RevMARKSman
8th July 2006, 03:26
This article is mostly directed at transgender people but shows the outright criminality of NYPD police actions.
I'm not really sure if this goes in Discrimination, Politics, or even Practice, so move as you please.
Taken from http://www.81x.com/koridadewright/kori
My recent experience at the hands of the NYPD
NYPD is notorious for its blatant hatred and violence towards transgendered individuals. They use excessive and unnecessary force when dealing with us. They are extremely condescending and disrespectful. I was also a victim of racial profiling and harassment, initially because they thought I was a well dressed black man. Read below of an incident that took place recently. This letter was widely distributed to every major NY paper, and the LGBT Community at large. I have taken the necessary steps to ensure this abuse will not go unnoticed or unreported, as many others have.
************************************************** ***************************
Hi. I'm not sure if you could assist me, but I'd like to report an incident involving the Transit Cops of District 1/ 59th St & Columbus.
My name is Yolanda Wright. My partner Donna Marie Johnson and I attended the Dog Walk for Cancer at Riverside Park on Sunday, May 7, 2006. We entered the Subway at 81st and Columbus at approximately 1:25 pm. As we proceeded through the turnstiles, I was holding my 3.10 pd (teacup) Pekepoo in my hand, along with 3 of the 7 bags we'd collected from the Dog Walk. I got entangled in my puppies leash and dropped some of the bags, and just basically lost my bearings, and stumbled through the turnstile. My bags were askew, and I was basically discombobulated and tried to get my bearings. As I was gathering up my things and trying to get my puppy situated, this cop comes from around the corner, hadn't even cleared it, and yelled at me, "Put your dog on a leash!" I said, "My dog IS on a leash." He said, "Well your dog is not properly contained". I said, "Why are speaking to me in such a manner, Officer? There's no reason for you to address me in this manner". He said, "Just get your dog contained". My wife said, "We know that Officer. His bag is right here." I turned and walked away from him, and was talking to my wife and said to her, "Damn asshole cops are always fucking with innocent people". The cop, who had walked away, came BACK over to where we were and said, "What did you say?" I looked at this man increduously, for now I KNEW that he was purposely harrassing me. I told the cop, "I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to my wife. Why are you harrassing me like this?" He said, You're getting a summons now. Get your ID now". So I walked over to my wife who was holding the bag with our ph, keys and wallets and she gave me my ID. When I walked back to the cop and tried to give him my ID, he said, "Too late now. You're going to jail". I was in shock. My wife was in shock. I said, "To jail? What the hell for? I want to speak to your supervisor". He said, "You can talk to my supervisor, but you're still going to jail". I walked back over to my wife and gave her my ID to hold, and stood against the wall with my dog STILL IN MY HAND!! I NEVER GOT A CHANCE TO GET SITUATED! The next thing I know, 7 or 8 cops come storming down the stairs! I couldn't believe it! When they saw that I was CALMLY standing with my puppy, and my wife was standing with her hand over her mouth in disbelief, they were like, what's going on here? SO while my wife and I were rehashing the events that led up to this, the cop took his supervisor in a corner and talked to him. Next thing I know, the Sgt comes over to me and says "Put your dog down and face the wall". I said, "For what? You haven't heard what I have to say!" He said, "I 'm not interested in what you have to say. My Officer told me what happened, and I believe him". I said, "But what am I being cuffed for?" Sgt says, "Cause you going to jail, that's why". I said, "TO JAIL??? FOR WHAT???" My question was never answered. I asked that question 10/TEN times while I was being led up stairs out of the subway, for them to further humiliate me in public by bending me over a bannister to attempt to frisk me. I stopped them and said, "Do not touch me. I am a biological female. The Sgt. laughed like, yeah right and said, "You're a female?", and proceeded to go into my pocket. I pressed my hips against the bannister and told him again, "Do NOT put your hands on me. I AM A BIO-FEMALE!" At that moment a female cop came running upstairs with my ID that my wife had given her, and told the Sgt that I was indeed a female. The Sgt asked her, "That's a female?" And the female cop said, "Yep. Here's her ID". So she gave it to him, he looked at it, then looked at me really hard, then told her, "Whatever. Do ya thang". So the female cop frisked me. As they were walking me to the squad car, I asked again what was I being arrested for. The Sgt told me, "Get in the car". I steeled myself and told them, "I have a right to know why I'm being arrested. Am I to assume it's because you said I didn't have my PUPPY properly contained?" Sgt says, "Yep. Now get in the car", and he pushed my head down and I sat in the back seat.
When I get to the station, I'm placed in a holding cell. I NEVER HAD MY MIRANDA RIGHTS READ TO ME DURING THIS WHOLE INCIDENT!!! It's there (at the holding cell) that I learn by over hearing one of the cops ask what the Penal Code was for Disorderly Conduct, and Failure to produce ID, that I finally find out what I was arrested for. HUH?? Disorderly Conduct? Failure to produce ID? This officer was lying on me. I stood up in my cage (by now they were talking to me, because they found out that I served in the U.S. Army for 10/TEN Years, with an Honorable Discharge, and that I was a Senior Security Officer at the United Nations, with a Weapons Permit, and a squeaky clean record, not even so much as a parking ticket) and I asked them if it was me that was being charged with Disorderly Conduct and failure to produce ID and she said yes! I told her it wasn't true. She said that's what Officer Paulino collared you for. Then she asked me what happened, cause she said they were partners. So I told her just what I wrote here, and she said that some officers are really big on the respect thing and will arrest you for yelling at them or raising your voice to them but that's NOT THE NORM. But not to worry, because they were instructed to give me a DAT. I asked what a DAT was, cause of course I've NEVER been arrested. They tell me it's a Desk Appearance Ticket, and that because I was a first time OFFENDER, it would most likely get thrown out, and my record sealed in 6 mths if I stay out of trouble. HUH? I guess that was supposed to appease me, but here I was being falsely accused of failure to present ID (WTF) and Disorderly Conduct and it was bogus. My flawless record, was being destroyed on the lies of a Police Officer. They told me to go to court and just plead guilty, tell the judge I was having a bad day, and he'll either throw it out, or I'll JUST get a couple of hundred hrs of Cmty Svc. What do you mean JUST a cpl of hundred hrs? I shouldn't even BE here.
The arresting Officer, Officer Paulino comes in and they tell him they were instructed to give me a DAT. He says, "Hell no. Says who? I want her to go through Central Booking. Put her ass through the system. Teach her some respect". Mind you, I'm sitting RIGHT THERE hearing EVERYTHING that's being said. So they take him to this room where there's a computer and points to the screen. He comes over to my cell and says, "So you were in the Army Ms. Wright? You should know better" (Wait a minute folks... Isn't this the ******* that arrested me on trumped up charges? Standing at my cell talking to me like he wasn't the one who put me here?) *Back to the incident*
I reply, "Yes". He said, Wow, you have a clean clean record man. Not even a parking ticket. I hope this doesn't get you in trouble, but just have anyone call me and I'll explain what happened". Then he asks, "What could I have done differently, that would've gotten a different response from you?" (WTF People, I swear to you this happened) I play his game and say, "You attacked me the instant I came through the turnstiles, and you provoked a negative response. You never gave me a chance to catch my bearings". He says, "I watched you guys from the time you came in here, and waited to see if you would contain your dog, you never did. I said Sir, put your dog on the leash please". I said, "I didn't hear you say Sir, my bad, my fault" even though we BOTH know that's NOT how it played out at all. I just wanted to get the hell out of there so I could file my report. Officer Paulino gets happy and says, "Thats all I wanted you to say. I respect you for admitting you're wrong. You'll get a DAT now.." and proceeds to tell me what to say to the judge. He then goes outside and comes back in and tells me, "I told your wife you won't be going through the system because you apologized to me. I really hope you don't get into any trouble behind this. But if you have any problems on the job, just tell them to call me and I'll tell them you apologized and everything's ok, you were just having a BAD DAY". UNBELIEVABLE! How magnanimous of him. What he didn't tell me, and what my wife later told me, was that when Officer Paulino went to speak with her, he tried to get her to say that I was wrong, but she refused to talk to him. What was THAT about please?
They processed me quickly, with profuse apologies. When did you ever see two and three officers working to get someone OUT of jail? They usually let people stay there and stew, but within 2.5 hrs of being arrested, I was out with a DAT in my back pocket. They knew that what happened to me was dead wrong.
And to add insult to injury, while I was locked up, the Sgt was trying to talk to my wife. He was asking her personal questions about me, what I looked like under my clothes? Did I have any type of surgeries? WTF... When she called me "he" because I AM transgendered, the Sgt kept disrespecting me AND my wife by correcting her and saying, "You mean she", and she told him that I'm "HE" to her and he told her, "That's a female", like she didn't know that. And when she told him that he knows where I'm locked up, so direct any question he has to me, he told her that she might as well go home, cause I was going though the system, and would be lucky to be seen by the morning. However, he knew that I was getting a DAT and would be out soon, so why was he terrorizing her, harassing her and asking personal questions about a detainee? That was VERY innappropriate for this Sgt to talk to my wife about personal things, and extremely disrespectful to me as a transgendered Individual to be ridiculed by this Sgt. because of what I am. He had NO RIGHT to attempt to further belittle me by challenging my wife on my gender, or how she responds and interacts with me. She knows I'm a biological female, but she respects my transition.
I called the Precinct today Wed, 10 May 06, and identified myself to Lt. Faller, and asked for the name of the supervisor on duty on the day of my arrest. He refused to give me his name. Lt. Faller told me that if I were going to sue to the Dept, let my attorney get his name, but he wasn't giving it to me. I told Lt. Faller that the Sgt is a Public Servant, and since he was the Supervisor on duty at the time of my arrest, I had every right to have his name. Lt Faller asked me why didn't I get his name at the time of my arrest?????
I said, "Probably because my hands were in cuffs." He said, "Well I'm not giving his name over the phone. You want it, you come down here". The conversation ended.
I feel that because this cop THOUGHT I was a BLACK MALE, he racially profiled me. I'm an FTM (Female To Male Transsexual) extremely male in appearance and body, so when he yanked my chain, he thought he was messing with a black man. And the cop thought that he was emasculating me in front of my wife, almost like proving (in his mind) who had the bigger "dick" by arresting me for bullcrap.
I'm not sure if there were cameras on that side that caught the incident, but they will see that it was pure and blatant harassment by this cop, that I DID present my ID but HE REFUSED to take it, because all that was on his mind was that he wanted to arrest me. It will show that I was never menancing, aggressive in actions, threatening or anything of the like, (HOLD UP... He's approx 6'2-6'4, 180-200 pds---- I'm 5'6, 160pds, please explain why he would need back up, and 8 cops at THAT?) that would warrant and support his reason for arresting me. He lied on official document by saying I refused to present my ID, and I want the camera to show that I DID. Why should I sit back and allow myself to be victimized? Why should I have a record, when I didn't deserve to be arrested initially?
There are cameras also in the holding area. Those cameras will show Officer Paulino continuously coming to my cell, even sitting down talking to me like we were buddies. It will show the officers hustling and bustling to get my paperwork expedited, show them laughing and talking to me, which will in turn further prove that they know I shouldn't have been arrested.
There were also people standing at the bus stop that I KNOW heard me ask what my charges were, my not being answered, and me stating being arrested for improper transport, and the Sgt saying YES. Now where did these OTHER erroneous charges come from?
Hopefully you can help me, or steer my case in the right direction, because I really don't deserve to have a record, 6 months or not. I was unjustly and unfairly arrested because they thought I was a black man. Wish I could contact Al Sharpton.
End of Story.
My website is: www.koriwright.com
Thank You for your time,
Yolanda Wright -aka- Kori Dade Wright
I'm not really sure if this goes in Discrimination, Politics, or even Practice, so move as you please.
Taken from http://www.81x.com/koridadewright/kori
My recent experience at the hands of the NYPD
NYPD is notorious for its blatant hatred and violence towards transgendered individuals. They use excessive and unnecessary force when dealing with us. They are extremely condescending and disrespectful. I was also a victim of racial profiling and harassment, initially because they thought I was a well dressed black man. Read below of an incident that took place recently. This letter was widely distributed to every major NY paper, and the LGBT Community at large. I have taken the necessary steps to ensure this abuse will not go unnoticed or unreported, as many others have.
************************************************** ***************************
Hi. I'm not sure if you could assist me, but I'd like to report an incident involving the Transit Cops of District 1/ 59th St & Columbus.
My name is Yolanda Wright. My partner Donna Marie Johnson and I attended the Dog Walk for Cancer at Riverside Park on Sunday, May 7, 2006. We entered the Subway at 81st and Columbus at approximately 1:25 pm. As we proceeded through the turnstiles, I was holding my 3.10 pd (teacup) Pekepoo in my hand, along with 3 of the 7 bags we'd collected from the Dog Walk. I got entangled in my puppies leash and dropped some of the bags, and just basically lost my bearings, and stumbled through the turnstile. My bags were askew, and I was basically discombobulated and tried to get my bearings. As I was gathering up my things and trying to get my puppy situated, this cop comes from around the corner, hadn't even cleared it, and yelled at me, "Put your dog on a leash!" I said, "My dog IS on a leash." He said, "Well your dog is not properly contained". I said, "Why are speaking to me in such a manner, Officer? There's no reason for you to address me in this manner". He said, "Just get your dog contained". My wife said, "We know that Officer. His bag is right here." I turned and walked away from him, and was talking to my wife and said to her, "Damn asshole cops are always fucking with innocent people". The cop, who had walked away, came BACK over to where we were and said, "What did you say?" I looked at this man increduously, for now I KNEW that he was purposely harrassing me. I told the cop, "I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to my wife. Why are you harrassing me like this?" He said, You're getting a summons now. Get your ID now". So I walked over to my wife who was holding the bag with our ph, keys and wallets and she gave me my ID. When I walked back to the cop and tried to give him my ID, he said, "Too late now. You're going to jail". I was in shock. My wife was in shock. I said, "To jail? What the hell for? I want to speak to your supervisor". He said, "You can talk to my supervisor, but you're still going to jail". I walked back over to my wife and gave her my ID to hold, and stood against the wall with my dog STILL IN MY HAND!! I NEVER GOT A CHANCE TO GET SITUATED! The next thing I know, 7 or 8 cops come storming down the stairs! I couldn't believe it! When they saw that I was CALMLY standing with my puppy, and my wife was standing with her hand over her mouth in disbelief, they were like, what's going on here? SO while my wife and I were rehashing the events that led up to this, the cop took his supervisor in a corner and talked to him. Next thing I know, the Sgt comes over to me and says "Put your dog down and face the wall". I said, "For what? You haven't heard what I have to say!" He said, "I 'm not interested in what you have to say. My Officer told me what happened, and I believe him". I said, "But what am I being cuffed for?" Sgt says, "Cause you going to jail, that's why". I said, "TO JAIL??? FOR WHAT???" My question was never answered. I asked that question 10/TEN times while I was being led up stairs out of the subway, for them to further humiliate me in public by bending me over a bannister to attempt to frisk me. I stopped them and said, "Do not touch me. I am a biological female. The Sgt. laughed like, yeah right and said, "You're a female?", and proceeded to go into my pocket. I pressed my hips against the bannister and told him again, "Do NOT put your hands on me. I AM A BIO-FEMALE!" At that moment a female cop came running upstairs with my ID that my wife had given her, and told the Sgt that I was indeed a female. The Sgt asked her, "That's a female?" And the female cop said, "Yep. Here's her ID". So she gave it to him, he looked at it, then looked at me really hard, then told her, "Whatever. Do ya thang". So the female cop frisked me. As they were walking me to the squad car, I asked again what was I being arrested for. The Sgt told me, "Get in the car". I steeled myself and told them, "I have a right to know why I'm being arrested. Am I to assume it's because you said I didn't have my PUPPY properly contained?" Sgt says, "Yep. Now get in the car", and he pushed my head down and I sat in the back seat.
When I get to the station, I'm placed in a holding cell. I NEVER HAD MY MIRANDA RIGHTS READ TO ME DURING THIS WHOLE INCIDENT!!! It's there (at the holding cell) that I learn by over hearing one of the cops ask what the Penal Code was for Disorderly Conduct, and Failure to produce ID, that I finally find out what I was arrested for. HUH?? Disorderly Conduct? Failure to produce ID? This officer was lying on me. I stood up in my cage (by now they were talking to me, because they found out that I served in the U.S. Army for 10/TEN Years, with an Honorable Discharge, and that I was a Senior Security Officer at the United Nations, with a Weapons Permit, and a squeaky clean record, not even so much as a parking ticket) and I asked them if it was me that was being charged with Disorderly Conduct and failure to produce ID and she said yes! I told her it wasn't true. She said that's what Officer Paulino collared you for. Then she asked me what happened, cause she said they were partners. So I told her just what I wrote here, and she said that some officers are really big on the respect thing and will arrest you for yelling at them or raising your voice to them but that's NOT THE NORM. But not to worry, because they were instructed to give me a DAT. I asked what a DAT was, cause of course I've NEVER been arrested. They tell me it's a Desk Appearance Ticket, and that because I was a first time OFFENDER, it would most likely get thrown out, and my record sealed in 6 mths if I stay out of trouble. HUH? I guess that was supposed to appease me, but here I was being falsely accused of failure to present ID (WTF) and Disorderly Conduct and it was bogus. My flawless record, was being destroyed on the lies of a Police Officer. They told me to go to court and just plead guilty, tell the judge I was having a bad day, and he'll either throw it out, or I'll JUST get a couple of hundred hrs of Cmty Svc. What do you mean JUST a cpl of hundred hrs? I shouldn't even BE here.
The arresting Officer, Officer Paulino comes in and they tell him they were instructed to give me a DAT. He says, "Hell no. Says who? I want her to go through Central Booking. Put her ass through the system. Teach her some respect". Mind you, I'm sitting RIGHT THERE hearing EVERYTHING that's being said. So they take him to this room where there's a computer and points to the screen. He comes over to my cell and says, "So you were in the Army Ms. Wright? You should know better" (Wait a minute folks... Isn't this the ******* that arrested me on trumped up charges? Standing at my cell talking to me like he wasn't the one who put me here?) *Back to the incident*
I reply, "Yes". He said, Wow, you have a clean clean record man. Not even a parking ticket. I hope this doesn't get you in trouble, but just have anyone call me and I'll explain what happened". Then he asks, "What could I have done differently, that would've gotten a different response from you?" (WTF People, I swear to you this happened) I play his game and say, "You attacked me the instant I came through the turnstiles, and you provoked a negative response. You never gave me a chance to catch my bearings". He says, "I watched you guys from the time you came in here, and waited to see if you would contain your dog, you never did. I said Sir, put your dog on the leash please". I said, "I didn't hear you say Sir, my bad, my fault" even though we BOTH know that's NOT how it played out at all. I just wanted to get the hell out of there so I could file my report. Officer Paulino gets happy and says, "Thats all I wanted you to say. I respect you for admitting you're wrong. You'll get a DAT now.." and proceeds to tell me what to say to the judge. He then goes outside and comes back in and tells me, "I told your wife you won't be going through the system because you apologized to me. I really hope you don't get into any trouble behind this. But if you have any problems on the job, just tell them to call me and I'll tell them you apologized and everything's ok, you were just having a BAD DAY". UNBELIEVABLE! How magnanimous of him. What he didn't tell me, and what my wife later told me, was that when Officer Paulino went to speak with her, he tried to get her to say that I was wrong, but she refused to talk to him. What was THAT about please?
They processed me quickly, with profuse apologies. When did you ever see two and three officers working to get someone OUT of jail? They usually let people stay there and stew, but within 2.5 hrs of being arrested, I was out with a DAT in my back pocket. They knew that what happened to me was dead wrong.
And to add insult to injury, while I was locked up, the Sgt was trying to talk to my wife. He was asking her personal questions about me, what I looked like under my clothes? Did I have any type of surgeries? WTF... When she called me "he" because I AM transgendered, the Sgt kept disrespecting me AND my wife by correcting her and saying, "You mean she", and she told him that I'm "HE" to her and he told her, "That's a female", like she didn't know that. And when she told him that he knows where I'm locked up, so direct any question he has to me, he told her that she might as well go home, cause I was going though the system, and would be lucky to be seen by the morning. However, he knew that I was getting a DAT and would be out soon, so why was he terrorizing her, harassing her and asking personal questions about a detainee? That was VERY innappropriate for this Sgt to talk to my wife about personal things, and extremely disrespectful to me as a transgendered Individual to be ridiculed by this Sgt. because of what I am. He had NO RIGHT to attempt to further belittle me by challenging my wife on my gender, or how she responds and interacts with me. She knows I'm a biological female, but she respects my transition.
I called the Precinct today Wed, 10 May 06, and identified myself to Lt. Faller, and asked for the name of the supervisor on duty on the day of my arrest. He refused to give me his name. Lt. Faller told me that if I were going to sue to the Dept, let my attorney get his name, but he wasn't giving it to me. I told Lt. Faller that the Sgt is a Public Servant, and since he was the Supervisor on duty at the time of my arrest, I had every right to have his name. Lt Faller asked me why didn't I get his name at the time of my arrest?????
I said, "Probably because my hands were in cuffs." He said, "Well I'm not giving his name over the phone. You want it, you come down here". The conversation ended.
I feel that because this cop THOUGHT I was a BLACK MALE, he racially profiled me. I'm an FTM (Female To Male Transsexual) extremely male in appearance and body, so when he yanked my chain, he thought he was messing with a black man. And the cop thought that he was emasculating me in front of my wife, almost like proving (in his mind) who had the bigger "dick" by arresting me for bullcrap.
I'm not sure if there were cameras on that side that caught the incident, but they will see that it was pure and blatant harassment by this cop, that I DID present my ID but HE REFUSED to take it, because all that was on his mind was that he wanted to arrest me. It will show that I was never menancing, aggressive in actions, threatening or anything of the like, (HOLD UP... He's approx 6'2-6'4, 180-200 pds---- I'm 5'6, 160pds, please explain why he would need back up, and 8 cops at THAT?) that would warrant and support his reason for arresting me. He lied on official document by saying I refused to present my ID, and I want the camera to show that I DID. Why should I sit back and allow myself to be victimized? Why should I have a record, when I didn't deserve to be arrested initially?
There are cameras also in the holding area. Those cameras will show Officer Paulino continuously coming to my cell, even sitting down talking to me like we were buddies. It will show the officers hustling and bustling to get my paperwork expedited, show them laughing and talking to me, which will in turn further prove that they know I shouldn't have been arrested.
There were also people standing at the bus stop that I KNOW heard me ask what my charges were, my not being answered, and me stating being arrested for improper transport, and the Sgt saying YES. Now where did these OTHER erroneous charges come from?
Hopefully you can help me, or steer my case in the right direction, because I really don't deserve to have a record, 6 months or not. I was unjustly and unfairly arrested because they thought I was a black man. Wish I could contact Al Sharpton.
End of Story.
My website is: www.koriwright.com
Thank You for your time,
Yolanda Wright -aka- Kori Dade Wright