SHOWDOWN: NYPD Gets Violent with Protesters at 'Occupy Wall Street!

Hours of peaceful Occupy Wall Street protests in which demonstrators were joined by many members of labor unions became violent and chaotic last night as dozens of arrests were made.

A video has emerged showing police wielding batons and contacting solidly with human flesh. It was shot last night at the corner of Broadway and Wall street around 8:45 according to the videographer.

FOX5 says the melee in the video was spawned by protesters pushing into police barriers.

BANNED: Gay Tennessee Couple Assaulted by FAMILY!

Jerry Pittman Jr. and his partner Dustin Lee were assaulted last week when they tried to attend a church service at Grace Fellowship Church in Fruitland, Tennessee, according to reports.

Pittman Jr. says his father, who is the church's pastor, instructed two deacons and Pittman's uncle to attack the couple and physically prevent them from attending the church service.

WBBJ reports: "My uncle and two other deacons came over to the car per my dad's request. My uncle smash me in the door as the other deacon knocked my boyfriend back so he couldn't help me, punching him in his face and his chest. The other deacon came and hit me through my car window in my back," said Pittman. He said bystanders did not offer assistance. He said the deacon yelled derogatory homosexual slurs, even after officers arrived. He said the officers never intervened to stop the deacons from yelling the slurs.

The couple says they were not allowed to press charges at the time of the incident, either.

Assault charges have now been filed against Deacons Billy Sims and Eugene McCoy and Pittman Jr.'s  father and Deacon Patrick Flatt. All are scheduled to appear in court tomorrow.

KARMA: Liquor Control Board Worker Accused of DUI!

An otherwise par-for-the-course DUI arrest is making the local headlines in Pittsburgh because the suspect happens to be an enforcement officer with the state Liquor Control Board. Police say the 39-year-old woman blew a 0.117 after being involved in a two-crash downtown last night, reports WPXI. Nobody was injured in the accident, which happened as the Pitt football game let out, notes WTAE. Not helping: She was apparently driving a state vehicle at the time.

MURDERER: Murray Did Lousy CPR on Jackson!

Today's testimony in the Conrad Murray trial doesn't exactly speak to his skills as a doctor. One of Michael Jackson's security guards said that when he entered the singer's room, he saw Murray performing a shoddy version of CPR—using only one hand, intermittently, reports the Los Angeles Times. 

Murray told him that Jackson was in bad shape and needed to get to a hospital, even as he temporarily halted CPR, grabbed a "handful" of vials, and said, "Here, put these in a bag.” The guard, Alberto Alvarez, said he was also asked to grab a saline bag containing "a milky white substance." It was only after Alvarez helped put away vials and bags that Murray told him to call 911, notes TMZ. 

TARGET: Two Florida Gay Men Attacked In Likely Hate Crime!

Manuel Galan and Cirildo Soliz, two openly gay men who live in Immokalee, Florida, were attacked by a gang of five men last week. The incident occurred in the middle of the street, they say, and was completely ignored by passersby.

From Naples News: Both Galan [27] and Soliz, 21, are openly gay but are just good friends, Galan said. They have lived in Immokalee for almost their entire lives and had been called names before. This was the first time verbal attacks got physical, they said.

SINNER: Gay London Man Targeted by Vandals!

Anthony Rivers, a gay youth support worker living in Thamesmead, London, woke up one morning to find the word "sinner" tagged across his front door.

The graffiti, Rivers said, followed weeks of hate mail, This is London reports: One letter told the 30-year-old to “burn in hell” for being homosexual while another said “men should only lay with women”.

Waking up to the graffiti on September 8, Mr Rivers said: “I was horrified someone could do this.  Loads of questions went through my head and then I realised people would walk past my door and see it. I was embarrassed more than anything else.”

Mr Rivers, who works as a youth support worker, called Gallions and asked the housing association to clean his door. He said: “I was told someone would be round to clean the door in 24 hours but no-one came. It should have been done straight away. Instead I had to come home to see the door in that state. I was stuck with the haunting of what happened.”

Rivers says the door still hasn't been fully repainted. He wants to move.

LOCKED; Stonewall Inn Gay Basher Gets Two Years in OZ!

Matthew Francis, who pleaded guilty to felony hate crime on September 9 for attacking Benjamin Carver, a DC resident on a visit to New York City, in the bathroom of the Stonewall Inn in October 2010, was sentenced to two years in prison yesterday, the AP reports: Matthew Francis, 22, didn't speak at his sentencing. He pleaded guilty Sept. 8 to assault as a hate crime and to attempted robbery, but his lawyer said the October 2010 incident at the Stonewall Inn stemmed from drug and alcohol use, not hatred...

...Francis was high on prescription pills and alcohol at the time and hopes to get drug counseling in prison, said his lawyer, Robert DePalma. He said Francis, who has a sister who is a lesbian, doesn't harbor any bias against gays.

"This was an unfortunate incident that arose because of substance abuse," the attorney said. "It was quite a surprise to all of us that it was listed as a hate crime."

In the October 2010 attack, Carver was asked if he was gay and then pinned down by Orlando while Francis beat him, saying, Get away from me faggot. I don't like gay people."

Francis' co-assailant Christopher Orlando is expected to get six months when he is sentenced in January.

SCARY: Woman Gets Uniboob in Botched Surgery!

In the 48 states where doctors don't need to be certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgeons to perform plastic surgery, unwary patients run the risk of ending up like Dinora Rodriguez, experts warn. The 40-year-old woman was left with a merged "uniboob" by an uncertified surgeon who had incorrectly told her that her breast implants needed to be repaired. Rodriguez, the face of the board's latest safety campaign, was also left with eyes that won't fully close after the surgeon performed a "lid lift" procedure that she hadn't requested.

The uncertified surgeon "cut across muscles you should never cut across," the surgeon who performed reconstructive surgery on Rodriguez tells ABC, noting that botched plastic surgeries are on the rise because unqualified surgeons are seeking to boost their income by offering cosmetic procedures. "The crazy thing is that for every Dinora that goes to the media there are at least 100 patients who don't speak up because they are ashamed."

TARGET: Vandal Throws Rocks, Note Through Windshields of Gay Seattle Couple!

A gay West Seattle couple were targeted in an anti-gay hate crime over the weekend, KING5 reports. Lyle Evans and Chris Ilovar woke on Friday after hearing a noise outside their home. What they found was that windows on both of their cars had been smashed. One car was in their driveway, one was in the street. Attached to one of the rocks was a hateful note, signed KKK.

West Seattle Blog received a report from the couple. Here's part of it: Within a few minutes of the call, the Seattle Police department arrived. Officer N. Nguyen and his partner were the first to arrive. We then noticed that all 4 tires of each vehicle had been slashed. When one of the officers found the rock in my partner’s car, it was surrounded by a typed hate note. It read as follows…

God Hates F*gs!
Get the f**k out of our neighborhood.
The bible says God forbids men committing indecent act with other men.
Pack up your sh*t and get you gay sh*t out.
- KKK

Upon notice of this note, both the Sergeant and Lieutenant were notified and arrived on the scene. Another police officer arrived to take pictures and gather the evidence of the rocks and note. One of the police officers told us that they take these crimes “very seriously” and we were thankful for their presence that evening.

COMMITTED: Cops Weigh Charges in Bullying Suicide!

Police are weighing criminal charges against three alleged teenage bullies who taunted a 14-year-old gay student for almost a year before he committed suicide, according to authorities. Jamey Rodemeyer killed himself earlier this week after blogging repeatedly about the bullying. No bullying laws exist in New York state, so the Amherst Police Department is weighing charges of harassment, cyber harassment, or hate crimes. 

"We've heard that there were some specific students, an identifiable group of students, that had specifically targeted Jamey, or had been picking on him for a period of time," Police Chief John C. Askey told the Buffalo News. Lady Gaga has launched a campaign to make bullying a crime in honor of Jamey, who thanked her on his last Tumblr message before his suicide.

DENIED: Killer Loses Bid for Prison-Paid Sex Change!

A transgender California prisoner has lost a bid to force the state to pay for a sex change operation. Lyralisa Stevens, who was born male but lives as a woman, sued the state, demanding that the public fund surgery to remove her male genitalia, at a cost of as much as $50,000. A San Francisco appeals court nixed the suit, but Stevens, 42, may still take her case to a higher court, reports the Los Angeles Times. California, like many states, provides hormone treatments for transgender inmates. 

Had Stevens been successful in her suit, the state would have become the first in the nation to pay for a sex change operation. Stevens, who's serving 50-years-to-life for shooting to death a woman in a dispute over clothing, argued that hormone treatments alone are inadequate for her situation. She also looked forward to being placed in a woman's prison once her penis was removed. Stevens said she's under constant threat of sexual assault in the men's prison where she's currently housed, even though she has a cell to herself. "She has not been outside in over a year because she is not safe out on the yard, and she has to be very careful about when she showers," said her attorney.

CRUEL: Hide Your Dogs!

Brace yourself, dog lover: The world is full of cruel people, as evidenced by two odd animal crimes that happened in the last week. My Fox Dallas reports on a domestic incident that turned deadly for a Maltese named Diego on Saturday night. A couple reportedly got in a fight in an elevator, with a man allegedly punching a woman. Police say she then entered their shared apartment, poured bleach on his clothes, and left. When her boyfriend saw the clothes, he allegedly threw Diego out of the 19th-floor apartment's window. Though no one saw him fling the dog, his body was found the next day on the 8th-floor pool deck. Police are looking for the man, whose name has not been released. 

IDOLED: Former Gay Adult Film Actor 'Ryan Idol' Convicted of Attempted Murder!

Marc Anthony Donais, 47, formerly known as '80s gay porn actor Ryan Idol, was convicted on Tuesday of attempting to kill his girlfriend with a toilet tank lid, the Sacramento Bee reports: According to testimony at trial, the 41-year-old woman had broken up with Donais, who claimed to be bisexual. She testified she moved out of their West Sacramento condo when he knocked on her door the night of the attack while she was taking a bath.

She told jurors she let Donais into the house and that he immediately told her he wanted to kill her. He testified at trial that he thought she had pulled a knife on him during their discussion in her bathroom and that he grabbed the toilet tank lid and hit her with it out of self defense.

Donais is currently being held without bail.

FUDGE PACKER: Naked Guy Breaks Into Nicolas Cage's House!

Add this to your file of weird Nicolas Cage stories: While promoting his new movie Trespass, a home invasion thriller, Cage told the Toronto Film Festival quite a story about a home invasion he actually went through. "It was two in the morning. I was living in Orange County at the time and was asleep with my wife. My 2-year-old at the time was in another room. I opened my eyes and there was a naked man wearing my leather jacket eating a Fudgesicle in front of my bed," he said. "I know it sounds funny," he continued (um, yep), "but it was horrifying." 

He persuaded the intruder to leave, and police came, but Cage did not press charges, KTLA reports. The Reuters version of the story hysterically notes that " A Fudgesicle is a frozen, ice cream-like snack."

CAGED: Five Year Prison Sentence Handed Down for Brutal Attack on Trans Woman at McDonald's!

Teonna Monae Brown, 19, who pleaded guilty last month to first-degree assault and a hate crime in the beating of Chrissy Lee Polis, 22, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Tuesday, with five years suspended, plus three years of supervised probation. The maximum sentence for Brown's crimes is 35 years.

Advocates were upset by the ruling, the Baltimore Sun reports: "The whole incident is unfortunate and demonstrates the lack of knowledge and understanding, and discrimination against transgender people," said Patrick Wojahn, board president of the Equality Maryland Foundation. "If anything, five years may have been too short of an amount of time for the attack and the amount of hatred that was shown in the incident."

STONED: Stonewall Inn Gay Bashers Plead Guilty to Hate Crime Assault!

Christopher Orlando, 18, and Matthew Francis, 22, two Staten Island men who attacked Benjamin Carver, a DC resident on a visit to New York City, in the bathroom of the Stonewall Inn in October 2010, pleaded guilty to felony hate crime yesterday, DNA Info reports:

Francis (pictured) pleaded guilty to third-degree assault as a hate crime and second-degree attempted robbery. He is expected to be sentenced on Sept. 27. Orlando, who prosecutors believed played a lesser role in the attack, pleaded guilty to third-degree assault as a hate crime and second-degree attempted robbery in exchange for a six-month jail sentence to be handed down Jan. 12. He also faced up to eight years in jail. The case was prosecuted by the Manhattan District Attorney's Hate Crimes Unit.

In the October 2010 attack, Carver was asked if he was gay and then pinned down by Orlando while Francis beat him, saying, Get away from me faggot. I don't like gay people."

HIT: Reese Witherspoon Hit by Car!

Reese Witherspoon suffered minor injuries yesterday afternoon when she was struck by a car as she jogged along a Santa Monica road. The car was traveling 20mph when it struck the 35-year-old actress, who was rushed to a local hospital, police told Radar. She was released later in the day and is resting comfortably at home, according to a spokesman. The driver was an 85-year-old woman who was cited for failure to yield to a pedestrian, reports Entertainment Tonight.

STALKED: Man CAUGHT using Celine's Bathtub!

Daniel Bedard was just about to step into his “nice warmish bath” when police arrived … to charge him with allegedly breaking into Celine Dion’s Canada home, where he was about to take said bath. Bedard, 36, had already eaten some pastry out of the fridge when he was caught Monday. When he saw the cops, he asked, “Hey, guys, what are you doing here?” a police spokesperson tells the AP. 

“So the officers replied: ‘What are you doing here?’ and they proceeded to put him under arrest,” the spokesperson continues, adding that the suspect jumped a fence and used a garage door opener from an unlocked vehicle to get inside the house. Bedard also allegedly wrote on some Post-It notes and left cigarette butts and snack cake wrappers on the floor, the Montreal Gazette adds. He was nabbed after the alarm system went off; neither Dion nor her husband were in the house at the time, as they normally stay in their Florida home.

SERIOUS: Gay Advocates urge Cops to Spot Gay-on-Gay Domestic Violence!

A spike in gay domestic violence slayings has alarmed advocates in Massachusetts, who say the justice system is insensitive to warning signs of gay-on-gay abuse. The state has seen seven such killings since 2010, but attempts to educate police have sputtered, the Boston Globe reports. “It was pretty traumatizing,’’ says one gay advocate of a workshop attended by police—who walked out. 

“As soon as we started in on the content, one officer asked: 'Why are we here? This is just like our diversity training. This is a waste of our time.'" Judges routinely issue restraining orders against both parties in a relationship, unable to spot the abuser—who then becomes empowered, advocates say. Or police fail to identify a troubled relationship as gay, assuming the pair are roommates or friends. At times, even gay abuse victims will hide their sexual identity for fear of being outed. For now, gay advocates are staying friendly with police and planning a vigil for the recent deaths. "If this number of people had died" because of straight violence on gays, says one, "people would be saying this is a crisis."

HOMO-CAUST: Three Men Reportedly Executed in Iran for Gay Sex!

Like the horrific executions in 2005 (image below, more graphic at link), several men have reportedly been hanged in Iran for engaging in gay sex, Iran Human Rights reports: According to the reports from Iran, six people were hanged in the Karoun prison of Ahvaz (southwest of Iran) early Sunday morning September 4th.

The state run Iranian news agency ISNA reported that three of those executed were sentenced to death by the Ahvaz revolution court, convicted of "unlawful" acts and acts against Sharia, based on the articles 108 and 110 of the Iranian Islamic penal code. Articles 108 and 110 of the Iranian Islamic Penal code are part of the chapter covering the punishment of "Hadd" for "sodomy". Article 108 says: "Sodomy (or Lavat) is sexual intercourse between men”, and article 110 says:”Punishment for sodomy is killing; the Sharia judge decides on how to carry out the killing".

The men were identified as: "M. T.", "T. T." and "M. Ch." (age not mentioned for any of them) and besides being convicted of sodomy, had also committed other offenses such as kidnapping and robbery, said the report.