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H ave skateb o ard
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Alleged attacks on gay men in Stark Street area
prompt police investigation
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by Inga Sorensen
ortland police detectives say they are
investigating two alleged skateboard­
ing attacks on gay men in the South­
west Stark Street district, home to sev­
eral gay bars.
“W e’re investigating a couple of incidents in
which gay men were attacked and hit with a
skateboard. One of the men, who was visiting
from San Diego, was in pretty bad shape,” says
Jim Bellah, a detective with the Police Bureau’s
bias crimes unit.
According to Bellah, the attacks took place
around 11:30 pm Sept. 17, near 12th Avenue and
Stark Street. The first case involved the California
man, who was walking with two Portland friends.
Bellah says the trio told him that a man in his late
teens or early 20s with a skateboard walked past
them, turned, and then slammed the San Diego
man in the head with the skateboard, knocking
P
on it. We know of a Skinhead who goes by that
street name, but there is also a street gang that
goes by the same name, so it makes it a little tough
to identify a suspect,” says Bellah, adding the
individual known as Knucklehead has a police
record relating to burglary and theft, but no as­
saults.
Bellah also says the San Diego man has since
gone back home, making the investigation more
difficult. “I’ve sent him throw-downs [mug shots]
to see if he’s able to pinpoint the attacker. Unfor­
tunately, we’ve been playing phone tag. This isn’t
an easy thing to do from a long distance, though
we certainly haven’t given up yet,” he says.
According to Bellah, there have been no more
reported skateboarding attacks since Sept. 17. He
does, however, warn people to “watch out for
guys with skateboards” in the Stark Street area.
“There are a lot of disenfranchised white kids
out there with low self-esteem, who are looking to
Cmdr. Mike Garvey
of the bureau's central
precinct says police have
increased their presence
in the Stark Street area
during the past four
months, in the form
of more foot and biking
patrols . “We want
the gay community
to feel comfortable
and are doing what we
can to ensure that. ”
“The attacker reportedly said, ‘I hate homos,
don’t you?’ ” says Bellah. A few minutes later,
another attack occurred involving 23-year-old
Portland resident Frank Speck.
“Some friends and I had been popping into the
bars on Stark Street. At some point I became
separated from them, and that’s about the last
thing I can remember,” says Speck, who says his
friends told him they found him about 20 minutes
later slumped on the sidewalk in front of the
Silverado bar.
“Apparently they asked me what was wrong
with me, and I told them that I had been ‘fag
bashed.’ I then pointed to two guys across the
street, saying they had done it. One of the guys had
a skateboard. My friends took off after them and
a fight broke out. Somebody called the police and
an ambulance and the two guys took off, leaving
the skateboard behind, which my friends then
gave to the police as evidence.”
According to Bellah, the San Diego man was
taken to Good Samaritan Hospital and treated for
“some pretty serious injuries.” Speck, meanwhile,
says he received medical attention for a concus­
sion he suffered during his attack.
Bellah says he has made an “educated guess”
about who the skateboard attacker may be, but no
one involved in the incidents has yet been able to
definitively identify the attacker.,
“Theskateboard had the name ‘Knucklehead’
beat up on somebody,” says Bellah, who de­
scribes the alleged attacker as white, with me­
dium-length brown hair, slender, and about 5 feet
11 inches tall. “We’re trying to do what we can,
but people should take precautions and be wary of
guys walking around there with skateboards.”
Cmdr. Mike Garvey of the bureau’s central
precinct says police have increased their presence
in the Stark Street area during the past four months,
in the form of more foot and biking patrols. “We
want the gay community to feel comfortable and
are doing what we can to ensure that.”
There has been some criticism lodged by Speck,
however, who says his friends told him the police
did not seem to take the situation “seriously”
when they arrived the night of the attack. “My
friends felt that the police could have gone after
the attackers because they were still in the area,
but they didn’t,” says Speck. “My friend also told
me that the police were laughing during all of this.
I don’t know if they were laughing about this, but
it seems like an inappropriate time to be laughing
about anything.”
Garvey says he has heard of no such criticism
but plans to investigate the situation. "We take
this very seriously. I haven’t heard about this, but
if it indeed happened, I need to know so we can
rectify it. It’s also important to me if someone
simply has the perception that this happened. I’ll
certainly look into it.”
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