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Expressing the LGBTQ community's grief and outrage following the murder of Mark Carson in the West Village on Friday, several LGBTQ groups are co-sponsoring a rally held at the LGBT Community Center tonight. Speaker Christine Quinn jumped on the rally as well--and the Facebook page for the event lists Quinn as the only politician involved.

Still, not all of New York City's queer community feel that Quinn has her heart in a sincere place. That's why they'll be taking their vigil for Carson outside what was St. Vincent's hospital at 5:30 p.m., when activists and mourners will ask whether Carson could have been saved if the hospital hadn't been shuttered.

"A lot of people are agreeing that Christine Quinn is trying to politicize today's march," says Louis Flores, an organizer with Queers Against Quinn and a St. Vincent's activist group. Flores also wonders whether Carson, who was shot through the cheek, would have survived had he been taken two blocks away from the scene of the crime to St. Vincent's, rather than Beth Israel, which is located across town from where Carson was shot and lacks a Level 1 trauma center.

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Stéfan via Compfight cc

On Friday night, Mark Carson was walking with a male friend in the West Village when three men started following them. "Look at these faggots," one said, before taking out a revolver and shooting Carson in the face, according to charges filed Sunday. The 32-year-old was pronounced dead shortly thereafter at Beth Israel Hospital.

A march is being held for Carson at the LGBT Community Center in the West Village tonight, starting at 5:30. But those rallying aren't just protesting Friday night's despicable violence--Carson's death was one of five anti-gay assaults in Manhattan this month.

On May 5, Nick Porto and Kevin Atkins were attacked near Madison Square Garden by four men shouting anti-gay slurs. On May 8, a victim leaving Pieces, a Christopher street gay bar, was attacked by two men. On May 7, yet another person was assaulted by someone spewing anti-gay garbage in Union Square, according to the Anti-Violence Project. Just two days later, two gay men were beaten at 5 a.m. in Midtown. They survived.

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www.videogum.com

Zapping a gay guy with a stun-gun will likely land you in the clink. Screaming hateful slurs while doing it will likely land you in the clink for a long, long time.

Case in point: 23-year-old Joseph Desmond, who is charged with a hate crime for doing exactly that.

According to the Queens District Attorney's Office, at about 8:10 p.m. on September 25, the 23-year-old victim was standing at the intersection of Gates Avenue and Fairview Avenue in Queens.

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www.icanhascheezburger.com

Throwing uncooked bacon all over a field on Staten Island is a reckless waste of bacon. And it also might be a hate crime, authorities say, when the field is the site of a Muslim religious ceremony -- which it was.

Police are investigating pieces of bacon being strewn about John D'Amato Field on New Dorp Lane on Staten Island over the weekend, where about 1,500 Muslims gathered Sunday morning to celebrate the end of Ramadan.

According to the Koran, "He has made unlawful for you that which dies of itself (caracas) and blood and the flesh of swine and that on which the name of any other than Allah has been invoked. But he who is driven by necessity, being neither disobedient nor exceeding the limit, then surely, Allah is Most Forgiving, Merciful."

In other words, Muslims don't dig on swine.

Police are investigating the bacon-ing as a hate crime because of its obvious religious implications -- it seems like a bit of a stretch that a field is littered with bacon the very day Muslims are planning to worship there.

Hate crimes are no joke -- the penalties for a crime increase significantly when the "hate" component" is added. But is throwing bacon in a field really a hate crime?

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Southern Poverty Law Center

When details began emerging about the Oak Creek, Wis. massacre, reports indicated that the suspected shooter, Wade Michael Page, was a white supremacist and had played in a neo-Nazi band called "End Apathy."

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, had been keeping tabs on Page since 2000, when he reportedly tried to purchase products from another well-known hate group called the National Alliance.

Though there had been questionable claims about neo-Nazis in Greenpoint, Sunday's incident made us wonder: Are these kinds of groups -- be they neo-Nazis or anti-Sikh or anti-Muslim, etc. -- in New York?

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The woman who was allegedly raped by Michael Pena, who was an NYPD officer off-duty, in August testified against him yesterday. The 25-year-old teacher explained that Pena asked how to get to the 1 train. After she did so, he still showed her he gun, brought her to an alleyway, forced her to perform oral sex at gunpoint, and raped and sodomized her. Pena's lawyer has said that while his client did assault the woman there was no sexual penetration based on DNA evidence. [NY1, NYT]

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The Daily News wants to know: Are there neo-Nazis in Greenpoint?

The question comes about after a series of pics taken by Brooklyn photog Adam Krause apparently hit the web Monday evening, in which he chronicled five self-professed Polish neo-Nazis. Gawker seems to have broken the story, and did disclose that Klause is "a friend." The news site treated the scoop as true.

The Daily Mail quickly picked up Krause's saga, prompting him and his subjects to become the object of international attention.

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One or more thiefs attacked Congregation Rachel Degel Israel recently -- stealing silver Torah ornaments -- and cops want your help catching them.

The crims hit the Kew Gardens synagogue, located at 144-02 68 Drive, sometime between 5 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 18 and 6 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 25.

The perps pilfered three silver Torah crowns and mini-crowns, three breastplates, four pointers, and one cup. 

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A recent spate of anti-semitic hate crimes has prompted Queens Assemblyman Rory Lancman to propose a law that would toughen penalties on perps who vandalize houses of worship.

The proposed measure would amend the current penal code, so vandalism and thefts that take place on religious property would generally be considered acts of criminal mischief and grand larceny in the third degree.

What this means? Criminal mischief and grand larceny in the third degree count as class-D felonies. So, they would carry prison sentences of up to 7 years.

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via

Swastika found in Midwood.

A week after midtown storefronts were vandalized with swastikas, there are reports of more of the symbols being found in Brooklyn over the weekend in Midwood. DCPI told Runnin' Scared they are is being investigated as "possible bias incidents"

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