Gay Hate Crime in Denver Ignored

Gay attack swept under the shrug
By Susan Greene, Denver Post Columnist

It was his tight, white jeans, snakeskin shoes and the fairy that Nima Daivari wore on a chain around his neck that prompted a stranger to call him a faggot and attack him.

And it was Daivari's boxing training that led him to pound back at his assailant, headlocking him until police arrived at the scene on the 16th Street Mall.

What happened next is tougher to explain.

A Denver cop not only refused to press charges, but he wouldn't investigate the hate crime or even bother to take the attacker's name.

In the end, the bad guy slipped away, the officer was slapped on the wrist and now Daivari has lost his civil-rights case because the city says Daivari, as a gay man, has no constitutional right to require an arrest.

Something is wrong with this story.

"So basically anyone can walk up, assault a gay man on a crowded street and Denver essentially ignores it. That's messed up, and people there should know it," says Daivari, 26, a recent law school graduate in New York City.

On St. Patrick's Day 2007, he was on his first and only visit to Denver when he, his cousin and her boyfriend were walking home from dinner at a 16th Street eatery.

"What may be the most embarrassing thing is that I have to admit to everyone that I actually ate at the Cheesecake Factory," Daivari quips.

Suddenly, a pedestrian passed by and yelled, "Keep that faggot away from me." "Excuse me?" asked Daivari, who then was punched in the head by the assailant.

Daivari reacted with a few jabs of his own and held his attacker until police broke up the fight.
Officer Richard Boehnlein refused Daivari's repeated demands to press charges, telling him, "No, go home."

Daivari's complaint resulted in a finding that the officer should have at least documented the case and probably arrested his attacker. Boehnlein was reprimanded merely with "a fine of one regular day off."

The city refused Daivari's settlement request that Boehnlein undergo sensitivity training.

Assistant City Attorney John Eckhardt touts Denver's support for gay and lesbian rights, saying, "The training the city provides its police officers is exemplary in these areas."

So exemplary, in fact, that Eckhardt asserted it was "not evident" to police "that Mr. Daivari is a homosexual," even after he told them his story.

"Come on, I look like a raging homo," Daivari says proudly.

"Officers must use discretion in deciding when and where (to take reports)," Eckhardt argued in denying Daivari's claim that police inaction was a result of Daivari's "outwardly homosexual appearance, his failure to conform to male gender stereotypes."

U.S. District Judge Zita Weinshienk dismissed the case Thursday, holding that no rights were violated. Gay men are not a protected class under the Constitution.

Says Daivari's lawyer, Jessica West: "The city of Denver essentially claimed that gays and lesbians in Denver live without any right to police protection. I certainly hope that they are wrong."

So should we all.

Justice has failed Nima Daivari, who vows never to return to Denver.

"I would much rather they arrested the guy who attacked me so there would be a mug shot out there of him with his face f---ed up by a homo," he says. "But the city deprived me that right and seems perfectly comfortable with its cops letting hate criminals beat people up and walk free."