Gayborhood takes matter into its own hands after slew of hate crimes

It has been months since the first violent attack in Dallas’s gayborhood, Oak Lawn, and the residents have officially had it with the police not taking action on the slew of violent hate crimes that have plagued the neighborhood.

The attacks started at random more than six months ago. Today, more than a dozen men have been punched, beaten with bats, and slashed with box cutters, usually late at night when they are walking alone. In November, one man had his skull split open when he was repeatedly pummeled with a large rock while walking home from a friend’s house.

Yet, there has not been a single arrest made. So, the neighborhood is taking the matter into their own hands.

More than 25 recruits have signed up for the Dallas Police Department’s Volunteers in Patrol Program. The program that trains civilians the methods for monitoring and reporting suspicious activity, and it’s already proving to be successful.

One of the volunteers, John Anderson, was recently patrolling the neighborhood when he saw what he believed to be a hate crime. When he saw three young men cruising the neighborhood.

“One guy had his shirt up trying to bait other guys to look at him,” John told KDFW-TV. “And when some guys walked by and looked at his body, they said, ‘What are you looking at, faggot?’”

The three young men then wrapped bandanas and rushed towards the men. That’s when he stepped into the situation.

Anderson drove over to the suspects, then his partner shined a flashlight on them. Meanwhile, Anderson whipped out his camera and took a picture of the men to submit to police. They quickly fled.

“We were really excited,” he says. “We thought it might be a break in some of the other attacks. Hopefully, that will scare them from doing it again.”

While the self-monitoring may be keeping some men safe from the crimes, it is not doing much in the ways of making arrests. So the residents of Oak Lawn also began protesting outside of the Dallas police headquarters.