Community News

Transexual Menace, GenderPAC & TOPS Join Outcry Over New York Police Racism and Sexual Brutality

(Brooklyn, NY) Angry members of the Haitian community and black civil rights leaders were joined today by other groups including the Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, Jews for Peace and Reconciliation, and the Transexual Menace to protest police brutality against minority citizens. The demonstration was sparked by the alleged police assault last weekend on Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. Mr. Louima was sexually abused in a New York Police precinct bathroom by two officers. They inserted the handle of a toilet plunger into Mr. Louima's anus with such force that his intestine and bladder were punctured.

This marks the second time gender activists have publicly protested on the troubling issue of prisoner sexual abuse, an issue Menace spokestrans have long accused gay and feminist organizations of ignoring. Said one, "We were asked why we're here; I have no trouble at all connecting the beating and anal rape of a black man with gender-based oppression."

Carrying banners, toilet plungers, and chanting, "No Justice -- No Peace," approximately 150 protesters gathered outside the 70th Precinct station house to voice their outrage, as more than 2,000 protesters marched from the nightclub where Mr Louima was arrested to join them. Despite the sweltering heat, angry marchers, and scores of police officers on the scene, no arrests were made during the afternoon-long demonstration.

Previously, both GenderPAC and Transgender Officers Protect & Serve (TOPS) signed a letter drafted by the Lesbian & Gay Anti-Violence Project and addressed to NYC Mayor Rudy Guiliani, deploring the brutality and racism of the Louima beating.

A second protest, marching all the way across the Brooklyn Bridge to the Mayor's office in Manhattan, was been called for August 29. Menace activists were expected to attend.