Some of the people who posted that oppose HCL say everything would be fine if the laws we currently have were enforced but they don't give any information on how they expect that to happen. I'd really like to hear HOW they expect laws to be enforced with homophobic policemen? (more) -- Welcome To The Crzy House

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Date Posted: 14:34:59 06/14/03 Sat
Author: Pepper
Subject: Some of the people who posted that oppose HCL say everything would be fine if the laws we currently have were enforced but they don't give any information on how they expect that to happen. I'd really like to hear HOW they expect laws to be enforced with homophobic policemen? (more)
In reply to: John 's message, "Hate Crime Laws" on 10:32:11 06/10/03 Tue

Short of have the federal government getting involved, which would take passage of a federal HCR, please explain how current laws can be enforced espedcially in rural areas with entire homophobic police depts. and in cities where police have a long history of abusing gays?

Because I personally don't see any way of making them do their job.

Please explain your ideas on how this could work without a federal HCL.

Here's just a few examples of how homophobic cops do their jobs. There a many, many more where these come from. If anyone doubts that there are many many more, just say the word if you want me to list more.

On 19 July 2000, Frederick Mason, a 31year-old nurse�s assistant with no criminal record, was arrested following a verbal altercation with his landlord. Mason claims that, at the police station, two unidentified officers took him to an interrogation room, where he was handcuffed by the elbows, and pinned to a wall. The arresting officer is alleged to have pulled down Mason�s pants, and sprayed blue cleaning liquid on a billy club before ramming the baton into Mason�s rectum. As he sodomized Mason, the officer is alleged to have made remarks such as �I�m tired of you faggot...you sick mother fucker�. A second unidentified officer is alleged to have witnessed Mason�s pants being pulled down, but walked away during the assault. Witnesses can attest that Mason entered police custody in good health and when released had blood streaming from his rectum. Mason�s family doctor confirmed that he had been injured in the anal area. Mason contends that he was subjected to abuse -- including racist and anti-gay names such as �faggot ass nigger� and �nigger fag�-- from the moment he was arrested.

On 25 November 2000, Jeffrey Lyons, a 39 year-old Streets and Sanitation driver, was allegedly assaulted by a group of between eight to ten off-duty police officers after they witnessed him embrace a male friend outside a bar. The assault, initiated by one police officer shouting �get that faggot shit away from my truck�, left Lyons with severe injuries including a broken nose, fractured cheekbone and neurological damage. Towards the end of the assault an unidentified officer reportedly taunted Lyons by saying �Get this through your head, you faggots will never win�. After Lyons briefly lost consciousness the officers dispersed and the main perpetrator returned to the bar. According to reports, two of the cars that fled the scene -- later traced to off-duty police officers� vehicles -- attempted to run over Lyons� companion as he took notes of their license plate numbers.

US-based organizations monitoring incidents of violence against gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered (GLBT) individuals report that, in 1998, they received information on 51 documented incidents of anti-GLBT violence by law enforcement officers in the USA (up from 42 in 1997).

Deputies Attack Gay Man With Pepper Spray
by Lois Pearlman

A Guerneville man says a dinner party for business associates turned into a gay bashing and wrongful arrest when sheriff's deputies arrived to follow up a noise complaint.

According to Richard Gilmore, a home loan consultant with a Santa Rosa company and a Guerneville resident, two deputies from the local substation hit him, slammed him against walls and doors and pepper-sprayed him twice, in his home, after he agreed to turn down the music that they said was causing a public disturbance.

"He charged. He couldn't contain himself," said Gilmore's partner Richard Cartiere, referring to one of the deputies, Steve Satterwhite. "We were just stunned. They threw him against the wall, then they started to beat the shit out of him."

Deputies entered the property through the backyard, according to both the police report and the couple, and told the men and their five dinner guests that there had been a complaint made about a woman screaming and shouting.

After the homeowners offered to turn down the music,
Gilmore says he was just stepping into his house to turn off the music when Deputy Satterwhite grabbed without saying anything, pushed him against a wall, and "started beating me (Gilmore) rough."

Satterwhite admits that he and another deputy, Wade Eubanks, roughed up Gilmore and pepper sprayed him, saying he was resisting their attempts to handcuff him. the report says the episode lasted nine to 10 minutes.

But Gilmore and his partner Cartiere question why the deputies did not leave their home after the couple offered to turn down the music. "It was already agreed upon that we would shut the music off," said Gilmore.

Gilmore and Cartiere say they believe Satterwhite decided to "teach them a lesson" when he realized that they were a gay couple.

"We have a big gay flag hanging out in front of our house," said Cartiere.

Lisa Keys, the neighbor who phoned police with the noise complaint that initiated the incident, agrees with the two men.

"I called the sheriff's department because I kept hearing a woman scream. It was two or three doors up off Laurel on the left hand side." (Gilmore and Cartiere live on the right hand side as you come up from River Road.)

"They (the deputies) deliberately went to their house because they saw the gay flag."

After the incident, deputies took Gilmore to the Guerneville fire station to remove the pepper spray, then drove him to Sonoma County Jail where he was booked on a misdemeanor charge of "resisting and delaying a peace officer."
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There are literally hundreds and hundreds of reports like these.

Exactly how is anyone going to make the police stop beating up gays, and start enforcing exisitng laws against those who assault, harrass, vandalize, or murder gay people without HCLs?

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