Veteran teaches gangmembers a hard lesson
Streetsweeper sends us a link to a article from the Colorado Greeley Tribune the heart warming story of two gang members who thought that they were going to beat up a gay fellow who turned out to be 24-year-old Michael Lamonday — a business student at Aims Community College, a twice-deployed Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran, and a newlywed.
They cornered him in the bathroom of a bar and had their asses handed to them, which made arresting them relatively easy for the local cops;
Both of the alleged attackers wound up in the hospital with injuries from the scuffle.
As [Lamonday and his friend] left the bathroom, they said Meza and Tapia were attempting to instigate a larger group to go after them and chase them.
Lamonday was just trying to avoid pissing off his new wife;
“I was just minding my own business,” Lamonday said. “One of the things, my wife doesn’t like very much, is if someone insults me, I’m usually the first to say something. I wasn’t trying to look for trouble. I was letting them know I’m not a homo.”
Lamonday and his friend first contacted Lamonday’s wife, who called police, then took them to the ER. When they arrived, Tapia and Meza were already there, one with a dislocated shoulder, he said.
Cuz wives are tougher to deal with than a gang of thugs, trust me.
Category: Real Soldiers
Why exactly did he give off a “gay” vibe? And are we REALLY sure it was all about Homo? That kinda sounds like a stretched connection to the NC law
Doc–I’ve seen bangers pull this, just looking for a fight. Goad the victim into a response thinking he’s just going one-on-one, then pile on.
Sick little society we’ve got today.
I’m sure this will get turned into anti-gay thing, since he didn’t want to be called a homo.
This is what comes from giving off the (deceptive, in this case) appearance of weakness. Thugs will act like thugs, and some thugs can’t tell lean from skinny. I am glad this young man has his priorities straight, and that he acted with restraint. He only put them in the hospital, and that’s the best outcome for him and his new bride.
I can imagine that Meza and Tapia won’t be greeted with a whole lot of respect when they get to prison, or the county jail.
Doc, it’s all about the intent of the assaulters. If they voiced their intent, based on their perception that Lamonday was gay, I’d guess the so-called Hate Crime law would kick in.
UpNorth,
Wanna bet? These two wannabees, being minority, won’t be charged with the hate crime addition.
Little groupie thugs have no purpose, no life, no self —
otherwise, they’d mind THEIR OWN business. But, they have no business of their own — meddling in ANOTHER man’s life, is how they get their kicks. And that’s all there is, to their pitiful, failed “life.” They are already DEAD inside.
Woody, not arguing, but did you read the first sentence in the story at the paper?
UpNorth – you be correct. Any crime that involves a homosexual (except blew-on-blew incidents) gets the Federal Hate Crime multiplier.
Sure glad we’ve got a 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
“Blew-on-Blew”, heh. Except this crime appears to fall under Colorado’s “Hate Crime” statutes, not the Feds.
One problem, Colorado has the worst possible format to try and look up any of their laws. According to CRS § 18-9-121, para(2) “A person commits a bias-motivated crime if, with the intent to intimidate or harass another person because of that person’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, physical or mental disability, or sexual orientation, he or she:” and then goes on to list the offenses which constitute the underlying crimes. http://www.hmichaelsteinberg.com/colorado_hate_crimes_criminal_defense_lawyer.htm