Hate in Midtown

Roberto Cisneros’ Friday night should have ended differently. It started off special, with a performance at Sacramento Ballet’s annual Beer & Ballet event and, later, drinks with friends at Hamburger Patties in Midtown. After midnight, he and his boyfriend called it an evening and walked to their house a few blocks away. They held hands.

“I’m literally 20 steps away from my apartment,” Cisneros recalled, “when these guys walk up to us and call us faggots.”

The four-year Sacramento Ballet veteran, at only 5 feet 8 inches, admitted he’s “no fighter.” But he got a little buzzed on May 11, and conceded that he can sometimes be “a bitch.” So Cisneros hollered back at the guys.

“Then, without even a word from his mouth, this guy starts punching me.”

The 23-year-old immediately went to the ground. For more than a few minutes, a muscular, Latino guy smacked on his jaw, landing punches and tearing his shirt.

His boyfriend went down, too, and at least two of the assailants’ friends looked on as Cisneros screamed, “You’re unhappy, you’re the problem!” A neighbor yelled out that they’d called the cops, and the men left.

“If I didn’t say anything, this probably wouldn’t have happened,” Cisneros told SN&R at a coffeehouse a week after the attack. He’s recovering; his face is bruise-free and his jaw aches less. And his boyfriend—who is not “out” and preferred to remain anonymous—was not hurt.

They’re mostly stunned. “Absolutely, I’m definitely shocked,” Cisneros said, “but I know this happens.”

But, surprisingly, not that often. “You’d think that there would be more [hate crimes],” explained Sacramento police officer Michele Gigante, “but there aren’t. They are far and few between.”

Hate crimes in Sacramento are trending downward since 2010, when there were 38 reported incidents. Last year, there were 24 reported, but so far in 2012 there have been 13.

Gigante said this outreach is all part of a larger campaign. “I am very passionate about hate crimes,” she said, “and what we are striving to do is build trust so that people report the crimes.”

All hate crimes in Sacramento are automatically investigated by a felony-assault team. “And it doesn’t have to have some kind of glaring proof to be a hate crime,” Gigante explained. “It’s the perception of the person victimized.”