New York City Council Speaker Christine
C. Quinn condemned the Friday beating of a gay man in Queens on
Monday.
Jack Price was attacked coming out of a
corner deli by two men Friday around 3AM in the middle-class
neighborhood of College Point in Queens, New York. Police allege the
two men taunted price and yelled anti-gay slurs.
Quinn led a group of city and state
officials at an impromptu press conference in front of Booth Memorial
Hospital. The victim, forty-nine-year-old Jack Price, was inside the
hospital, where he clung to life in a medically-induced coma.
The openly lesbian lawmaker said news
of the attack “smacked particularly hard” in light of Sunday's
largely successful National Equality March on Washington, which she
had just attended.
Quinn said she's grown tired of
attending such conferences, called hate crimes “sad” and added
that “these two hateful, ignorant individuals represent a minority
of New Yorkers.”
In a press release, Quinn lauded police
efforts, which had already resulted in the capture of one suspect.
“I know the Queens community is
outraged that hate has tainted their streets, and I know they will
join with us in helping the local authorities find the second
suspect,” she said. “I applaud the NYPD for taking swift action
on this case, and I know they will continue their efforts until
justice is served.”
Before losing consciousness, Price
identified the men who beat him. He said the two men followed him to
the store and called him “faggot.” Twenty-six-year-old Daniel
Aleman was arrested by police and charged with assault and aggravated
assault as a hate crime on Sunday. Police identified the second man
as Daniel Rodriguez, 21, of College Point. Rodriguez remains at
large.
During the summer, police
investigated two separate incidents of transgender women being
attacked in Queens.