Black Cis Peeps, Stop Using The Cops As a Weapon Against Trans People

Black America was justifiably outraged over the increasing number of incidents in which Black people have had the cops called by white people for simply doing mundane things.

But y'all have been criticket chirping silent about the times you skinfolks have called the cops on Black trans people for simply living our lives or going to the damned bathroom. 

Think I'm selling woof tickets about that?   Here's the receipts.

Back in November 2010 a Black cis female security guard called the cops on Tyjanae Moore, who was simply going to answer nature's call and use the restroom.    She ended up spending a few days in the Houston city jail for the 'crime' of using the bathroom that matched her gender presentation. 

The same thing happened in Charlotte a few years later to Andraya Williams, when another Black female security guard called the campus cops who detained and escorted her off the Central Piedmont Community College Campus..

 

This crap needs to stop.   Trans people need to go to the bathroom for the same reason many of you do, to poop and pee.    Now if you're a Republican, you have repeatedly caught trying to make love connections in them.

But back to the post.

Skinfolk, if you don't like the cops being called on you for simply living your lives, you need to extend the same courtesy to your Black trans skinfolk.    Unjustly calling the cops on us is just as dangerous or even more to a Black trans body as it is you Black cis one, especially in an era in which trans folks are being attacked by the conservative movement.

It's past time for you to stop calling to cops on trans people for any reason other than the commission of a crime or just because you're mad that the trans woman is performing femininity better than you are and want to be shady about it. .

Po-po's, Stop Killing Black People

One of the things I'm beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of is turning on the TV to hear of another instance where an unarmed Black person is shot and killed by trigger happy predominately white police officers.

It needs to stop, and we know y''all have the training and capacity to do it, especially when it comes to white criminals.  Y'all took Dylann Roof alive and then fed him on the way to booking him for killing nine Black people at Mother Emanuel church, so why can't they exhibit the same respect for white lives when it comes to unarmed Black citizen just trying to get through their day alive after encountering you?

If you are afraid of Black people, and yeah anti-Blackness and irrational hatred of Black people is a major component of why this is happening..then you don't need to be wearing a police uniform.

Thank you Sheryl Underwood and Aisha Tyler for expressing on The Talk the frustration of  Black Americans over the ongoing slaughter by cop of our people.

And yeah, a cop that shoots an unarmed civilian that is no resisting and doing everything possible to communicate to you they are not a threat to you is a bad cop.



Po-po's stop killing Black people.  Good cops, call out the bad ones, and police departments need to do more to weed out the bad ones and also communicate to their offices that they need to treat Black lives with the same level of reverent restraint they treat white ones or face termination and permanent blocking of your ability to work as a peace officer anywhere in this country...

It's either do that or watch the frustration that Black people have with death by cop boil over into the language of the unheard while singing a certain NWA rap song..

Stop Killing Black People

"If that were happening to your community and it was your kids being depressingly killed every year by police that don't look like them or even live in their neighborhoods, would you be sitting silently on your hands about that injustice?"  
TransGriot, August 14, 2014
We have had in the last week three Black men killed by police officers in Baton Rouge, LA (Alton Sterling), a St Paul, MN suburb (Philando Castile) and in my hometown Saturday (Alva Braziel) mere hours after a Black Lives Matter rally that sought to bring down tensions between HPD and our citizens.

It's not like Death by Cop isn't a new problem for our community or the community's internal response to it.  One of the things I was told in 1978 after I'd passed my written test for my drivers permit by my parents was "Congratulations!  Now this is what you don't do in a traffic stop."

And two years later I violated one of those rules in a Highland Park, TX traffic stop because I was pissed off about being jacked with by the Highland Park PD for the crime of looking at Christmas lights while Black with my cousins.

Three years later I was dealing with the same crap again outside a then popular SW Houston nightclub called the Tyler Rose because my then homeboy's tail light on his car picked that moment to go out with two white male HPD cops in the mood to mess with some Black people.on our bumper at the Fondren and West Bellfort traffic light.

And once again I got snarky when I and my friends got asked why we all had South Park addresses on our drivers licenses when he and his partner saw us pulling out of the Tyler Rose parking lot.

My response to the question?  "Since when did it become a crime for people who live in South Park to be in Southwest Houston?"

I was fortunate that neither episode resulted in me or my friends dying because of my big injustice hating mouth, but that was the 80's.   Now it seems as though in the 2K16 white cops have a problem with Black people be they male or female no matter their age.   They are 'in fear of their life' so much when they encounter us they are straight up killing us and to our disgust not getting punished for it.

Black women not only have to be concerned during their interactions with police about getting shot to death or brutalized, they also have to be worried about being sexually assaulted or violently body cavity searched.

That crap needs to stop.  Today.

We are tired of having our humanity dismissed, ignored and being killed for BS reasons by police officers that are supposed to protect and serve our communities, and not getting punished for it. That's a major reason why you're seeing peaceful (for now) protests all across the country.

But if things don 't change for the better soon in terms of the longtime historically negative relationship between Black people and white police officers, then all bets may be off about those protests staying that way.

Congrats HPD Chief Montalvo!

Some H-town history was made today when Martha Montalvo was named bu Mayor Sylvester Turner as the interim HPD chief in the wake of the sudden retirement that takes effect February 26 of former HPD chief Charles McClellan.

She was born in Ecuador, immigrated her with her family in the 60's, and grew up in Houston's predominately Latinx East End.   After earning a bachelors of science from UHD and a masters from Sam Houston State, she started as a HPD beat cop in May 1980 and rose through the ranks as a sergeant, lieutenant, captain, and assistant chief of police in her now 35 year career.

She was serving on former Chief McClellan's command staff, supervising five departments, 60 civilians and 128 officers before her elevation to interim chief.  

Chief Montalvo becomes the first Latina to be named to the top job in the Houston Police Department and the second female (first was Elizabeth Watson 1990-1992) to hold the position.

'I'm very invested in ensuring that as long as I'm interim, that we continue to ensure that the officers continue their exemplary professionalism, and that we continue to be transparent and accountable to the community we serve," said Chief Montalvo.

She will serve as the interim chief until a permanent one is found to fill the job.  Hey, why not her?

We'll see how that plays out.   Congratulations Chief Montalvo on making Houston and HPD history.  

Ashton's Open Letter To HPD Police Chief McClelland

About the same time I was unleashing my post blasting Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman (R) for his problematic comments in the wake of the Deputy Darren Goforth murder, HPD chief Charles McClelland was making some problematic comments of his own that Ashton Woods called him out about at his Strength In Numbers blog.

Here's a taste of what Ashton had to say in his open letter to Chief McClelland.

t is sad that many people who look like us share the same same sentiments, until it happens to them. The reason why the phrase "all lives matter" is such a triggering flash point is that it is born out of racism. WE say BLACK LIVES MATTER because we live in a legal system designed for, around and to benefit WHITE PEOPLE. The critical infrastructure that supports all levels of government is inherently RACIST.  You, of all people should know this, but I cannot assume that this is part of your thought process. We will say all lives matter when the systems of institutional and systemic racism, classism, and economic discrimination comes to a full and complete halt. 

If you wish to read the full letter, click the link here.

Sheriff Hickman, Stop Blaming Black Lives Matter For A Problem White Dominated Police Forces Created

As many of you TransGriot readers are aware of, we had a Harris County sheriff's deputy named Darren Goforth murdered as he pumped gas in his police cruiser Friday night.   Shannon Miles, the suspect in the killing was captured Saturday, charged with capital murder, and arraigned in court this morning

But what has pissed me and many folks in H-town off was our appointed Republican sheriff Ron Hickman using his Saturday press conference about the Goforth killing to attack Black Lives Matter.

The motive for the killing has not even been established by detectives investigating the murder of Deputy Goforth, but Hickman was quick to blame the Black Lives Matter movement and suggest Shannon Miles did so in retaliation for unpunished death by po-po killings of African-Americans around the country..

Hickman claimed the "dangerous rhetoric" against law enforcement has "gotten out of control," and went another step too far . "Cops' lives matter, too," Hickman said, "So why don't we drop the qualifier and say lives matter."

Because as far as you and your fellow white conservatives are concerned Sheriff Hickman, white lives are the only ones that matter, which is what you demonstrated when you selected an all male predominately white command staff mere weeks into taking over for former Sheriff Adrian Garcia.(D).  

It's why we Black folks have to remind your asses constantly about our humanity.  It wouldn't be necessary to quantify that Black Lives Matter if your fellow police officers around the country didn't show so much contempt for those Black citizen lives of all ages and genders they are supposed to protect and serve.

Sheriff Hickman, since you`re decrying inflammatory rhetoric, how about you start in your own vanillacentric law enforcement house?   How about you calling on your brothers in blue to chill with the racist rhetoric they spew every time they mount over the top defenses of those predominately white `bad apple` police officers that get away with killing civilians that far too often share my ethnic heritage?

And how about taking the step of ending the practice of being Officer Friendly in white areas of town but Officer Oppressor in mine and other non-white neighborhoods?   Black Lives Matter is not anti-police as far too many white GOP voting law enforcement people and FOX Noise has tried to paint them.   They are anti police abuse and want accountability and transparency in police policies, practices and punishment for rogue officers.

That's a problem that has existed well before the formation of Black Lives Matter.  This negativity between Black people and the police didn't just pop up since Ferguson, it has historic roots that predate it, and you need to get out of your vanillacentric privileged bubble along with DA Devon Anderson and recognize that.

So Sheriff Hickman,  how about you recognize the fact that Black Lives Matter didn't create the problem that white dominated police forces have created.for over a century and demonstrating the leadership you so far haven't done so to help solve it? 

Trans MPD Officer Named As Head Of DC GLLU

The last time the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department had a trans feminine officer in their ranks was the late Bonnie Davenport O'Neal who served from the late 70's until her retirement in 1999.

During a TDOR event in DC last November in which  Metro Police Chief Cathy Lanier spoke, the DC trans community was surprised to learn they now for the first time since Bonnie Davenport O'Neal retired, have a trans officer on the force in Sgt. Jessica Hawkins.

Her coming out to her colleagues had occurred before she introduced Chief Lanier at that Transgender Day Of Remembrance event in front of the 250 people in attendance.  After hearing from Chief Lanier the news of Hawkins' coming out as trans, gave her a standing ovation.

As of March 3, Sgt. Hawkins makes history again as the first trans person to lead the DC Metropolitan Police Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit.  

That groundbreaking GLLU news was welcomed by local TBLG groups and longtime DC activist Earline Budd, who said in a Washington Blade interview, "I'm going to work with her to do whatever I can to help her get acclimated to the community, especially the trans community of color."

Congratulations to Sgt. Hawkins, and hope she does a wonderful job as she assumes this historic leadership position in the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department.

I’m very pleased to hear and, yes, ecstatic that the city has moved forward with putting a transgender person in such a position, which is needed within the police department,” said Budd. “But at the end of the day I just really need to know that Sgt. Hawkins understands what she’s taking on in terms of that position based on those like Sgt. Mahl and Sgt. Brett Parson who have held that position and understood that they really have to get to know the community and did get to know the community.” - See more at: http://www.washingtonblade.com/2015/03/10/trans-woman-named-head-d-c-gay-police-unit/#sthash.dAZGR063.dpuf

Upcoming Know Your Rights With The Police Event

I missed the first one, but definitely plan to be in the house for the second in a planned series of trainings organized by Ashton Woods that are in the current climate of mistrust between the police and the community vitally needed.

For many of us, the idea of getting stopped by the police can be intimidating. One reason is that many of us do not know our rights and how to properly respond to police. This Know Your Rights training series is intended to teach you how to respond to police, and know your rights during your interactions with police.

The trainings are being taught by attorney and former Houston city councilmember Jolanda Jones and this next event will take place on Saturday, January 24 from 12:30-2:00 PM.

Location of the training will be at Resurrection MCC's The Gathering Place.   Resurrection's address is 2025 W. 11th St.  Hope to see you there.

Race Wasn't Involved In NYPD Garner Killing? Yeah, Right

As my brother Dr. Kortney Ziegler pointed out, in a life imitates art moment, 43 year old Eric Garner's cause of death last Friday, like Radio Raheem in the Spike Lee movie Do The Right Thing, was death by po-po.

Spike Lee thought so as well.   He recently mixed the video of Garner's fatal encounter with the NYPD with the Radio Raheem fictional one from the film.

The father of six was killed by an illegal choke hold after being agitated about being harassed by NYPD police.

Eric Garner's funeral was yesterday, but the firestorm surrounding this latest episode of NYPD behaving badly when it comes to non-white denizens of New York  is just getting cranked up.  

You add to it the ridiculous statement by NYPD Police Commissioner William Bratton. who is in his second stint of leading NYPD (1994-1996 was the previous one), that "race didn't have anything to do with the tragic death of Garner."

Seriously?  You may wish to rethink that based on the racist online comments of NYPD officers let loose in the wake of last Friday's murder by po-po of Garner and the negative spotlight once more being shined on the New York Police Department.

When now thirteen people of color have been killed in various ways over the years by NYPD officers, other non-white New Yorkers complain of harassment and less than respectful treatment, and the reaction you have to it is deny you have a race problem, not good.

It damned sure was about race.  It's about the vanillascented privileged mentality that too many white police officers have when they come into our neighborhoods from their gated suburbs and treat us as less than human.  

If you're a bigot with a badge and gun, that is destined to cause a problem sooner or later.       

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the comment of Eric Garner 'bringing it  it upon himself'   In what FOX Noise addled conservaworld did you come up with that specious crap? 

How does breaking up a fight justify death by po-po?

All y'all had to do was let Garner off with a warning and let him go on his merry way. home   But y'all couldn't resist the temptation to go into Officer Oppressor mode, and one of you went too far with the fatal choke hold which BTW, is illegal under NYPD policy..

Meanwhile we people of color keep finding ourselves in the situation of having to bury our loved ones after negative and deadly interactions with predominately white cops fir trivial crap..   

And we're sick and tired of it.

Bonnie N. Davenport DC's First Trans Cop

This post is probably going to come as a surprise to some people who have seen the long history of transphobic shenanigans emanating from DC Metro Police officers, but once upon a time the DC Metro Police Department had on its force a trans police officer by the name of Bonnie Nora Davenport.

She was born in Buffalo, NY. in 1943, was an Air Force veteran and studied at American University and George Washington University ,  

Bonnie was an eight year veteran of the DC police force when she made the trip to Trinidad, CO and had her SRS performed by Dr. Stanley Biber.   In 1979 she became the first and so far only trans cop on the Metro DC force when she was certified to return to duty.

Bonnie eventually served for 20 years on the DC Metro Police until she retired in 1991.  She got married to Earl O'Neal who preceded her in death..

This trailblazing police officer passed away at her home in Fredonia, NY on the morning of November 17, 2009.  

Hopefully there will be another transperson who joins the DC Metro Police force and carries on her legacy because frankly, they could use some trans police officers now on their force.

NYPD Stop And Frisk Policy Ruled Unconstitutional By Federal Judge

US District Court Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ruled yesterday in Floyd v. City of New York that NYPD’s controversial stop and frisk tactics were an unconstitutional violation of the rights of people of color in New York City.  

Judge Scheindlin went on to find that top New York police officials have ignored the practice and treated racial profiling as “a myth created by the media,” ordered the NYPD discontinue it, and called for a federal monitor to supervise related reforms.

Duh!  We could have told you without a law degree that Stop and Frisk was unconstitutional.   Trans and gender variant New Yorkers can tell you along with other non-white New Yorkers racial profiling is most definitely isn't a myth especially since it happens to them far too often. 

85 percent of those stopped and frisked are Black or Latino. Among all people stopped and frisked, only 1 out of 10 of the stops results in an arrest or summons.

While Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NYPD Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly predictably hated on the ruling, New York's non-white population, the TBLG community (that is disproportionately targeted by and resent the tactics) and human rights advocacy groups hailed it.

Judge Scheindlin's (appointed by President Clinton in 1994) ruling in the Floyd case comes on the heels of the New York City Council passing and Mayor Michael Bloomberg vetoing the Community Safety Act, bills that would prohibit profiling based on race, sexual orientation, gender identity and other identities, and would have establish an Inspector General to oversee the NYPD’s practices.

As I've said more than a few times on this blog, Black trans community issues are also Black community issues and vice versa.  

The odious NYPD Stop And Frisk policy is one of those issues in which the interests of the Black community as a whole and Black and Latin@ trans people are symbiotically aligned in wanting a deleterious policy ended as quickly as possible because it also affects our trans sector of it.

Under Stop and Frisk, Latina and Black trans women were selected by NYPD for search under the  suspicion they were sex workers and harassed in many cases.  If officers found more than one condom during the search, they were arrested for solicitation.

The city of New York says it will appeal the ruling, but they would be wise to just cut their losses and come up with a common sense based policing strategy that doesn't involve jacking up and searching non-white New Yorkers just to make white New Yorkers feel safe.

Black Trans History-Philecia Barnes

Black transpeople aren't strangers in having to fight tooth and nail for our human rights.   We know from our history as African descendants in America we've had to rely on the courts at times to secure those human rights.   Some cases we've trans African-Americans have engaged in we've won, some we've lost.  But they have done their part to keep the momentum of trans human rights moving forward.

Here's another one of those cases from our history book, and this one takes place in Cincinnati, OH.   Philecia Barnes was a Cincinnati police officer for over two decades before beginning her gender transition and taking the sergeant's exam and passing it on July 13, 1998.    She placed 18th out of 105 candidates who took that examination.

You would think that having placed inside the Top 20 of people who took the exam she'd have a great chance at the promotion combined with her two decades of experience as a patrol officer.   But it was well known in the CPD that Barnes was transitioning and had notified CPD of her intention to do so well before taking that exam.   She was then subjected to a stressful three-month probationary period as a sergeant, during which time she was monitored on a daily basis, forced to wear a mike, and rated on a six-page form designed specifically for her. At the end, she failed because of what was termed a lack of 'command presence' and was demoted in June 1999 on the orders of then Cincinnati Police Chief Thomas Streicher.   

But Barnes also had warning signs that something shady was going on.   Col. Twitty told Barnes she did not appear to be “masculine,” and that she needed to stop wearing makeup and act more masculine prior to Barnes's promotion.  Col. Twitty stated the objective of such statements was to correct Barnes's “grooming deficiencies.”  Col. Twitty also claimed that the decision to fail Barnes from probation had nothing to do with Barnes's transsexual characteristics.  

However, Sergeant Ford warned Barnes that he heard rumors that Barnes was going to fail probation because Barnes had not been acting masculine enough.   It was also interesting to note that Barnes was the only officer to fail probation during the seven years from 1993 to 2000, according to court papers or be placed in a training program similar to what Barnes endured.   

So what happens when you feel you've been treated unjustly?   You sue, which Barnes did in October 2000.
     
At the heart of the Barnes case was the question of whether this country's main federal law against workplace discrimination, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, protects transgender workers (and tangentially, gay workers) against sex discrimination.  Neither "transgender" nor "sexual orientation" appears in the text of Title VII, which bars job bias because of religion, race, sex and other factors.

But in 1989, the Supreme Court in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins ruled that an employer who punishes a worker because he or she does not match gender stereotypes is guilty of sex discrimination under Title VII.   This case was being cited by more courts deferring to the Hopkins precedent in favor of gay and transgender plaintiffs.  It was cited in the 2012 Mia Macy v Holder EEOC case that ruled transgender discrimination is sex discrimination.

Barnes challenged her demotion from sergeant under Title VII and the Equal Protection Clause in a case she filed with the US District Court for Southern District of Ohio in addition to taking legal aim at the odious Article XII of the Cincinnati City Charter.  

Article XII was passed by voters in 1993 as a homobigoted reaction to the city’s human rights ordinance including sexual orientation as a protected class against discrimination in 1992.   Barnes and her attorney Al Gerhartstein asserted that Article XII was a factor in this case because its existence encouraged supervisors to discriminate against his client and others based on sexual orientation.

Barnes also told the judge during the district court trial that as long as Article XII existed, she and others would continue to face discrimination.

The City of Cincinnati filed a motion to dismiss and a motion for summary judgment, which were both denied by the district court.   The City argued that a legitimate reason, poor performance, justified the demotion in this case.   The claims were submitted to a district court jury, which returned a verdict in Barnes's favor.   The jury on February 23, 2003 awarded Barnes $150,000 in compensatory damages, $140,000 in front pay and $30,511 in back pay.   The City moved for judgment as a matter of law, which was also rejected by the district court.  The district court then awarded Barnes $527,888 in attorneys fees and $25,837 in costs on February 27, 2004.  

The city of Cincinnati promptly appealed the adverse district court rulings to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.  It has the reputation of being the most conservative leaning federal judicial circuit in the nation, but Barnes' case was upheld on March 22, 2005.    The Sixth Circuit agreed that Barnes had a legitimate claim of sex discrimination under Title VII. It was the second such ruling out of the Sixth Circuit, where a transgender fire fighter won the right to sue under Title VII in the July 2004 Smith v. City of Salem case.

The City of Cincinnati then appealed the Barnes case to the US Supreme Court, but on November 7, 2005  they declined to review it, which meant the ruling in Barnes favor at the Sixth Circuit level stands.   

In March 2006, the City of Cincinnati repealed the discriminatory Article XII, then passed on an 8-1 vote an anti-discrimination ordinace that added sexual orientation and gender identity to it.

So you can thank Sgt Barnes on two levels.   You can thank her for standing up for her rights and as a result of her win establishing another trans employment friendly legal precedent that happened in a conservative federal circuit.   You can also thank her for striking the legal blow that took down Cincinnati's discriminatory Article XII.

Police Women Of Dallas Is Back!

Normally I run far away from any reality TV show, but one which caught my attention and became a much anticipated guilty TV pleasure for me was Police Women of Dallas.  It was on TLC back in 2010, but now has moved to the Oprah Winfrey Network.

I fell in love with Sgt Tracy Jones on the original show to the point I follow her Twitter feed. 

Well, she's back in the 2013 edition, but there are three new officers they are following in this edition which premiered on January 25. 

The new DPD officers whose exploits they are chronicling in addition to Sgt Jones are Senior Corporal Cheryl Matthews, Detective Angela Nordyke, and Officer Yvette Gonzales.

The series follows the officers as they do their jobs fighting crime in Dallas and also gives you a peek at them balancing it with their personal lives.  

The peek at Officer Gonzales' life was very interesting, especially when I watched the episode in which they introduced us to her partner of eight years who she had just proposed to.  .

They are engaged, but haven't set a date yet.

It's now moved to Friday nights on OWN, and I'll definitely be checking it out until it's over. . 




.     

Nizah Morris Case-Ten Years Later

One of the cases I've been tracking ever since I started the blog is the Nizah Morris case. 

In the pre-dawn hours of December 22, 2002 she was at the downtown Key West bar at 13th and Walnut streets attending a party being held there.  She was allegedly severely inebriated and collapsed in front of the bar around 2:00 AM.  Someone called the paramedics to take her to the hospital   While waiting at least 20 minutes for the paramedics to arrive a Philadelphia police officer arrived at the scene. 

The 47 year old Morris declined the police officer's offer of a courtesy ride to take her to the hospital but instead asked to be taken home.  She was helped by bar patrons into the back of the police cruiser and unfortunately never made it there.

Instead she was found lying on her back at 16th and Walnut by a passing motorist unconscious with a fractured skull and bleeding from the right side of her head.  She had a life threatening subdural hematoma that required immediate medical attention and Morris was taken to Philadelphia's Jefferson University Hospital in critical condition.   She was on life support for several days until she was taken off of it and died at 8:30 PM EST on Christmas Eve.

The next day Morris' death was declared by the medical examiner as a homicide.   And you knew there had to be a little transphobia lurking in this story as well.   On December 26 Nizah's mother Roslyn Wilkins was notified of her daughter's death by a police detective who said to her, "He's dead"   

After Wilkins complained about the misgendering way he broke the news of her child's death to her, that detective was removed from the case.   The family was even more disturbed after looking at photos taken at the medical examiner's office that showed Morris with what appeared to be defensive wounds on her hands.
  
And yes, what would a story about a murdered African-American trans woman be without a heaping helping of media disrespect and misgendering?   When the Philadelphia Inquirer published their initial account of the morris story on December 31 they referred to Nizah as a 'prostitute' and stuck the misgendering 'male prostitute' in the body of the story. 

On January 1 after a memorial service attended by over 300 people Nizah Morris' body was cremated.      

That was ten years ago, and to this day the Morris family nor the Philadelphia trans community has gotten a consistent story from the PPD about what exactly happened to Nizah Morris on that fateful night.   It also hasn't helped that information, tapes and evidence pertaining to the case has mysteriously disappeared

The Morris family and others in the Philadelphia rainbow community suspect that excessive force was used on Morris, the PPD knows more about what happened on that fateful December 22 night than they are acknowledging and are covering up what really happened.

The three officers involved in the Morris incident, Thomas Berry, Elizabeth DiDonato and Kenneth Novak remain on the Philadelphia police force and were cleared of any criminal wrongdoing in December 2003.

In the latest intrigue surrounding this case it seems the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office refuses to confirm or deny whether it has a police log pertaining to the Nizah Morris case, even though such logs are considered public records under Pennsylvania state law.

The case has been investigated by the Philadelphia Police Advisory Commission for several years and neither the family or the Philadelphia LGBT community has gotten a satisfactory explanation of what happened.

The question i continue to ask in this case is the same as always.  What does the Philadelphia District Attorney's office and the Philadelphia PD know about what happened to Nizah Morris, when did they know it, and if the po-po's are involved, who did it? 

“Bring in the feds,” Wilkins said.  

I agree with the family in the call for federal authorities to get involved in this ongoing investigation.  It's sadly ten years later and we are still no closer to answering the simple question of what did happen to Nizah Morris in those predawn December 22 hours.

DC Cop Kenneth Furr Going To Trial For Trans Shooting Incident

There's an update in the ongoing case of D.C. cop Kenneth D. Furr, who was involved in an ugly August 2011 shooting incident that involved two transwomen and their cis male companions in NW Washington. 

It resulted in him discharging his service revolver at the car they were riding in and causing non life threatening injuries to three of the people in that vehicle.

He was also inebriated at the time of the August 26 incident. 

The shooting incident happened in the wake of transwoman Lashai Mclean being killed in July 2011 and another transwoman being shot in the same neighborhood a week later where Mclean died but surviving the attack.

A D.C. Superior Court Grand Jury handed down a nine count indictment against Furr on March 7 which includes six counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, one count of assault with intent to kill while armed, and two counts of solicitation for prostitution.

Furr's court status hearing was held on May 24 and D.C. Superior Court Judge Ann O’Reagan Keary denied a request by attorneys representing Officer Furr that he be released or the conditions of his bond be changed. 

Furr's trial will start October 15 and I'll continue to keep you  updated on what transpires in this case as it winds to its conclusion.

Houston Po-Po's Behaving Badly And...

Getting away with it so far.

I wrote a post last February about an ugly incident in which Houston Police Department officers were caught on videotape beating teenage robbery suspect Chad Holley while taking him into custody in March 2010    

The four HPD officers involved, Andrew Blomberg, Phil Bryan, Raad Hassan and Drew Ryser were indicted on misdemeanor official suppression charges and terminated.   Bryan and Hassan also were terminated from HPD and charged with violation of the civil rights of a prisoner, also a misdemeanor.

Andrew Blomberg, the first of the officers to be tried went in front of an all white jury this week at the Harris County Courthouse on those misdemeanor oppression charges.   Care to guess what happened in his case when it went to the jury  for deliberation at noon CDT Tuesday and returned with the verdict shortly after 11 AM CDT yesterday?

If you said Blomberg was acquitted, go to the head of the post-racial society my azz class.

Mayor Annise Parker said, "I do not agree with the verdict. No way he will ever again be a Houston police officer."   It's also a sentiment to which HPD police chief Charles McClelland concurs with.

Of course Houston's African-American community and community activists are furious about another instance of Houston po-po's behaving badly and once again being let off the hook by an all-white jury .  

African-American community activists gathered in the hallway outside the courtroom according to th Houston Chronicle yelled "Racism!" and "Injustice!" after hearing the outcome.

"It is pathetic. It is unacceptable," the Rev. James Dixon of the Community of Faith Church said of the jury's decision. "This kind of expression says to me, to my children and to every black child in the city, 'Your life is not worth manure.'"  

They don't have any respect for African-American transwomen's lives either Rev Dixon, so join the club.

Quanell X, the Houston community activist who had released the video of the alleged beating to the media, called the verdict "wrong" and criticized the lack of blacks or other minorities on the six-person jury.

"They knew what they were doing with an all-white jury," he said to the Chronicle.

Yep Quanell, another sign of the Apocalypse.   For once I agree with you.

Of course, Blomberg's defense attorney Dick DeGuerin tried to tap dance around that inconvenient fact of the melanin-free jury by claiming  "it is not and was not a racial thing." but quickly asserting like pees who wallow in vanillacentric privilege that "It's been made into that by others for their own reasons."

When he was asked according to the Chronicle article why there weren't any blacks or other ethnic minorities on the jury, DeGuerin said most of the African-Americans in the jury pool had already made up their minds that Blomberg was guilty.  

Oh really Dick DeGuerin?  And most of the white jurors in the jury pool didn't have their minds made up that Blomberg was innocent?   That's vanilla scented bull feces.

And this kind of racist crap is why many African-Americans not only look side eyed at the po-po's, but in many cases consider our police departments to be the stormtroopers for whiteness and white supremacy.

Well, thanks to the just-us system, we can already guess how the other three trials are going to turn out.

DC Officer Kenneth Furr Indicted For Shooting At Transwomen

DC police officer Kenneth Furr has been indicted for the August 26 off-duty incident in which he discharged his service weapon at a transwoman who refused his inebriated advances at a northwest DC CVS store. 

There was a report that a possible plea bargain was in the works, but looks like those negotiations broke down.

Furr was charged with nine counts that include intent to kill while armed, six counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and two counts of solicitation. 

However, I did not appreciate the Washington Post's characterization of the shooting victims in their article about this indictment as trans prostitutes. 

But back to the story.  Furr is facing 30 years in prison if he is convicted and is scheduled to appear in court Friday before Judge Ann O’Regan Keary. 

Yet Another Reminder On Why the Po Po Is No Friend to People of Colour

Another post from Renee of Womanist Musings, who is all that and four bags of ketchup flavored potato chips.


I have written many articles on how I intend to teach my sons how to behave in the presence of cops, and why this information could someday save their lives.  Each time I write about the absolute importance of preparing a Black child to deal with the ongoing harassment that they will be subject to, thanks to racist police departments across North America, some jackass shows up with statics to claim that the police are justified in their response because of the fact that Blacks are over represented in the penal industrial complex.   This response is racist and denies the way in which minorities are specifically targeted and the effect of racism, under-education and poverty have on those who commit crimes. The truth of the matter is that though there are more Whites in prison than Blacks, Black people still represent criminality in the eyes of the law.  This leads to a lifetime of harassment that can have a devastating toll.

I found the following article in the N.Y. Times. 

WHEN I was 14, my mother told me not to panic if a police officer stopped me. And she cautioned me to carry ID and never run away from the police or I could be shot. In the nine years since my mother gave me this advice, I have had numerous occasions to consider her wisdom.

One evening in August of 2006, I was celebrating my 18th birthday with my cousin and a friend. We were staying at my sister’s house on 96th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan and decided to walk to a nearby place and get some burgers. It was closed so we sat on benches in the median strip that runs down the middle of Broadway. We were talking, watching the night go by, enjoying the evening when suddenly, and out of nowhere, squad cars surrounded us. A policeman yelled from the window, “Get on the ground!”

I was stunned. And I was scared. Then I was on the ground — with a gun pointed at me. I couldn’t see what was happening but I could feel a policeman’s hand reach into my pocket and remove my wallet. Apparently he looked through and found the ID I kept there. “Happy Birthday,” he said sarcastically. The officers questioned my cousin and friend, asked what they were doing in town, and then said goodnight and left us on the sidewalk.

Less than two years later, in the spring of 2008, N.Y.P.D. officers stopped and frisked me, again. And for no apparent reason. This time I was leaving my grandmother’s home in Flatbush, Brooklyn; a squad car passed me as I walked down East 49th Street to the bus stop. The car backed up. Three officers jumped out. Not again. The officers ordered me to stand, hands against a garage door, fished my wallet out of my pocket and looked at my ID. Then they let me go.  (Source)

Nicholas K. Peart wrote specifically about his experiences living in N.Y. city, however the same story could be told by many people of colour living in North America, because despite the so-called post racial world that we live in, part of the role of policing today is to enforce White supremacy.  This means the ongoing harassment of people of colour, which for some leads to a lifetime of living in fear.  I would label some of the survivors as existing with PTSD but the fact of the matter is that we still have not entered the era when the word post is an accurate label.


We live in a world in which it is largely understood that people of colour, regardless of their gender, or sexuality are perceived of as violent, drug dealers, drug users, hyper sexualized and problematic, while Whiteness is understood to be the eternal victim.  This ahistoric view only exists because Whiteness continues to ignore and actively negate the history of violence it has perpetrated against people of colour. Slavery ended years ago, but people of colour are still being slaughtered.  Violence has not always taken the form of physical punishment, and in fact, on a daily basis it is often realized through impoverishment, character assassination, and a lack of education.  Violence need not leave any physical markers to be understood as violence.

Black children exist with a scant few years of innocence, and the belief that they are equal, before Whiteness begins its project of othering and dehumanization.  When I look at my six year old son, I know that he is in the last cusp of mental freedom, before the active persecution begins.  It is important to note however, that through his access to media, and by media I mean everything from television, to the internet, to books, and movies, he has already begun to internalize the passive racism that Whiteness is so very proficient at.

The police are only free to perform in the manner that they do because they are the military arm of Whiteness.  I know that there are cops of colour who do attempt to make a difference policing our communities, but they are overwhelmed and must still to some degree subscribe to the over arching message of oppression.  To be of colour in this world, is to be a continual target of aggression and hatred, despite the fact that so many White people openly declare themselves to be non racist.  Being called a racist has reached the level in the minds of many to being akin to a slur, though in actuality, it only really serves as a marker of privilege.  No matter how well intentioned, or if your best friend in grade school was Black, to be White is to participate in passive racism at the very least, and to benefit from every single act of racism. 

No matter how we struggle against our oppressor, until every single White person is actively engaged in challenging their privilege, the state of unequal in life, in every single social institution, and every single situation will continue to be a reality for people of colour.  Reading this may cause shock, dismay and even outright denial, but until you are actively attempting to decolonize your mind, and challenging the status quo, you support the racist actions engaged in by police departments across North America.  Pretty platitudes about shock and awe, get us nowhere.

Po-Po's Mess With Chrissy Polis

As if Chrissy Polis didn't have a bad enough year back in April during the transphobic attack at a local McDonald's that injured her and sent Teonna Brown to jail, she's back in the news again after a run in with the local cops on Saturday that resulted in her arrest.

The 23 year old Polis called the police to report a robbery in which she was struck from behind by a man wearing a black and white hooded sweatshirt, tore her purse off that contained her cell phone and $800 and ran from the scene

According to the police report Polis gave various accounts of the events surrounding the robbery and became very agitated with police as officers attempted to interview her. After police told Polis they would take a report and continue to investigate the incident, she became enraged and shouted obscenities at officers,
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After warnings to lower her voice, Polis, whom police claim was causing a disturbance in the neighborhood, was arrested. She was charged with one count of disorderly conduct and was released after posting $7,500 bond.

Note this is the po-po's version of the story and we have yet to hear Chrissy's side of it.  The truth of what happened will probably be somewhere in the middle.

And unfortunately Chrissy learned something the hard way we trans women of color learned a long time ago. 'Officer Friendly' ain't so friendly to marginalized people

But once again it points out the problems that transpeople have simply interacting with police who tend to be in police forces that are a conservative, predominately monoracial, right wing, militaristic world and have to protect and serve citizens in a world that is far more diverse.and complex.

TBLG Rights Ads From Argentina

South American nations are making enormous strides in passing rainbow community friendly human rights legislation.   Argentina is working on one that will make it easier for transpeople in their nation to get identity documents that match their gender presentation.

But prejudice, violence and bigotry aimed at transpeople still remain a problem.

This Spanish language ads from Argentina are courtesy of Blabbeando and subtitled.

They also remind people that all are equal before the law, including TBLG people.