“And I’m gratified to announce that in response to this rash of anti-LGBT hate crimes on the West Side of Manhattan, between now and throughout the entire month of June — LGBT Pride Month — there will be increased police presence throughout the entire lower west side of Manhattan,” Quinn said.

She said there will be additional temporary headquarters vehicles located in Greenwich Village, Chelsea, and Hell’s Kitchen.

“This violence must stop, this hate must stop and it must stop now,” City Councilman Robert Jackson added.

City To Boost Police Presence In Response To String Of Anti-Gay Attacks

“Hate crime is not acceptable,” added activist Cynthia Thompkins. “You can change the name LGBT – remove that. Put Jew, put black, put Asian. Hate is hate, and it doesn’t belong here in our society.”

The Shooting That Took Carson’s Life

The chain of events that led to Carson’s death had all of Greenwich Village on edge in the early morning hours Saturday. First, the suspect was spotted urinating on the street outside Annisa restaurant and bar, on Barrow Street just off West 4th Street.

The man proceeded into the bar, where he made anti-gay remarks to the bartender, Kelly said Saturday.

“He then says to both the bartender and the manager that if you do call the police, I’ll shoot you, and he opens up what is a gray hoodie, and shows what appears to be a shoulder holster carrying this revolver,” Kelly said.

Then a few blocks away at West 8th Street and Sixth Avenue, the gunman and two others came across Carson and his companion.

The gunman said, ‘Look at these f***ots. What are you, gay wrestlers?’” Kelly said Saturday. The gunman then shot Carson in the face, and he was pronounced dead at Beth Israel Hospital.

Elliot Morales, 33, has been charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime and criminal possession of a weapon in that incident.

Morales was arrested a short time after the shooting — a few blocks away from the scene at West 3rd and MacDougal streets near the NYU campus, police said. He initially refused to give his name to police, but was eventually identified using facial recognition technology.

Meanwhile, Carson was being mourned by many. Ama Daka works at Grand Central Terminal, where Carson was a manager at a gelato store.

“It’s not right to kill somebody because he’s gay. It’s not right,” she said. “He was like my brother. I feel bad.”

David Sheridan said Carson had worked in the gelato shop for seven years.

“Mark was a great guy. Everybody – customers, people in the building – are just really upset at our loss,” he said.

5 Anti-Gay Attacks In 2 Weeks

As activists have noted, Carson’s murder comes on the heels of a series of bias attacks on gay men – although this is the first that left a man dead.

Two of those attacks occurred in Midtown. Another took place in Union Square, and another happened on Christopher Street — not far from the Saturday morning incident.

In the first incident on May 5, Nick Porto and his partner, Kevin Atkins, were beaten near Madison Square Garden after a group of men wearing Knicks shirts called them anti-gay slurs. Porto spoke at the rally Monday.

On May 7, a man was assaulted by someone hurling anti-gay slurs in Union Square, according to the Anti-Violence Project.

On May 8, a man was attacked by two people shouting anti-gay slurs as he left Pieces, a gay bar on Christopher Street, according to the Anti-Violence Project.

And early on May 10, two men tried to get into an after-hours billiards hall on West 32nd Street but were not let in, police said. They were then approached by a group of approximately five others who proceeded to shout anti-gay slurs and beat the men, police said.

“The fight is not over, it’s nowhere near close to being over. We have to protect each other, we have to make sure that we’re there for each other. After all this, there’s still something to fight for,” Nick Porto told Silverman at the rally Monday evening.

Kelly said Sunday that the number of bias attacks is up this year – and the number of anti-gay bias attacks in particular.

Police say there has been a rise in bias-related crimes overall so far this year, to 22 from 13 during the same period last year. The New York City Anti-Violence Project, a nonprofit group that tracks police and other reports of hate attacks against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, says its numbers rose 13 percent in 2011 and 11 percent the previous year. The 2012 figures were not yet available.

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