But He’s A Good Kid

Two lesbians were beaten in Provincetown over the weekend in what police describe as a hate crime. Eric Patten (left), 23, is also charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer.

P-town cops say Patten was drunk early Saturday when he got tossed out of Vixen nightclub and beat up two lesbians, one of whom was shoved through a window. Cops say Patten, a student at a New York college, spewed anti-gay slurs at the women during the incident outside the Post Office cabaret. He was arrested at the scene as an angry mob looked on, infuriated by his rant, police said. No one was home yesterday at his mother’s home, a three-story house that sits on the ocean just steps from the toney Cottage Park Yacht Club. The neighbor, who requested anonymity, said Patten, the son of a well-to-do family, is “the type of kid who would run across the street and help carry in the groceries.” “He’s a very good kid. Very respectful,” the neighbor said.

It sounds like the police got there just in time to save Patten from that “angry mob.” Still, this shows that even in a place like P-town, one of our safest spaces on the planet, there can still be trouble.