Russian paratroopers violently attack lone gay rights activist in St Petersburg

[Fearless]

For more: http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/08/05/video-russian-paratroopers-violently-attack-lone-gay-rights-activist-in-st-petersburg/

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/08/06/gay-teenager-kidnapped-and-tortured-by-russian-homophobes-believed-to-have-died-from-injuries/

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This is what is going on. And this is the G Rated stuff. So, basically, it's not a joke. It's not a fluff bit of news as even some DUers have tried to claim it was. This stuff is important. People's lives and people's happiness are at stake.

[RKP5637]

1. Human beings are nasty bunch. Using the old book, designate targets to unite

the masses, same old shit, again and again ... and people are so easily propagandized, as history replays. To me, Russia is quickly sliding backward ...

[another_liberal]

2. If you watch the video a little more closely . . .

The gay rights activist is the red-haired young man in in the black leather jacket, correct. If so, though he is obviously threatened and pushed around by these stripe-shirted, "Spetnaz" thugs, he is not the one on whom the blows are really rained down. If you watch the video a little more closely, you will notice the young man is hurried off to safety in a police car, while the thugs are the ones who get the real beatings by the police, who can be distinguished by the green camouflage uniforms they wear. Several of the abusive Spetnaz types are later seem being forcibly loaded onto a police bus, clearly to take them "downtown" for booking on various charges.

From an historical point of view it is also poignant that this all appears to take place in the square in front of the Winter Palace, on the very pavement where hundreds of starving protesters were shot down by Czarist troops in a massacre which began the 1905 revolution.

[pangaia]

3. You have what happened correct.

And the location. I stood on that square in January 1985, 20 below zero in the snow...It is a powerful place...

[another_liberal]

9. Thanks for clarifying that. I'm sure it is a deeply powerful place to visit.

If I might add, this drive to gin-up a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics seems completely unjustified. If we are going to boycott every Olympics held in a country whose population contains a minority of ignorant, violent and vicious homophobic people, we are not going to be attending many more Olympics, including any future ones held in our own country!

The Russian people as a whole and their ancient and colorful culture are more deserving of our respect than this current boycott movement suggests. Narrow-minded, bigoted Russophobia is as repulsive as is narrow-minded, bigoted homophobia.

[Fearless]

7. That is correct

The title is not my own. Still it speaks volumes that this can happen at all.

[another_liberal]

10. It is a disgusting thing to witness. Fortunately, the authorities did step in to stop it.

That this can happen in a major city in Russia is clearly awful, surely you know that the same scene could easily have taken place in any major American city as well. I really don't see the need to paint all of Russian society with the same homophobic brush. After all, several ordinary Russians can be seen in the video trying to separate the thugs from their gay activist victim before the police intervene to break it up, right?

[Fearless]

11. True. I'm also worried about

Those with cameras who stood there and watched.

[another_liberal]

12. Good point.

They may well have wanted to videotape a gay beating, and may well have organized the whole thing with the attackers beforehand.

In defense of the vast majority of decent Russians, I must note that such a predatory setup is hardly an exclusively Russian practice.

[ellenfl]

13. so why did the police protect the one guy if all of russian authority is anti-gay?

a translation would have helped. it seems to me the police would have left the bullies alone if the edict from on high was being followed. hopefully, clearer, more compassionate heads will prevail.

[another_liberal]

14. Exactly!

If Russia's governing authority really wanted gays abused, the young man in the video would have been sent to the hospital, or worse. He would not have been separated from his attackers by the police.

[aikoaiko]

4. I'm glad the Russian Special Purpose Mobile Unit (OMOH) broke it up

They shuffled the gay activist off -- hopefully to be released unharmed.

And then they heavy-handedly rousted up the abusive paratroopers.

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

5. I had posted this the other day when it happened on LGBT activism.

It seems as if these "Russian Stripe Shirts" are channeling "Nazi Brown Shirts." There is a bizarre irony in the young red-headed man's rescuers name emblazoned on their uniforms. It is spelled OMOH. The acronym, although in Russian, is HOMO is English when viewed backwards. The whole episode is down right strange.

[KurtNYC]

6. The Russian police who break it up have patches that say "OMOH" (!?)

and the paratroopers (?) are wearing skin tight sleeveless shirts while standing arm in arm.

It is like video from some bizarre parallel universe where the 'gay rights activist' is the straightest looking one of the bunch.

[Fearless]

8. +1