A bartender at the city's oldest gay bar was attacked by a thug screaming hate speech -- the second bias attack this month inside a Manhattan gay bar and the latest in what is shaping up as troubling spate of anti-gay crimes in the region, police said today.
Police said a bartender at the Julius Bar, the city's oldest gay establishment, on West 10th Street was attacked by a man who screamed "What are you going to do, you f---ing n-----?" before punching him in the face.
The attack occurred on the evening of October 11, but Frederick Giunta, 45, wasn't arrested until Friday and he was charged in the assault on Saturday, according to authorities.
Moments before the shocking attack inside a West Village gay bar, Giunta punched another man in the face on Christopher Street and tried to take his wallet, according to court papers.
Giunta is charged with attempted robbery and third-degree assault as a hate crime, according to the Hate Crimes Unit in the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. This crime is the latest in a series of attacks against gay people in the region; Vance's office asked for anyone with information on this and other alleged hate crimes to come forward.
Giunta has history of targeting gay establishments for robberies, said Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who said "this vile attack will not be tolerated" and said she would meet with bar-owner to hear what kind of help the city can offer them.
“In an effort to address the number of attacks that have taken place at gay nightlife establishments, my office will be organizing a meeting tomorrow with bar owners, advocates and the NYPD," Quinn said in a statement. " We will seek to give information to bar owners about the best practices in responding to this kind of violence and ways to try and prevent attacks on our community.
Earlier this month, two Staten Island men were charged with attacking a patron at the Stonewall Inn, a powerful symbol of the gay rights movement. The attacks happened amid Carl Paladino's rants against gay people and the tragic suicide of Tyler Clementi, who threw himself off the George Washington Bridge after his Rutgers University roommate recorded him and another man having sex.
Also earlier this month, 11 teens were charged for anti-gay bias attack against two teens and one adult whom the attackers, wannabe gangsters, suspected of being gay, authorities said.
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Mmbers of the gang, which calls itself the Latin King Goonies, targeted a 30-year-old gay man after he apparently had a sexual encounter with one of their recruits, authorities said.
The 17-year-old was beaten and sodomized until he confessed to his involvement with the older man, authorities said. The mob later went after the 30-year-old, luring him to an abandoned apartment they used for partying, where they tied him to a chair and assaulted him, police said.
Another 17-year-old was also attacked because it was believed he, too, had an encounter with the man. The older man's brother was also attacked after gang members went to their shared apartment and stole cash and a TV, police said.
