The horrific, cold-blooded murder of 32-year-old Mark Carson in Greenwich Village Friday night has shocked New Yorkers into action. In what is believed to have been a hate crime, Mr. Carson, a homosexual man, was stalked and gunned down for what he was wearing, mere blocks away from the site of the historic Stonewall riots. The suspect, Elliot Morales, allegedly laughed when cornered by the police, boasting, “I shot him in the face.”
An outpouring of sentiment followed as hundreds left vigils at the site of the crime over the weekend. This evening, you can find organizers from GLAAD, along with city officials and New Yorkers–gay and straight–in a solidarity march starting at the LGBT Community Center of New York at 5:30PM and ending with a rally at the murder site, where friends, family, community leaders and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn will read from prepared statements.
However, not everyone wants the mayoral candidate using this tragic incident as a stumping ground, and have organized their own event in solidarity with Mr. Carson.
According to The Village Voice, there will be a seperate vigil outside St. Vincent’s Hospital this evening:
“A lot of people are agreeing that Christine Quinn is trying to politicize today’s march,” said 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.
The Facebook page for the event has been organized by Hands off St. Vincent’s, making the group just as guilty as politicizing one man’s death as they accuse Speaker Quinn of being.
