O’Shea Sibley was murdered after being stabbed in a Brooklyn Gas station. Sibley was 28 years old and was a professional dancer and choreographer. Reports suggest that the teenager stabbed Sibley to death because he was gay.Â
The Incident
On Saturday, O’Shea Sibley and his friends were at a gas station in Brooklyn, New York City. They were dancing and vogueing to a Beyoncé song when a group of men came up to them and shouted racial slurs and anti-gay slurs. The group of men also told them to stop dancing here and caused a minor dispute between the two groups.Â
O’Shea Sibley’s other friends took this as a cause for concern and feared the escalation of the fight. Before they could act on it or walk away as they appeared to be doing in the footage found from the camera of the gas station, a teenager from the group opposite to them held out a knife and stabbed O’Shea Sibley in the heart. This led to Sibley losing his life over a minor dispute.
The Aftermath
The teenager, who is unnamed due to legal reasons, has been charged with second degree murder and hate crime as he confessed that he stabbed Sibley because he was gay. This kindled a spark of outrage among the LGBTQ+ community. The members of the Manhattan LGBTQ+ community mourned O’Shea Sibley at a bar and decided to Vogue as an act of rebellion and taking a stand for yet another hate crime in their community.
The Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgander Community Center in Manhattan, New York City announced that they will be holding a memorial for O’Shea Sibley and he will be remembered for the fun loving, high spirited and very talented man that he was. Beyoncé also offered her condolences to Sibley’s family on her website.
The teenager who stabbed Sibley is from Brooklyn and is a high school student. The attendant at the gas station, Pena, told the police that only one person stabbed Sibley and the teenager confessed that it was indeed he who had killed O’Shea Sibley. The trial on how much time the teen serves as a consequence for second degree murder and hate crime is still not known. It was confirmed by the investigation officer, Joseph Kenny of the New York Police Department that the only person who will be arrested and penalized is the supposed suspect, who turned out to be the teenager.
Hate Crime
Hate crime is a crime committed by a person for reasons that are in line with his or her beliefs against a particular community or race or any basis of discrimination for that matter. Hate crime became an official crime in the United States of America around the 1970s. The Barack Obama Government in 2009, added the Hate Crimes Prevention Act to the constitution of their country and states that it protects people who are victims of hate crime and that includes hate crime against a certain race or sexual identity or preferences.
Hate crimes are not unheard of in recent years. It solidifies the fear of the direction the society is heading towards. No matter who the crime is against, it must be spoken about and taken a stand for. But the problem is not the people who happen to have differing opinions about things but the way that the opposing person approaches it. A society where everybody agrees with each other is definitely only fiction. But the expression of one’s opinion must not be violence.
