Hate & Violence

It seems like wherever you look we are being attacked and overseas is no exception.

Police & far-right thugs injure 3 at Trans Day of Remembrance event
LGBTQ Nation
By Gwendolyn Smith
November 24, 2018

A Ukrainian Transgender Day of Remembrance observance turned violent last Sunday as far-right radicals attacked the rally, leaving at least three injured. Amongst those hurt was a Canadian journalist, Michael Colborne, who was covering the event.

The event was organized by Insight, a Ukrainian LGBTQ public organization. Roughly 50 people attended.

Though it was originally planned for Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, police forced attendees to move to the university’s metro station after far-right radicals began to move in.

“Radicals started moving towards LGBT people,” Sofiia Lapina told the Kyiv Post. “So the police started to physically shove us into the metro and told everybody that the rally has ended.”

You would think the police would stop the anti-trans protesters instead of breaking up the rally.

We all know that hate crimes are going up here in the U.S. and around the world and many of the crimes go unreported.

Lack of trust in law enforcement hinders reporting of LBGTQ crimes
Violent crimes and other hate incidents targeting LGBTQ Americans consistently are unreported and often not prosecuted
The Center for Public Integrity
By Emma Keith Katie Gagliano News21 Staff
August 24, 2018

SAN FRANCISCO — Violent crimes and other hate incidents against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans are consistently not reported and prosecuted because of chronic distrust between the LGBTQ community and police.
[…]
“There are people that are hurting right now who don't trust the police and also don't feel comfortable coming forward or speaking up,” said Sheryl Evans Davis, executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. “Until we have an increase of people reporting things, then we could be doing (more). We're still not really doing enough for them.”
It takes a lot of courage to call 911, I know because I had to do it three times, twice for auto accidents and once because I feared that a friend was about to take her life.
And when they are reported many police departments do not list them with the FBI.
Experts and such advocates as Seth Brysk, the central Pacific regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, believe many similar crimes are not reported to law enforcement, much less recorded by the FBI or prosecuted. Only 1,776 of the 15,254 police departments participating in the FBI’s crime tracking program reported hate crimes in their jurisdiction in 2016, at a time when other measures indicate a sharp rise in bias-motivated crimes.

“We know that the reporting of hate crimes is vastly underreported,” Brysk said. “So it's important for law enforcement to do everything possible in their power to make it … easy as possible for people to feel comfortable and willing to go and report these crimes. And that they then are faithful to their own position and reporting up the chain.”

I remember one trans person telling me that as they were waiting at a Park and Ride late at night for her son to be dropped off from college a state police officer stopped and questioned her. All well and good but then there was a twist a number of other officers had to stop and take a look at her. One officer pulled out a digital camera and said they had to take a picture of her “for their records.” The trans woman told me “yeah my picture is probably up on the office bulletin board.

It is stories like that which keep us from reporting crimes.

Setchell said she encourages hate crime victims she works with in Houston to report their experiences to the police, but some are reluctant because they haven’t revealed their sexual orientation to family or employers. Others fear being targeted again if they go after their attackers in court.

Then there is the danger that we will be the ones ending up being arrested.

One person told me their story that happened to her down in Florida. She was walking in Miami when a call stopped and four teenagers got out and started beating on her and her friend. When the police arrived she and her friend got arrested for assault and battery, the four teenagers said they were the innocent parties and the two trans people attacked them even though the two trans people were the ones with cuts and bruises.

Brooks turned to a university adviser, who encouraged him to report the incident. When he contacted the Longview police he said the responding officer told him, "Well that doesn't sound like a problem to me. It sounds like those are just some words."

In another case, a trans woman was working construction here in the state when two men came in to the room where she was working, yelled anti-gay words at her and then proceeded to beat her up with 2x4s. When the police officer came he refused to arrest the two who beat her up and she raised her voice at the officer for not arresting them… she got arrested for disturbing the peace. When I saw her, her eye was swollen closed, her face was all black and blue, and she had bruises on her arms and back.

In the TV show Monk the theme song “It's a jungle out there” unfortunately we are the hunted.