Shocking Homophobic/disabled attack on Dublin to Belfast train

Laneyh

Ghandee wrote: »

OP, just out of curiosity, how did they know he was gay?

It's in the article they looked at what he was looking at on his laptop. They were obviously out for badness anyway if they were looking at his stuff. He really should have packed the laptop away before going to the toilet but I suppose you assume you're travelling with semi-normal people on the train

up for anything

Gran Hermano wrote: »

Sure everyone knows those Nordies are famous for their tolerance of all mankind.

That's a nasty sweeping statement. :rolleyes:

Laneyh

IzzyWizzy wrote: »

And what do you think people should have done when faced with a group of scumbags? I probably would have said something but would have been petrified of becoming a target myself, which is exactly what happened last time I intervened in such an incident. What would you have done, exactly? Taken on a group of men? :rolleyes:

I think the only feasible option is to pull the emergency cord / button
I don't know about trains but I know in the case of the tube transport police will be ready at the next stop to board and investigate why the cord was pulled

It would be quite difficult to physically intervene and you'd be right to be fearful of becoming a target but if this man was beaten to a point of bleeding its quite horrendous to stand back and do nothing too.
The best you could do is shout that you've called the police maybe

3ndahalfof6

Sometimes even jif can not get rid of the horrible scum, I hope your brother can get over this in time, it must be super tough on him.

KKkitty

IzzyWizzy wrote: »

And what do you think people should have done when faced with a group of scumbags? I probably would have said something but would have been petrified of becoming a target myself, which is exactly what happened last time I intervened in such an incident. What would you have done, exactly? Taken on a group of men? :rolleyes:

Roll your eyes all you like but the fact of the matter is scumbags exist because everyone else lets them. If I saw someone being attacked I would do everything I could to intervene. The day of standing idly by should stop and people should stand up to these cowards and show them a thing or two.

Doc Ruby

KKkitty wrote: »

Roll your eyes all you like but the fact of the matter is scumbags exist because everyone else lets them. If I saw someone being attacked I would do everything I could to intervene. The day of standing idly by should stop and people should stand up to these cowards and show them a thing or two.

Yup, these people don't exist in a vacuum. Often they are enabled by their friends, family, and authority figures, particularly in the north. You wouldn't want to take stupid risks with your own life either, but take photos and call the police at a minimum, that's the one thing they fear.

Lawrence1895

mikemac1 wrote: »

Four 9 stone nothing skangers is a lot different from 4 fully grown men. These were in their 40's


People didn't intervene but I don't blame them

Don't know, if I was able to take on 4 guys at a time, but still, I would not mind to encourage the other passengers to help me intervening.

Those sc***** are very often in the minority, and they can be 'beaten', imo

3ndahalfof6

Lars1916 wrote: »

Don't know, if I was able to take on 4 guys at a time, but still, I would not mind to encourage the other passengers to help me intervening.

Those sc***** are very often in the minority, and they can be 'beaten', imo

Sometimes you only need to effect the ring leader, not in all case but if you can get him to second guess himself the rest follow, most times.

IzzyWizzy

KKkitty wrote: »

Roll your eyes all you like but the fact of the matter is scumbags exist because everyone else lets them. If I saw someone being attacked I would do everything I could to intervene. The day of standing idly by should stop and people should stand up to these cowards and show them a thing or two.

The point is, why assume people 'stood idly by'? The point is, you can try to intervene all you like but a lot of the time, it doesn't do much good.

I'm rolling my eyes because of your 'if I'd been there, I'd have stopped them' attitude. My brother ended up in A&E getting his head stapled the last time he played the good Samaritan in Portadown. I ended up getting attacked. The scumbags simply carried on in each case. Truth of the matter is a lot of people these days wouldn't think twice about stabbing you or punching you to the floor, woman or not. I don't think most people are cowards, I think most people are afraid for their own lives when faced with a crowd of a scumbags who are drunk or off their t*ts.

I'm no coward, I will always act when I can, but let's be realistic.

Just Like Heaven

Sick, hope they're caught and made an example of. Should be absolutely no tolerance for homophobia or attacks on the disabled.

IzzyWizzy

fewtinsoffroth wrote: »

Sick, hope they're caught and made an example of. Should be absolutely no tolerance for homophobia or attacks on the disabled.

Or anybody, really.

efb

what utter scum. Its like you cant read "Attitude" in some quarters without being seen as a target.

My sympathies OP

Lawrence1895

Usually, they get some kick, when they see, their victim and other people around are afraid.

I know, it sounds easy in theory, but if you show them, you are not afraid of them, they don't have an 'easy victim' anymore.

greenheart

mikemac1 wrote: »

Four 9 stone nothing skangers is a lot different from 4 fully grown men. These were in their 40's


People didn't intervene but I don't blame them

I know it's hard to say until your in that situation but I think if I was there I would definetely do something, I'm a girl so it wouldn't be much but even to start screaming while trying to get him out of there, or even let them see you ringing the police.
Any sort of interference or distraction could result in a lesser beating.
But then again it could go the other way, you never know?

Op hope your brother gets over this soon.

poeticseraphim

greenheart wrote: »

I know it's hard to say until your in that situation but I think if I was there I would definetely do something, I'm a girl so it wouldn't be much but even to start screaming while trying to get him out of there, or even let them see you ringing the police.
Any sort of interference or distraction could result in a lesser beating.
But then again it could go the other way, you never know?

Op hope your brother gets over this soon.

Yeah i would start screaming or call the police i am female too.

Sorry OP i hope your poor brother i hope he recovers.

We as a society need to support the gay and disabled community.

We need to prevent all attacks but gay people should not feel targeted.

HORRIBLE!

Actually is there an Emergency stop button?? Or cold they have informed the driver??? Or called the police who cold stop the train??


There was surely something that could have been done? Some people are not physically big enough maybe to physically intervene but they can always help in other ways.

I am a female with a thin build....I would not just mind my own business even f i could physically intervene. I wold want someone to help me if i was attacked even if all they cold do was scream or tell someone who could help.

Wanderer2010

Very sorry to hear about this attack OP and I hope these scumbags are caught and most importantly jailed for such a cowardly attack.

As for the point of people not doing anything, its really down to personal safety in most cases and not a case of them not caring. If it was a close relative or friend you would have no problem jumping in to help but with a stranger I would be more wary because you could be facing death yourself, these people would just as easy stab/punch/shoot you if you intervened without a second thought. I know that sounds really bad but I would ring the cops or at the very least get the attention of a few more people so safety in numbers..

Scruffles

azul,
unfortunately people from vulnerable or minority groups are at higher risk whenever we go out because we look and/or behave different to the norm and it comes across as weaknesses to the predatory confrontational nature of bullies-they are pyschopathic.
its probably been posted by now but what brother experienced with fellow passengers not helping is called the bystander effect- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect

woud suggest that brother/an advocate complains about the lack of protection on their services for innocent passengers,it is a major problem for people with disabilities and anything else that makes them vulnerable in the eyes of the public.

as a fellow spectrumer,hope he gets better soon and doesnt let those bstards spoil his christmas.
also hope he doesnt let them get away with it by keeping himself locked away in the house-he deserves to be part of society whereas those pyschopathic oxygen wasters dont,they need to be stuck somewhere and forgot about-their sort of mentality is never rehabilitated.

if he is interested woud recommend looking into getting a support person to accompany him on public transport so he can build up confidence again and he does not develop a fear of it-it shoudnt cost him anything.
various charities over here offer it,but have had a google and think contacting these guys may bring up an answer-
http://www.aspireireland.ie/index.htm

as another example of bystander effect;years ago prior to getting a motability car,was physicaly dragged on public transport as support staffs thought tolerance and behavior on them woud get better in time-the sensory & information overload,not being able to sit in the same seat and unpredictibility woud lead to severe challenging behavior, was badly bullied on them to directly due to being disabled [am severely autistic and intelectualy disabled]-no one ever defended even when they were howling their vicious disability slurs and threats to stab or deck head in when we got off,despite the fact had two support staffs it never put them off.

-and when used to attend special college almost every student in classes of mine who were able to access public transport had been bullied on it,the drivers do not give a sht because they live in fear of being injured.

azul

Firstly, thanks for all the support and advice, I didn´t expect otherwise. Just to say that my brother holds no resentment towards the other passengers who stood by while this happened, I don´t think it´s even entered his head that they could have. Everyone has their own personal reasons for not doing anything in a situation like this and it´s their business at the end of the day but I will say however that I believe they have a duty to come forward and give evidence if they witnessed the incident as it´s important to our society that people who carry out crimes like this be brought to justice.

To answer one of the posters questions above asking why my brother left his laptop unattended while he went to the WC, which probably is the reason why this incident happened, this is typical of his behaviour caused by his disability. He has dyspraxia, not aspergers as one of the press articles states, and is very absent minded and naive. Anyone in their right mind would not leave an unattended laptop on a public train, particularily on a train heading to Belfast at 10.30pm on a Saturday night. You could say he´s at fault to some degree but the age of these guys certainly won´t help their case.

greenheart

^ No it's definitely not his fault, maybe he shouldn't have left his laptop there but that doesn't mean he should be left with a broken nose and whatever else happened.

KKkitty

KKkitty wrote: »

Azul I really hope your brother will be ok. They saw your brother as an easy target but for witnesses to stand idly by is incomprehensible. I don't care what anyone says there would have been more than 4 other passengers on the train at that time who could have done something but didn't. Please give your brother my best wishes.

If caught these pr1cks will get a taste of their own medicine in jail.

jill_valentine

To answer one of the posters questions above asking why my brother left his laptop unattended while he went to the WC, which probably is the reason why this incident happened, this is typical of his behaviour caused by his disability. He has dyspraxia, not aspergers as one of the press articles states, and is very absent minded and naive. Anyone in their right mind would not leave an unattended laptop on a public train, particularily on a train heading to Belfast at 10.30pm on a Saturday night. You could say he´s at fault to some degree but the age of these guys certainly won´t help their case.

Ah Jaysus, no it's not. Not to any degree is this his fault. He wasn't asking for it, didn't deserve it, and in no way invited it just by going about his business, the poor guy.

I hope the law hits the douchebags who did it like a ton of bricks, and I hope he makes a speedy recovery, sickening.

pragmatic1

Hope your brother gets well soon mate:(. Horrible thing to happen especially around this time of year. I'll just never understand the mentality of people like this, thank ****.

Lars1916

Lars1916 wrote: »

.......... but if you show them, you are not afraid of them, they don't have an 'easy victim' anymore.

Most definitely, the likes of these pr1cks pick their victims carefully and presume no one else will intervene.

publicious

mhge wrote: »

It said in one of the articles that they could see he was on a gay dating website.

That's pretty embarrassing for that to come out.

Those thugs were probably just looking for any old excuse to have a go.

Heckler

Whats embarassing about browsing a gay dating website ?

hope he is doing ok, can take a long time to get over something like that.

Don't feel too bad towards the fellow passangers. Its a scary situation and is hard to intervene when you think your life or health might be in danger.

Solair

It seems like these guys are operating like some kind of a cross between neo-nazis and the talaban!

i.e. right wing, oppressive, homophobic, violent, thugs!

I wonder if perhaps it might be an idea to remove some of the stops from that cross-border service?

AnonoBoy

publicious wrote: »

That's pretty embarrassing for that to come out.

This is 2012 - I think most people don't regard internet dating as that embarrassing any more.

Son Of A Vidic

My name is URL wrote: »

Groups of men in their 40's acting like lawless schoolchildren.. fcuking depressing stuff.

And you'll find that such spineless kunts, are often living in the biggest closet of all.

Thespoofer

Hi Azul, any news on your brother, hows he doing ?

azul

Thespoofer wrote: »

Hi Azul, any news on your brother, hows he doing ?

Thespoofer, thank´s for asking about my brother. He´s doing fine considering the enormity of what´s happened to him. As you can imagine it´s completely taken over his life at the moment and probably will for a long time. The PSNI are making progress with the investigation and have said they will make a statement shortly. Apparently the CCTV was NOT working in the carriage at the time of the assault which is a disappointment, however this is not a concern for the police investigating the incident.