POLICE ABUSE AND MISCONDUCT AGAINST LESBIAN, GAY,
BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER PEOPLE IN THE U.S.

Cases and Quotes


Rachel Thompson, Email to Amnesty International
Rachel Thompson
© Lisa Cross
“When I came out as a transsexual, I went from a $100,000 a year job to homeless and on welfare in less than two years. After a disagreement over one of my welfare payments, the police arrived at the welfare office, the next thing I knew a cop was breathing down my neck pushing me toward the door while I tried to explain that I had an appointment. One officer got in my face with the most vile insults I could imagine, his buddy stood nearby, night stick in hand ready to strike… The one officer, the leader was so vicious and abusive even his one ally seemed distressed at the mindless aggression and hate he spewed forth. I thought I was going to be killed right in front of welfare. With every push, or stab of his billy club, I thought I would die.”

AI telephone interview with Anonymous
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."

Survivor 25, Email and interview with Amnesty International
Police arrived at the home of a lesbian couple in response to an altercation involving one of the partners and a contractor on their property. When one of the women told an officer that she needed to go and help her “lover” who was sick, the officer reportedly suddenly grabbed her arm forcefully from behind, wrenching her arm “as if it was going to pull out of the socket.” When the woman attempted to break free, she was thrown to the ground and reportedly held in a chokehold. One of the officers allegedly kicked her in the back, and two others hit her on the side of the face so that her head hit the pavement. She told AI that she couldn’t breathe, began to black out and that she went into convulsions.

AI interview with Clients of GLASS Mobile Unit, Los Angeles
A Native American transgender woman reported that two Los Angeles police officers handcuffed her and took her to an alleyway. One officer reportedly hit her across the face, saying "you f---ing whore, you f---ing faggot," then threw her down on the back of the patrol car, ripped off her miniskirt and her underwear and raped her, holding her down and grabbing her hair. The second officer is also alleged to have raped her. According to the woman, they threw her on the ground and said, "That's what you deserve," and left her there.

AI interview with Anonymous
A Filipino transgender man arrested in New York gave the police his ID and papers. An officer reportedly said, “I know what you are. I know your kind. I just want you to know you’re never going to have a family like me, kids like me, a dog like me. And know that whatever you strap on between your legs will never be as real or as big as mine.” The police put him in a cell with female arrestees. Officers walked past him repeatedly, mocking his name and asking, “What is this thing?”

AI interview with Native American transgender woman, Los Angeles
The police are not here to serve; they are here to get served…Every night I'm taken into an alley and given the choice between having sex or going to jail.

AI interview with members of ACT UP, New York City
A gay white man wore a t-shirt that said, “Fight AIDS not Iraq” to an anti-war demonstration in 2003. He passed a police officer standing in front of a fire station. The officer reportedly yelled at him, “If you didn't f**k each other in the ass you wouldn't get AIDS.”

AI interview with Matthew Pulling, STOP, Domestic Violence Program, Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center
A gay Filipino man was reportedly beaten on several occasions by his partner, a white U.S. citizen, who was reportedly addicted to drugs and alcohol. When police responded to one altercation, they reportedly arrested the Filipino man and threatened to report him to immigration authorities, saying: “You're not a citizen. We should deport you, you shouldn’t be hitting Americans; you’re not an American.” The Filipino man was sentenced to 52 weeks of batterer’s intervention in court.

AI interview with Anonymous
Young gay men and advocates in Chicago told AIUSA of a particular officer who, according to one man, will “remove his badge, gun and belt and then beat you unless you give him a blow job, after which he’ll just leave you there.”

Gabriel Martinez of youth group, FIERCE!, as quoted in Gay City News
If there is a group of queer youth of color hanging out in front of the subway station on Christopher Street the police will tell them they are loitering, but if it's a group of white tourists blocking the subway entrance they don't say anything.