Stonewalled – Still Demanding Respect!
AI's Campaign to End Police Brutality Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People in the U.S.
Summary of Key Findings
AI found that nearly four decades after the historic Stonewall riots, and despite significant progress in the recognition of human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, the targeting of LGBT individuals for police abuse and misconduct remains a persistent and widespread problem in the US.
AI’s findings also strongly suggest that transgender people, people of color, young people, sex workers and immigrants within the LGBT community are at a heightened risk of being targeted for police abuse and misconduct.
The report, Stonewalled: Police abuse and misconduct against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the US, launched in September 2005, documents a serious pattern of police abuses, sometimes amounting to torture and ill-treatment. In particular, AI found the following patterns of police abuse across jurisdictions:
- Police Brutality: LGBT individuals are subject to abuses ranging from sexually explicit, abusive language and threats, to beatings and rape, and the use of excessive force during arrest.
- Abuses in police detention: Transgender and gender variant people are subjected to humiliating and unnecessary searches and detained inappropriately in gender segregated cells where they are at risk of assault and sexual violence by other detainees. AI also documented physical and sexual abuses of detainees by police and corrections officers.
- Policing crimes in the community: Police response to crimes against LGBT people is often inadequate and sometimes hostile. Because of this, LGBT people often fear reporting crime. In cases of domestic violence involving same-sex partners, reports to AI indicate that police often fail to respond adequately or respond inappropriately. AI heard reports of officers not taking seriously incidents of domestic violence, threatening to arrest both parties, or relying on racial and gender stereotypes when identifying the abuser.
- Profiling and selective enforcement: AI's findings strongly indicate a pattern of discriminatory enforcement by officials of "zero tolerance" and "quality of life" ordinances and morals regulations, such as "lewd conduct" statutes, against members of LGBT communities. AI also found a strong pattern of transgender women being profiled as sex workers, often leading to arbitrary arrest and detention.
- Lack of accountability/impunity: AI has found that even for serious abuses, officers are seldom held accountable, creating a culture of impunity. Barriers to accountability include hostility or indifference at police stations; retaliation by officers against LGBT individuals who have reported police misconduct; and inadequate or excessively complex complaint procedures.