EXTENSIVE POLICE ABUSE OF GAYS IN U.S. -- A New Report from Amnesty Int'l

Amnesty International today issued a first-of-its kind report on police abuse and brutality directed against gay people in America. Entitled Stonewalled: Police abuse and misconduct against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the US, the Amnesty report is based on a survey of the 50 largest police deparments in the country, and hundreds of interviews and testimonies.

Amnesty found that "there is a heightened pattern of misconduct and abuse of transgender individuals and all LGBT people of color, young people, immigrants, the homeless and sex workers by police. At times, the mere perception that someone is gay or lesbian provokes physical or verbal attacks."

The police misconduct documented by Amnesty in this report includes: targeted and discriminatory enforcement of statutes against LGBT people, including so-called  “quality of life” and morals regulations; profiling, particularly of transgender women as sex workers; verbal abuse; inappropriate pat-down and strip searches; failure to protect LGBT people in holding cells; inappropriate response or failure to respond to hate crimes or domestic abuse calls; sexual harassment and abuse, including rape; and physical abuse that at times amounts to torture and ill-treatment.

There are many horrific tales documented in this lengthy report. Here are just a few of them:

• Young gay men and advocates in Chicago told Amnesty of a police officer who, according to one man, will “remove his badge, gun and belt and then beat you unless you give him a blowjob, after which he’ll just leave you there.”
• Police officers accused a Latina transgender woman in San Antonio of stealing. One officer reportedly said, “People like you make the world a bad place.” Three police officers and two detectives allegedly surrounded her while one officer searched her, exposing her pubic hair, buttocks and one of her breasts. She said, “I didn’t ask to be searched by a female officer. I’ve tried that before – they don’t care, to them we’re all men.” She was not charged with any crime. Officers refused to give her their badge numbers. She said, “I know to be respectful to police officers but I’m tired of the way they are treating us.”
• Police officers allegedly beat, hog-tied and dragged Kelly McAllister, a white transgender woman, across hot pavement upon her arrest in Sacramento, CA. She was placed in a Sacramento County Main Jail cell with a male inmate who struck, choked, bit and raped her. That inmate received a mere three-month sentence. No officer has been disciplined for the incidents surrounding Kelly’s incarceration.
• Two lesbians of color reported that two men in Brooklyn, NY, followed, harassed and threatened them, saying, “I’m going to kill you, bitch. You’re not a man….I’m gonna put you in your place.” The verbal abuse escalated to physical abuse; the two women called 911. When police were told this was a homophobic crime, the officers reportedly left without further investigating the incident or taking a complaint, telling the ambulance attendants responding to the women's call to leave. One woman reportedly was bleeding from the head due to a blow from one of the men. Her companion stated, “It was ridiculous. There she was running down the street bleeding and chasing after the ambulance”

You can read more of the same in the entire Amnesty report by clicking here.