Dallas residents held a protest outside the city's police headquarters on Sunday, demanding action after 12 men were robbed and beaten walking in Oak Lawn, a neighborhood packed with gay bars and restaurants.
Dozens gathered and carried signs that read "We Shall Rise Up" and "Justice Will "Prevail," according to local TV station KERA. Following three months of violence, gay bartender Geoffrey Hubbard became the latest victim Thursday in a robbery attempt, in which he was beaten so severely he hid under a parked SUV until an off-duty officer aided him.
While an expanded police presence occurred and a new task force established following Hubbard's attack, protesters at police headquarters were angry at how long it took.
"It has taken two and a half months of terror," protester Daniel Scott Cates told KERA. "It has taken blood literally running in the streets for DPD to make a visible, swift action as they did this last weekend. It's absolutely unacceptable."
Cates and others with the group Citizens for a Safer Oak Lawn say the Dallas Police Department responded much more quickly to robberies and beatings in the wealthy Katy Trail area. Police made an arrest two weeks after the attacks there; meanwhile no arrests have been made in the Oak Lawn crimes, which many believe are targeting gay and bisexual men.
Local businesses are trying to do their part to increase safety by adding lighting and cameras to buildings and parking lots.
