to which McDonald admitted, on September 7, 2009, McDonald approached a group of women who were eating pizza along the sidewalk of 18th Street in Adams Morgan. He confronted the women about their sexual orientation and made derogatory,  profanity-laced remarks about their appearance and sexual orientation.  With no provocation, McDonald, who was born in Jamaica, pulled out a  knife and began advancing toward one of the women, saying that “if we were in Jamaica I’d shoot you in the face for being gay.” The stunned victims, fearing for their lives, called the police, and McDonald was  stopped while attempting to flee. He admitted that he made the threats  and brandished the knife based upon his prejudice against the victims’ actual sexual orientation, or what he perceived it to be.

McDonald was convicted of Bias-Related Threats To Do Bodily Harm and Simple Assault. In D.C., the maximum penalty for bias-related crimes is one-and-a-half times that of crimes that aren't bias-related. After serving his 120 days, McDonald will be on probation for two years, during which he "must complete fifty (50) hours of community service, seek substance abuse treatment, and complete courses in anger management and sensitivity to issues of sexual orientation." [Thanks to Holla Back DC for the tip].

Photo via krossbow, Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0

It used to be that Jessica Graves was always up for a dance party. So when she headed out to Dupont Circle gay bar Cobalt one night in 2006, Graves and a male friend hit the crowded dance floor hard. “We were being kind of raunchy,” she says. “When we go out, my friend says things like, ‘Trash me!,’ and I play along. It gets pretty outrageous sometimes. But my friend is gay, and we’re just being ridiculous and having fun.”

Later in the evening, another dancer decided to join in on the fun. “I was grinding with my friend, and this dude got up on me from behind,” says Graves, now 27. The interloper inserted a leg between Graves’ legs and latched his hands around her waist. “He was strong enough that I had to adjust my body to not get knocked over,” she says. But everyone at Cobalt that night was dancing close, and Graves didn’t think much of it—until something shifted.

“At some point I figured out the guy was straight,” she says.
The man had developed an obvious erection. “We were all still moving,” she says. “He rubbed up on me with an erection and wouldn’t back off until, as best I could tell, he had ejaculated.” Graves stayed silent as the man assaulted her. “By the time I figured out what he was doing, I just wanted him to finish and leave.…I didn’t want anybody else to notice what was going on, because I was so embarrassed by the whole thing,” she says. When it was over, Graves bolted for the bathroom in an attempt to rinse off the experience. But years later, Graves still remembers the look on her groper’s face: “He just had this nasty smile on his face. He knew he had me. And I was too stunned by the whole thing to really stop him.” Graves rejoined her friends and waited out the rest of the night inside Cobalt. “I had to stay,” she says. “My friends were my ride.”'

Stephanie Rinehart’s grope occurred on a brightly lit Metro train, in plain view of dozens of people. But she did not immediately register a physical reaction to the assault. “I wasn’t actively groped,” explains Rinehart, a 24-year-old office administrator. “Well, not with a hand.”

In May 2009, Rinehart was in the middle of her standard commute—a Yellow Line to Red Line switch in the direction of Silver Spring. “After shuffling on to the Red Line at Gallery Place, I was sandwiched with my crotch in some poor lady’s face, and a gentleman standing slightly behind and to the right of me, who stank of alcohol,” she says. Before the train left the station, the man had already begun “noticeably rubbing his front parts to my back parts,” Rinehart says.

She froze. “I couldn’t move forward, or sideways, since I was smashed in place by the other riders on the train,” she says. “It was discreet enough that my friend, standing five feet away, never knew it happened, but it was alarmingly obvious to me.” Rinehart wasn’t eager to acknowledge that a large, drunk man was rubbing his genitals on her body in the middle of the crowded train. “I did have a moment where I thought, ‘Maybe he isn’t doing it on purpose,’” she says. “I’ve had my share of accidental brushes on the Metro.”

In fact, Rinehart was being accosted by a type of sexual assailant so common that the French have a word for him: frotteur, or “one who rubs.” Rinehart stood still as the man frottait. “I didn’t know what to do or say to him,” she says. “It wasn’t until two stops later, when I shot quickly into an empty seat, did I notice that he had a full-on erection.” Later, Rinehart was able to process exactly what had gone down. “Nothing that happened to me, I know now, was an accident.”

Liz, who asked to be identified only by her first name, was also groped on the Metro—just feet away from where her parents were standing. “I was in charge of navigation on the subways, because my parents are, in general, inept,” she says of her family vacation duties. “I motioned for them to get on to the next train, which had just pulled into the station. As I moved toward the open doors, some middle-aged man with a Walkman grabbed me by the ass cheeks and herded me onto the train.” As the man grabbed her, Liz looked back to see her parents still waiting on the platform. “I had to pry his hands off my ass to get off the train and back to my parents,” she says. “I was 14.”

A couple of years later, Liz was groped again—this time at a concert in Philly. “I walked past a guy,” she says. “While maintaining eye contact with me, [he] grabbed my crotch.…I remember he smirked, and his friend laughed. I’ll never, ever forget that, because it’s probably the most degraded I’ve ever felt in my life. I felt violated, and pissed off, but I couldn’t even muster the courage to make eye contact.” In both instances, Liz did not confront her attackers. “I remember feeling a sort of quiet desperation,” she says. “I still get mad that I didn’t respond.…To this day, I wonder: Why didn’t I do anything?”

Why didn’t these women do anything? Perhaps it’s because they were being abused by professionals. A groper doesn’t strike just once. He repeats his depravity so often that he knows how to prey on the various conditions that allow him to go unpunished—surprise, uncertainty, fear, and shame.

And so, after being assaulted on Cobalt’s dance floor, Jessica Graves never even mentioned the violation to her friend. “My friend would have brushed it off anyway, because it’s a really raunchy dance floor,” Graves says. Nowadays, Graves doesn’t go out like she used to. She prefers dancing of the ballroom variety, with rules that emphasize decorum and personal space.

Graves’ attacker had succeeded in exploiting the gay bar’s different rules—where innocuous touching between gay men and straight women is common, and women don’t expect to be targeted by sexual aggressors. “It was extra creepy because I was in a bar where the women are not there to get picked up,” says Graves, who says there were fewer than five women at the crowded club that night. “I certainly didn’t have my guard up like I do in a club where I expect there to be straight men.” The guy who shows up at the gay bar looking to target straight women is aware that his victim is unsuspecting. “This is a hyena coming in and scavenging,” Graves says.

Rinehart didn’t speak out about her attack until several months later, when she relayed the story to her boyfriend. “He’s the only person who knew, and he laughed about it because it was ‘unbelievable,’” Rinehart says. “I think there’s a large amount of society that views what happened to me, or incidences in a public place, as not a valid form of molestation or groping.…It’s something that women should just brush off and get over.…[There’s] this mentality that, ‘After all, honey, it was just an accident, your clothes were on, you were safe in a public place.’” After her assault, Rinehart retraced the factors that contributed to her temporary paralysis. If her groper had only been smaller, less imposing, not so drunk—then, maybe she could have said something. “I do have those moments where I think, ‘Next time! I’ll get him next time!’,” she says. “But there hasn’t been a ‘next time.’”

Nine years after she was first groped, Liz, now 23, doesn’t talk about her experiences, either—not even to her boyfriend. “It’s not like my logical brain thinks he’ll be mad at me, but I’m embarrassed that a stranger touched me so intimately and I did nothing about it,” she says. “What it comes down to is that I don’t want him to ask me why I didn’t say anything.  I don’t think I could explain that in a way that a guy could understand.”

This column is the second in a series. Catch up with Part 1: Touch and Go: How Groping Happens. (Illustration by Brooke Hatfield).

"Both of these incidents exemplify ways that GW can improve security on its campus," the Hatchet editorial informed students. According to the camps paper, the bathroom hammering reveals how the university needs to "better expedite information in response to major security threats on campus." The sexual assault, meanwhile, "shows that students have a responsibility to keep themselves safe."

Perhaps it was not the best choice of words.

Both incidents, which occurred on Friday, Oct. 9, involved an assault upon students in a private on-campus facility. The male graduate student suffered a "non-life-threatening head injury" after he was "using a urinal when the suspect . . . came out of one of the stalls, stood behind the student and hit him in the back of the head with a hammer." Earlier that day, several G.W. freshman awoke to a strange man sexually assaulting them in their private dorm rooms. The paper, disappointingly, softens the man's actions as "sexual advances":

One female student who lives on the eighth floor reported that the man woke her up by trying to kiss her, and "attempted twice to place his hands down the front of her shorts," according to the police report. The female began screaming and the man ran across the hallway to another room, where he woke up another girl. She said he told her he had met her at Josephine, a popular nightclub.

"That's when I knew I didn't know him—I've never been to Josephine," the second female student said in an interview. "Then he grabbed my head and tried to kiss me."

In the editorial following the incidents, the Hatchet board wrote that the sexual assaults constituted a "valuable reminder of the necessity for students to lock their doors at all times and to take responsibility for guests you bring into residence halls."

These general safety precautions—lock your doors and don't leave your guests unattended—are good to know, but it doesn't take a G.W. Hatchet editorial for students to finally understand the arguments in favor of locking doors. Actually, a sexual assault on campus is not a "valuable" public service announcement, nor is it an appropriate opportunity to inform victims that they're lacking in personal responsibility. The Hatchet noted that the assault victims had "accidentally left the door unlocked" before they went to sleep. Compare that lapse in "responsibility" to the guy who illegally gained entrance to a private dorm, climbed to the 8th floor, and systematically sexually assaulted a hallway full of sleeping women. Oh, well. At least he taught those girls a valuable lesson!

Why doesn't the Hatchet see the a student getting hammered in the head as a "valuable reminder" that using a public urinal puts men in a vulnerable situation to a surprise attack? And why is the campus' latest head injury victim not reminded that he has a "responsibility to keep himself safe" from deranged criminals? Maybe it's because that sort of teaching moment works to place the blame on the guy who's just taking a piss, instead of the unpredictably violent guy with the hammer. Take away the hammer, unlock the door, and turn the bathroom victim into a hallway full of sleeping women, and all of a sudden, nobody's responsible for your sexual assault but you.

The G.W. Hatchet is writing to a pretty small campus community. The women who were sexually assaulted read that editorial. They know that their experience is being used by the campus press as a "valuable reminder" of campus irresponsibility. I hope they write back.

NewsChannel 8 talk show co-host Doug McKelway threatened gay blogger Michael Rogers yesterday on live television, DCist reports. McKelway was interviewing Rogers about Outrage, a new documentary on closeted gay politicians and the activists who out them. Rogers, who advocates outing gay politicians who promote homophobic legislation, appears in the film.

"I have a problem with your community," McKelway says, before telling him (at about the 2:30 mark): "I'm going to do more than just point my finger at you. I'm gonna take you outside and give you a punch across the face."

Watch the video on PageOneQ here.

For the purpose of arousing or gratifying the sexual desire of the person or another person, intentionally propels any dangerous substance at a victim who does not consent thereto. . . . As used in this section, “dangerous substance” means blood, urine, semen or feces.

The bill was prompted by "an incident last June when a man threw his semen on a mother in a Portland area Target store. Her little girl saw it first." The man in that case was convicted of plain 'ol assault.

According to The Oregonian's Michelle Cole, Rep. Chris Garrett, who sponsored the bill, was a bit squeamish when the semen bill hit the floor:

"Good bill. I urge your aye vote," Rep. Chris Garrett, D-Lake Oswego, said Tuesday about House Bill 2478.

Any closing remarks?

"No," Garrett said firmly.

Like many gross and unexplainable offenses, the semen throwing thing has been categorized as "part of a gang initiation rituals."

[youtube:v=3Mr4kXW6mOU]

By now, we're all pretty accustomed to the exploitation of Rihanna's injuries to feed public curiosity surrounding the high-profile attack (and yes, blogger obsession is guilty, too). Is that exploitation excusable if it feeds our hunger for voyeurism in the name of raising awareness? Of course, DoSomething.org can draw from whatever public record it chooses in its campaigns. But by elevating Rihanna's real-life problem into a Hollywood-size drama, don't we risk making it almost less real? The reenactment is disturbing, but it's also dramatic, sensational, and almost too watchable.

[via Broadsheet].

The GLLU, MPD’s Gay and Lesbian Liason Unit, serves the District’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender communities. Last week in police activity related to the GLBT community—including a domestic violence victim who takes refuge in a bus, and a man who clubs his boyfriend while in da club—below.

SURPRISE VISIT. MONDAY, MARCH 9 AT 11:40 PM. Members of the Fifth District responded to a hotel located in the 600 block of New York Avenue, N.E. for a destruction of property complaint. Upon arrival, the officers discovered a large window had been shattered and identified the individual who did the damage. He was arrested. Further investigation revealed the incident was motivated by a domestic dispute between the arrest subject and two other men staying at the hotel.

SLOW GETAWAY. MONDAY, MARCH 9 AT at 11:30 PM. Members of the Third District responded to the area of the 1500 block of 9th Street, N.W. for the report of an assault. Upon arrival, they located the victim on a Metro bus. According to the victim, he was inside a residence in that area, when he became involved in a verbal altercation with his boyfriend. At some point, his boyfriend punched him in the face, causing a minor injury. The victim fled outside to the bus, where MPDC was summoned. The suspect was located and arrested.

HOT NIGHT. TUESDAY, MARCH 10 AT 12:30 PM. A member of the GLLU was on routine patrol when he observed an unconscious individual in the area of 18th and T Streets NW. DC Fire/EMS responded and transported the adult male to a local hospital, where he was treated and released for intoxication.

LOVERS' BRAWL. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11 AT 6 PM. Members of the Sixth District responded to the area of the 4100 block of Gault Place NE. for the call for a large fight. Upon arrival, officers saw several juvenile females fleeing from the area. A victim advised officers the fight began at a nearby school and the juvenile females were fighting over their ex-girlfriends. There were no injuries and members of the Metropolitan Police Department’s School Resource Unit are following up. One hour later, officers were summoned back to the location for another assault. At that time, they located a female victim suffering from minor injuries to her head and face. A female suspect was arrested.

GET OUT. THURSDAY, MARCH 12 AT 2:15 AM. Members of the Seventh District responded to a residence in the 200 block of Savannah Street SE for the call for an assault. Once on the scene, officers were advised by the adult female victim that she was attempting to get her ex-girlfriend out of the house, but she was refusing. Officers were unable to determine if an assault actually occurred and documented the complaint without further action being taken.

CANE JOB. SATURDAY, MARCH 14 AT 2:30 AM. Members of the Second District were dispatched to Massachusetts Avenue and 21st Street NW for the report of a robbery. Upon arriving on the scene, the officers located an elderly male victim, who advised he had just been robbed by a male he met at a nearby club. The suspect was described as a black male in his 30’s, wearing all black and using a cane. The victim was not injured.

TALK TURNS PHYSICAL. SATURDAY, MARCH 14 AT 3 AM. Members of the Sixth District responded to an apartment in the 2300 block of Good Hope Road SE for a shooting. Upon arrival, the officers discovered the victim was not injured, but was the victim of an attempted robbery. According to the victim, he met the suspect on a telephone chat line and invited him to his apartment. Once there, the suspect attempted to rob the victim with a handgun. During the struggle, the gun discharged and the suspect fled the scene. The suspect is described as a black male, about 24 years old, 5'7” tall, 200 lbs., with a medium skin complexion. He was wearing a black shirt and black pants.

FOUR-ON-ONE. SATURDAY, MARCH 14 AT 2:50 PM. Members of the Second District responded to the 2000 block of K Street, N.W. for the call for an unconscious individual. Upon arrival, officers located the victim, a male-to-female Transgender individual, suffering from injuries to the head and face. A witness advised that four suspects punch the victim repeatedly, eventually knocking the victim to the ground. The victim was transported to a local hospital in serious but stable condition. The suspects were only described by the witness as being black males, with no further information.

CLUB CLUBBING. SATURDAY, MARCH 14 AT 2:15 AM. Members of the Third District responded to 11th and V Street NW for the report of an assault. Upon arrival, they located a male victim, who was suffering from a cut to his head. The suspect, his boyfriend, was also on the scene. The investigation revealed the two men were inside a club located in the 2000 block of 8th Street, N.W. when they began to argue. At some point, the suspect struck the victim in the back of the head with an unknown object. The victim refused medical attention and the suspect was arrested.

GRAND STAB. SATURDAY, MARCH 14 AT 2:30 AM. Members of the Second District responded to the outside of a club located in the 2100 block of P Street NW. for a large fight. Upon arrival, officers located several victims who had been stabbed. None of the injuries was life threatening. No arrests were made and the victims were too intoxicated to provide any usable lookout for the suspect(s).

NO-CALL LIST. SUNDAY, MARCH 15 AT 10 AM. A homeless male contacted the on-call member of the GLLU to report a violation of a Temporary Protection Order (TPO) that he had obtained against his former boyfriend and his former boyfriend’s current boyfriend. According to the victim, despite being ordered by a judge not to contact the victim, the suspects left a voicemail message on the victim’s cell phone. An affidavit in support of an arrest warrant will be presented to the United States Attorney’s Office seeking the arrests of both suspects.

FIRE HIM! MONDAY, MARCH 16 AT 3 PM. A male contacted the GLLU’s on-call member to report that he was being threatened by one of his employees. While on the phone with the on-call member, the victim reported the suspect was at the front door of his residence, which is located in the 1000 block of Massachusetts Avenue NE. Members of the First District and the GLLU responded and located apprehended and arrested the suspect, who was charged with stalking and felonious threats to do bodily harm.

WITHIN FEET. MONDAY, MARCH 16 AT 4 PM. Members of the Fifth District responded to a hotel located in the 600 block of New York Avenue NE for the report of a suspect violating a protection order. Upon arrival, officers discovered the suspects had departed the scene prior to their arrival. According to the victim, the suspects were under order of a Temporary Protection Order (TPO) to stay at least 100 feet away from the victim. An investigation revealed the suspects were not within 100 feet, however the incident was documented, so the victim can make representation in court during future court proceedings.

NO FUNNY BUSINESS. TUESDAY, MARCH 17. A male contacted the GLLU by email to request assistance regarding an allegation of sexual activity in a public restroom. According to the individual, he is being accused by his employer of engaging in “inappropriate activity” in the public restroom at his place of employment. The individual was referred to an attorney for legal advice.

Photo by Coradia1000

One year later, the 38-year-old Romanian citizen, a Phoenix resident, is being tried in D.C. Superior Court. Opening statements in the case began on Monday; I'll be at the trial all day today, posting updates of the proceedings as they happen.

* On September 19, GLLU responded to a call from a Maryland man who claimed that his ex-boyfriend had stalked him, and in the process caused "damage to the victim’s personal and work vehicle, the vehicle of a friend and also the victim’s home."

* On September 18, an intoxicated person was arrested in Adams Morgan after yelling "racial and homophobic epithets at pedestrians, as well as making physical threats towards them."

* On September 19, police responded to a complaint from a 15-year-old student at the Model Secondary School for the Deaf, who "was complaining he was sexually assaulted by another male student three weeks prior to reporting the incident to his mother."

* On September 20, police responded to reports of an assault in the Dupont Circle area. The victim claimed to have been "attacked by his former boyfriend at a local bar," suffering injuries that "did not require medical attention."

* Later that day, police arrived at a hospital in response to sexual assault claims from a 21-year-old male. The patient claimed that the night before, he "was rendered unconscious by an unknown means and ended up in the rear of a residence," where he "believes he may have been the victim of a sexual assault."

* On September 21, a "semi-conscious" man was found at the corner of 8th St and Florida Ave. NW., the apparent victim of a hit-and-run. There is no description of the suspect, whose vehicle is described as a "brown or burgundy Mazda."

Read the complete GLLU blotter after the jump.

On 9/17/08, a resident of Maryland contact the GLLU to seek advise regarding the stalking behavior of his ex-boyfriend. According to the male caller, the suspect had caused damage to the victim’s personal and work vehicle, the vehicle of a friend and also the victim’s home. Since all offenses occurred in the state of Maryland, the victim was referred to the Maryland States Attorney’s Office and his local police department for assistance.

On Thursday, 9/18/08, at approximately 11:30 p.m., members of the Third District were summoned to a disorderly person in the 2400 block of 18th Street, N.W. Upon arriving on the scene, they located the suspect, who was highly intoxicated. The suspect was yelling racist and homophobic epithets at pedestrians, as well as making physical threats towards them. The suspect was arrested and the crime was classified as a potential hate/bias crime based upon race and sexual orientation.

On Friday, 9/19/08, members of the Fifth District responded the Model Secondary School for the Deaf, on the campus of Gallaudet University, for the call for a sexual assault. Upon arriving on the scene, the learned that a 15 year old male student was complaining he was sexually assaulted by another male student three weeks prior to reporting the incident to his mother. Members of the Youth Investigations Branch and Deaf and Hard of Hearing Liaison Unit are investigating.

On 9/20/08, at approximately 2 a.m., members of the Second District responded to the area of 33rd and M Streets, N.W. for the report of an assault. Upon arrival, they located the victim, who stated he was attacked by his former boyfriend at a local bar, in the area of 22nd and P Streets, N.W. The suspect was no longer on the scene and a warrant for his arrest will be obtained. The victim suffered minor injuries and did not require medical attention.

On 9/20/08, at approximately 3 p.m., members of the Second District responded to a local hospital for the complaint of a sexual assault. Upon arrival, a 21 year old male complained that on 9/19/08 sometime between 1 a.m. and 3:30 a.m., he was rendered unconscious by an unknown means and ended up in the rear of a residence in the 1700 block of R Street, N.W. The victim believes he may have been the victim of a sexual assault. Members of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Sexual Assault Investigations Unit are investigating his allegation.

In the early morning hours of 9/21/08, a male was located in a semi-conscious state at the intersection of 8th Street and Florida Avenue, N.W. The investigation revealed the male was crossing outside the crosswalk, when he was struck by a vehicle traveling eastbound in the 800 block of Florida Avenue, N.W. The vehicle fled the scene without the driver making his/her identity known or rendering assistance to the injured pedestrian. The vehicle is described as a brown or burgundy Mazda. There is not a description of the operator or a license plate number. The victim was treated and released from a local hospital.

The incident is being investigated as a hate crime by MPD. Hunter's assault is one of several recent incidents that have heightened attention on hate crime investigation in the District. I'll update with more as the investigation continues.

Update: Feministing has a piece on the perceived spike of LGBT-related hate crimes in the District. Miriam notes that "Nationally, around 16% of hate crimes are LGBT related. In DC, it's 60%." Miriam also points readers to the resurgence of D.C.'s GLBT Anti-Violence Group, or "GLOV." GLOV was active in the 1990's, but stopped meeting in recent years. On Monday, Sept. 22, the group will begin meeting again. Interested parties can join GLOV at the law offices of Dewey and LeBoeuf, 1101 New York Avenue NW, at 7:30 p.m.