30,000 Dollars Is Nice, But…

I rather that it didn’t happen in the first place.

Lawsuit challenging arrest of NYC transgender woman settled
WTEM
The Associated Press and Tom Hays
November 10, 2020


NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Police Department will have to give its force more training on protecting the rights of transgender people as part of a deal announced Tuesday that settles a civil rights lawsuit accusing officers of mocking a transgender woman by putting her in pink handcuffs.

The settlement also requires the city to pay Linda Dominguez $30,000 over allegations that the officers wrongly accused her of misrepresenting her identity while arresting her in the Bronx in 2018, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union.

“I never want anyone to go through the abuse I experienced from people sworn to protect me,” Dominguez said in a statement. “As an advocate for my community, I couldn’t let this go.”

I second that, “I never want anyone to go through the abuse…”

The NYPD sees the steps as a way to “reaffirm the department’s ongoing commitment to improving relations between the police and communities officers serve,” city Law Department spokesman Nick Paolucci said in a written statement.

All the training in the world will not help as long as the police maintain the “Blue Line.”

As a social worker I was a mandatory reporter because in my internship I worked with children and if I saw anything that might be illegal I had to report it or be arrested, the same standard should be applied to law enforcement officers. If they see another officer breaking the law they should be required to report it. End the “Thin Blue Line!”

The officers placed Dominguez in a cell, handcuffed to a bar or pipe using pink handcuffs, and left her in the handcuffs all night, according to her lawsuit. The officers referred to Dominguez by her masculine first name throughout her detention, laughed at her and referred to her as “he” and “him,” she said.

Dominguez was arraigned the next day on charges of trespassing for being in the park after hours, as well as false impersonation. The charges were dismissed a few months later.

Did any officers report the abuse of her?

Did any officers speak-up when this was happening?

In Connecticut the legislature passed the “An Act Concerning Police Accountability Act” which was a first step in the right direction.

5 things to know about CT police accountability law
CT Post
By Peter Yankowski
Oct. 1, 2020


Several key provisions of Connecticut's sweeping police accountability law, signed in the wake of national protests against racial injustice and police brutality over the summer, go into effect Thursday.

Among the new rules that take effect are tighter restrictions on police searches, a duty to intervene if police witness another officer use excessive force and penalties for civilians who call in an incident based on race.

Other changes to policing brought by the law, including adjustments to qualified immunity that protect police from lawsuits over their conduct and further restrictions on the use of deadly force, go into effect next year.

Some of the changes listed in the article…

• Cops can no longer ask to search a car during traffic stops
• Duty to intervene if police witness excessive force
• False reporting based on race – Bumped up from a class-A misdemeanor to a felony
• No security guard licenses for de-certified cops
• Independent review of deadly force

I think the “Duty to intervene if police witness excessive force” should also include any illegal act such as planting “evidence.”