Tag Archives: police harassment

Trump surrogate and Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke has posted a second violent threat against the man he had detained at the airport for commenting about his outfit. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports: Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. isn’t backing away from his strong words for a Riverwest resident who filed a harassment complaint against the sheriff. Clarke …

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports: A man who unsuccessfully sued San Diego police over his public nudity arrest at a gay pride festival was found dead Wednesday night at his Hillcrest apartment in an apparent suicide, authorities said. The death of Will X. Walters comes about two weeks after a federal jury delivered the verdict in favor of police. Walters’ …

From the New York Daily News: Criminal charges have been dropped by the feds against six employees of Rentboy.com founder Jeffrey Hurant, it was disclosed Wednesday. The underlings were arrested along with Hurant last year on charges of promoting prostitution. Federal prosecutors alleged that Hurant was operating the web site like an online brothel. Last week Hurant pleaded not guilty …

The New York City Council yesterday voted to override Mayor Bloomberg’s veto of two bills intended to crack down on the abuses of the NYPD. The predominantly Democratic council voted 39 to 10 yesterday to pass the inspector-general measure and 34 to 15 to nullify a second veto of a bill allowing lawsuits when an officer uses racial profiling as …

Earlier this week a federal judge ruled that the NYPD’s infamous stop-and-frisk policy is unconstitutional.  Today the Bloomberg administration filed a notice of appeal of that ruling. Speaking Friday on his weekly radio show, Bloomberg blasted U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin, who earlier this week ruled the tactic was unconstitutional. “What does she know about policing? Absolutely zero,” Bloomberg …

Saying that the NYPD’s infamous stop-and-frisk policy unfairly targets LGBT people of color, a coalition of 34 national and local LGBT groups are demanding that the New York City Council override Mayor Bloomberg’s veto of their bill to restrict the practice. Via press release: Today, national and international LGBT organizations – including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Lambda …

Baton Rouge cops have been conducting stakeouts in a public park and have arrested gay men for agreeing to have consensual sex back in their own homes. The Baton Rouge Advocate details one such recent arrest. An undercover East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s deputy was staking out Manchac Park about 10 a.m. one day this month when a slow-moving sedan …

Mayor Bloomberg today vetoed a bill that would create an office to oversee the NYPD and that would make it easier for citizens to sue the police for abuses. Gothamist reports: The Community Safety Act, which is comprised of two separate laws meant to crack down on the NYPD’s racial profiling, was passed by the City Council with enough votes …

Greece’s new minister of health has reinstated a measure that allows the police to detain and test any person for HIV. Health organisations say the decree stigmatises drug users, sex workers and undocumented migrants in particular. The text also states that any occupants of housing which “may cause danger to public health” should be evicted from their homes, without any …

An update of the 1978 Tom Robinson classic. Watch this.

A broad coalition of LGBT groups and others will gather at Manhattan’s Stonewall Inn today to jointly denounce the NYPD’s racist stop-and-frisk policy. “We are all standing together against police harassment on the basis of a person’s identity,” Rea Carey, the executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said in an interview. “There was no rational reason …

The New York Post has shocking video of an NYPD sergeant verbally abusing a 21 year-old man later arrested for disorderly conduct. Sgt. Charles followed the group into the nearby No. 1 Chinese Food restaurant, flanked by two plainclothes cops. “I have the long dick. You don’t,” the cop bragged. “Your pretty face — I like it very much. My …

By a 5-4 vote, today the Supreme Court ruled that it is constitutional for prisoners to be strip searched for any petty crime. And even when you haven’t committed a crime at all. The court ruled against a New Jersey man who complained that strip searches in two county jails violated his civil rights. Albert Florence was forced to undress …

Indian police raided a gay house party in Mumbai this weekend, arresting 133 attendees for “indecent behavior.” The police said they conducted the raid after they received a phone call around 1am about loud music being played at the Spanish Villa bungalow. A police team then raided the bungalow, which is often used for film shootings, and took the partygoers, …

Equality Matters notes: In Lawrence v. Texas (2003), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Texas’ sodomy statute was unconstitutional, marking a major legal victory on the path towards LGBT equality. With the remainder of state sodomy laws technically invalidated by Lawrence, the LGBT community began to shift its focus. [snip] Eight years later, however, eighteen states still refuse to …

Six Atlanta police officers have been fired for lying about what happened during their infamous 2009 raid on the Eagle nightclub. Other firings may be coming. The actions come almost 10 days after the release of 343-page report detailing how 16 officers lied or destroyed evidence when asked about the raid at the Atlanta Eagle bar. The report said 10 …

Onscreen clip translation by Andres Duque at Blabbeando. He reports: On Sunday, 32 year old Valentina Hernandez (right) and her 23 year old girlfriend were enjoying a romantic walk down the streets of the historic Casco Antigüo colonial district of Panama City when she stopped to give her girlfriend a kiss. Hernandez, a psychologist by profession, reached out to Panamanian …

Last week Jamaican police raided a Montego Bay gay bar, severely attacking its patrons. Rex Wockner reports at Bay Windows: Around 20 officers kicked in doors, shouted anti-gay slurs, beat and pistol-whipped patrons, and made everyone leave, J-FLAG said. As the customers fled, patrons of nearby straight clubs pelted them with bottles and rocks, J-FLAG said. Ten of the raid’s …