Police in Boston have arrested a teenager accused of threatening to “shoot everyone” in gay bars in the city.
The 16-year-old boy, whose identity has not been released, was arrested by officers from the Seabrook New Hampshire Police Department on Friday, Nov. 23.
According to a police statement, he was “wanted in connection to an investigation surrounding threatening phone calls which had been received at two Boston area bars.”
The statement continues: “At the time of his arrest, the suspect was wanted on outstanding warrants sought out of Suffolk County Juvenile Court for Threats with Serious Public Alarm and Civil Rights Violations in connection to that investigation as well as additional warrants stemming from other charges from outside jurisdictions.”
The bars in question were dbar in Dorchester and The Alley in downtown Boston, WCVB reports.
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The Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office reported that the calls, made on Nov. 9 and 10, threatened to “kill everyone” and “shoot everyone in the bar.”
“The records also suggest calls made to several other Boston bars serving the gay community during the same time period,” the DA’s office said. “Investigators are following up with staff at those establishments to determine whether additional charges are warranted.”
At the time of the calls, Boston Police Commissioner William G. Gross said that police “don’t take any threats lightly,” WHDH reported.
“Everybody should be able to enjoy any establishment that they wish to go into in the City of Boston,” Gross said. “Whether it’s The Alley or dbar, you should be able to enjoy yourself peacefully.”
In a statement earlier this month, Brian Piccini owner of dbar, said the bar received a “threatening and bigoted phone call.”
In addition to working with police, Piccini said the bar would “continue to show our defiance towards intolerance by not giving into threats by standing united at dbar. We will continue to work with the BPD to ensure a safe and friendly experience for all of our guests.”
A Texas man has been sentenced to three months in prison, with three years of supervised release, for threatening a Boston-area doctor affiliated with the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center.
Matthew Jordan Lindner, 39, of Comfort, Texas, was sentenced last week by Senior U.S. District Judge William G. Young, of the District of Massachusetts, after pleading guilty to one count of interstate transmission of threatening communication. Lindner was also ordered to pay restitution of $2,986, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
In August 2022, inaccurate information began circulating online regarding surgical procedures that were allegedly being performed on gender-nonconforming children by doctors at Boston Children's Hospital.
Following a four-day trial, Daqua Lameek Ritter, of South Carolina, was found guilty by a federal jury of a hate crime for the murder of Dime Doe (a.k.a. Pebbles LaDime Doe).
Ritter's conviction marks the first ever under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act for violence directed at a transgender person.
While others have been prosecuted for hate crimes motivated by anti-transgender animus, none of those other cases ever went to trial.
At trial, prosecutors argued that Ritter had been involved in a sexual relationship with Doe, and became upset after rumors of their affair began to circulate around their hometown of Allendale, South Carolina.
The United States is now seeing over 200,000 syphilis cases annually, the highest figure since the 1950s.
Imagine the voice of Golden Girls’ Sophia Petrillo saying, “Picture it, United States 1951, I Love Lucy was kicking off its first season, super glue had just been invented, and there were 140,000 syphilis cases reported across the country.”
By 2000, however, decades of public health advocacy and medical advancements, such as the use of antibiotics in early treatment, had cut down cases to just 32,000 per year.
So, what happened? Why are the numbers worse now than they were 24 years ago?
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