Rome Gay Village hit by robberies, attacks

(ANSA) - Rome, July 18 - Rome's Gay Village has experienced a series of petty theft, assaults and beatings that may have been part of a series of targeted attacks on the gay community, community representatives said Friday.
    Fabrizio Marrazzo, Gay Center spokesperson, said that recent robberies and aggressions occurring near Rome's Gay Village summer entertainment center were possibly deliberate attacks on the gay community and asked the city to take action.
    "It seems strange that they would beat up a bunch of people who did not resist and were all gay just to steal a cellphone", Marrazzo said referring to one attack.
    "We are facing, in all probability, groups of criminals who target places frequented by gay men. It is necessary that more vigilance is put in place". Gay Center reported two July attacks in which two men were beat up and robbed by three assailants in the EUR neighborhood near Gay Village, saying more may have been unreported as "lesbian and gay people who have not come out avoid filing complaints for fear that their families will be informed, thus making them the ideal victims".