The West Hollywood Sheriff’s Department is investigating claims of a possible hate crime near Pavilions grocery store last night.
Christopher Burton, a gay man who also identifies himself as Christopher de la Cruz, posted on his Facebook page around 1 a.m. today about the attack.
“Tonight as I was headed to my car I was attacked and harassed,” he said. “And my face (was) pushed to the ground and punched several times. They tried to put a knife against my face but (I) was lucky enough to run and get away. Please watch out and always make sure you have someone with you at night. My cards were taken from me and I don’t know who or where they went. Please share and help me find the a**holes who attacked me tonight in West Hollywood.”
Sgt. Enrique Mandujan of the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station said someone there saw the Facebook post and reached out to Burton, who filed a report about the attack today. Mandujan said an investigation is ongoing to determine exactly where the attack took place and exactly what happened. He said it apparently happened somewhere near Robertson Boulevard and Keith Avenue.
Burton described the attack as a hate crime. “It was a scary and very traumatic experience,” he wrote on Facebook. “It is crazy how hate crimes are still happening and to be picked on and physically abused for being gay is an awful feeling. The support by those around me has been overwhelming and I am very humbled and thankful for the support.” As of publication, WEHOville has been unable to reach Burton for a comment.
Burton’s Facebook post attracted dozens of comments, some complaining that West Hollywood was no longer a safe place at night. A rash of assaults and cell phone and wallet thefts last year prompted the Sheriff’s Station to step up patrols in the city’s gay nightlife area, known as Boystown. Sheriff’s Capt. Holly Perez has said the station has implemented more foot patrols by deputies.
Burton is catering and events coordinator at The Abbey and also co-founder of Big Heart Event Productions.
There should be a policy to make Weho and the bars 100% gay we will be fine then! but going to the bars and seeing str8 guys then someone walk up to them and they str8 i mean Mickey’s, rage and the abbey are more str8 club’s now then gay! It’s like str8 people don’t have enough bars its so annoying that i stopped going to gay bars this is our safe spot and now gay bars are 50/50 we need our safe spot and i live in weho and i would say 80% of my neighbors are str8! its… Read more »
It is so sad this is happening in my neighborhood, I wish I was their to help, I would have loved to run them over with my car.
Ouch!! So many unnecessarily harsh judgmental voices. Is there any compassion out there?
If you wonder why the victim of a gay bashing just doesn’t put their complete faith in law enforcement right after the attack. Ask yourself just how much faith would a victim of prison gang rape have in the guards?
Prison Rape Widely Ignored by Authorities!
Report critical of police response to anti-LGBT hate crimes!
Inspire any confidence?
I was thinking the same thing about taking a pic of yourself and then going on Facebook. Sort of minimizes the situation, I think. How about calling the cops for help first. It’s just strange.
I would first like to say Great Post Cy you made an important point and, I can use HTML too on my postings! I am having a serious problem with attempts to blame the victim here, the behavior of Mr.Christopher Burton is very consistent with individuals of an oppressed group of people who have been victimized by the oppressive dominant group. First off there is a great deal of shame of being a victim in the first place and denial is not to be unexpected. Mistrust of the law enforcement and other power structures is seen with Women when they… Read more »
Good point, @Christopher. If this was indeed as serious as he is claiming, then he completely undermined everything by seeking attention before seeking help. Then again, I think we all need to be sensitive to how people can behave when they’re in shock and not jump to conclusions and make judgments.
Feel bad for the guy, and don’t mean to be insensitive, but I’m always amazed how social media is the first response. I certainly wouldn’t be thinking about taking a selfie and writing about it on facebook. I suppose this is how it is in this generation, but it always seems incredibly odd to me.
Let the police do their investigation and come up with the results but it sure seems strange that the police had to read a Facebook post to get a drift of this event. It was obviously not serious enough for the guy to call the sheriff or go back inside pavilions for help.
When we have an occurrence of a HATE CRIME or even an alleged hate crime it becomes the jurisdiction of the FBI and, they can be obligated to follow up on it. Clearly the financial resources of protecting West Hollywood will NOT be impacted by the following up on hate crimes. Now we have a clear cut case of innocent people being harmed here purely on the basis Sexual Orientation or perceived Sexual Orientation. Now if you want see some real whiners who call on government intervention on their behalf all the time, look no further than conservative white males… Read more »
wow, i love your post. 100% agree.
I strongly support fine7760’s comments. People should be willing and able to protect themselves since we can’t rely on the Sheriffs to do so. Also, Lindsey Horvath evidently is too busy and self-absorbed to deal with local problems; she’d rather grab headlines by censoring free speech and stifle citicens’ constitutional rights. She should be dealing with with local problems rather than self-promotion and fascist actions. And, btw, what evidence is there that this is a hate crime?
Something seems very strange about this guys account of what happen. Punched multiple times, small scratch on his face? Hmmm things aren’t adding up to me. He gets mugged and shortly after he has time to write a paragraph about it on Facebook and take a selfie??n