Over
at Jezebel, Anna North blogs the story of transgendered woman
Temmie Breslauer who was arrested on January 12 by the NYPD
for the misdemeanor charge of using her father’s discount subway
fare card. Soon after, Breslauer alleges that “The arresting
officers — the suit names one, Officer Shah — laughed at her” and
asked about the status of her genitals. Then, says Breslauer’s
complaint (which
Gothamist has in full):

“[S]he was fingerprinted, seated on a bench, then painfully
chained to a fence wherein, for no apparent reason, her arm was
lifted over her head and attached to the fence to make it appear
that she was raising her hand in the classroom. She sat
there in that position for 28 hours.

Adds North:

She also says officers not only refused to call her “she,” they
instead referred to her as “He-She”, “Faggot,” and “Lady GaGa,” and
asked her “So you like to suck dick? Or what?” Meanwhile, people
arrested for the same minor crime (misdemeanor “theft of services”)
she was were calmly processed and allowed to leave. Finally, she
was able to go before a judge, who gave her two days of community
service. She says the whole ordeal aggravated her existing PTSD and
left her sleepless and suicidal.

Breslauer’s suit names the City of New York, Officer Shah, and
several other officers as defendants. It accuses them of assault,
battery, false imprisonment, and violation of Breslauer’s civil
rights, and asks for compensatory and punitive damages. 

A transgendered man who was arrested at that massive Occupy Wall
Street Brooklyn Bridge protest last fall alleges similar harassment
and painful handcuffing by the NYPD. And it’s not just
transgendered individuals; after Pittsburgh G-20 in 2009, several
women who were arrested said they were leered at and harassed by
police, with calls from one officer to separate the women and

“get the hot ones out” and several accusations of excessive
pat-downs. Another woman at G-20 said she heard an officer threaten
to put a male arrestee in with “Bruno” who would make the man “his
girlfriend.” (Prison rape is not just for horribly unfunny comedies
and police officers who were apparently auditioning for said
comedies, it’s also for 90,000-plus
actual prisoners a year.)

This isn’t just about women or transgendered people; it’s not a
demand for politically correct accommodations (though cops should
recognize prisoners who might be in more danger and decline to toss
them in with the general population). This is about excessive
punishment for minor crimes and it’s about (sadly relatively) small
petty, nasty abuses of people who are in a vulnerable position.
Anybody in handcuffs in police custody is in a vulnerable
position. They might be innocent, or guilty. They might be afraid
(I know I would be). They might know that regardless of cops’
freedom to indulge their dislike of transgendered people, or their
misogynistic tendencies, or their racism, or maybe just general
misanthropy, people
die in police custody for all sorts of reasons. Or, famously in
the case of Abner Louima (NYPD sighting!), they might just get
beaten and then raped. 

This isn’t some Law and Order: SVU-type interrogation
of a suspected child killer or serial rapist. There was no gain for
the officers perpetuating this treatment except a bored, twisted
power trip; a desire to make their prisoner uncomfortable and
afraid. There’s no way to spin that except deny that it happened at
all. But as North pointed out, other transgendered individuals say
it has happened to them as well.

Mike Riggs blogged a horror story a few months ago on what
happened to a transgendered woman
while she was being held in an immigrant detainment center awaiting
deportation back to Mexico.

Reason on prisons, police, and criminal
justice