AUGUST 18: The Attack on the New Jersey Four (2006)
On this day in 2006, seven black lesbians were verbally and physically assaulted in New York City. The story of the attack became a media sensation with the women being labeled a “wolf pack” made up of “killer lesbians.” When four of the women refused to plead guilty to attempted murder, they famously became known as the “New Jersey 4”.
Renata, Patreese, Venice, and Terrain – known as the New Jersey 4 – are photographed together by Blair Dorosh-Walther (x).
While walking down Sixth Avenue in the West Village with her friends, Patreese Johnson was catcalled by a man named Dwayne Buckle. To the man’s obscene comments Patreese simple responded, “Mister, I’m gay.” Enraged, he began threatening to rape all the women and, as surveillance video shows, threw the first punch in what would become an all-out brawl between Buckle, the women, and a few male bystanders. The fight lasted four minutes and by the end one woman in the group's hair had been pulled out, another had been held down and choked, and Buckle himself had been stabbed with a kitchen knife. He would later claim to the New York Times that he was “the victim of a hate crime against a straight man.” All seven women were charged with attempted murder despite video footage that proved their attacks to be self-defense.
The trailer for the 2014 documentary, Out in the Night, which revisits the reality versus the myth of the New Jersey 4.
Out of the seven women, three pleaded guilty and four pleaded not guilty. The LGBT community and the straight, white-run national media were both incensed by the trials of the “New Jersey 4” (despite the attack taking place in New York, the women were New Jersey residents); the LGBT community rallied behind the women while news outlets ran articles with headlines like “Violent Lesbian Gangs a Growing Problem.” Ultimately, the New Jersey 4 were convicted and sentenced to 3 to 11 years at Riker’s Island. In 2014, the documentary Out in the Night was released, which chronicles the high-profile court cases and finally tells the story from the women’s perspectives. You can stream Out in the Night here.
-LC
