Reports of violence against transgender people are on the rise nationwide, but this attempted crime detailed by the Portland Police today takes the idiot cake.

On Tuesday June 26, 2012, at 9:18 p.m., Portland Police officers assigned to Central Precinct responded to the report of a disturbance at Northwest 2nd Avenue and Burnside Street.

Officers arrived and contacted 50-year-old Reginald Ferdinand McGhee who complained that he was pepper-sprayed by two people. As officers were talking to McGhee, two people walked up to the officers and explained that they were assaulted by McGhee.

McGhee then ran from police and was pursued on foot, eventually caught a few blocks away at Northwest Naito Boulevard and Couch Street.

The victims, both transgender females, told police that McGhee approached them as they tried to pass by him on the sidewalk and began yelling ant-gay slurs and profanity at them, then pulled off his belt and started swinging a large metal buckle at them. 30-year-old Mya Rose Wolf-Black suffered minor injuries on one of her arms while 23-year-old Jacqueline Adams was not injured during the assault.

McGhee was arrested and booked for Assault in the Fourth Degree and Intimidation in the First Degree.

So let's get this straight. If the alleged victims' account is correct, this guy walked up to these two ladies, yelled at them, tried to beat them with his belt buckle and when they fought back, ran to the police to complain about his treatment?

Yikes. Good thing the victims were up for approaching the police themselves, or this might have gone unpunished. The high number of bias crimes committed against LGBT people is why we have groups like the Q Patrol.