[Commentary] [USA] The Reality of the NYPD Patrol Guide Changes for Trans* and Gender Nonconforming People

[Stephanie Stevens]

Huffington Post, USA


justin adkins

Transgender activist

The Reality of the NYPD Patrol Guide Changes for Trans* and Gender
Nonconforming People

Posted: 07/06/2012 6:14 pm


It has been a few weeks since the NYPD announced on June 12th that
they are amending their patrol guide to include information on how to
treat transgender and gender nonconforming people.

I am an abolitionist; I believe that the prison industrial complex is
not serving anyone, especially people of color and gender
nonconforming folks. While I applaud the work that many people,
including the NYPD LGBT Advisory Panel and LGBT advocacy groups
throughout the city have done over the years, I am still concerned.

The changes to the NYPD patrol guidelines also make the NYPD
consistent with the city's Human Rights Law. In April 2002, the New
York City Human Rights Law
<http://www.transgenderlaw.org/ndlaws/nyccompliance.pdf> , located in
Title 8 of the Administrative Code of the City of New York, was
amended to make it clear that an individual's gender identity is an
area of protection under the law. It has been clear since 2002 that
gender nonconforming people are included.

However, the NYPD seems to follow its own set of guidelines and this
change to the patrol guidelines was necessary. Theses changes are
something that I and many others have been calling for for years. The
new guidelines protect gay and lesbian people as well by prohibiting
the use of discourteous or disrespectful remarks regarding a person's
sexual orientation in addition to a person's gender
identity/expression.

However, these guidelines do not stop people from being stopped and
frisked. In October 2011, when I was arrested on Brooklyn Bridge as
part of an Occupy Wall Street action, I was arrested because of my
political stance, not because of who I am. I was mistreated because I
am trans but my arrest was not because I am gender nonconforming.
According to the NYCLU, in the first three months of 2012, New Yorkers
were stopped by the police under stop and frisk 203,500 times
<http://www.nyclu.org/stopandfrisk> . 54% of those stopped in the
beginning of 2012 were black, 33% latino and 89% were found innocent.
We need to all band together and be clear that we do not want to live
in a police state.

Police misconduct is not just happening in New York, students at UC
Davis <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdDLhPwpp4> , in California,
were pepper sprayed while voicing their concern over corporate greed.
In White Plains, New York
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/04/kenneth-chamberlain-sr-killed-white-plains-cops-da-grand-jury-marines_n_1403474.html>
, Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. was shot dead in his home. In Miami Beach,
Florida <http://articles.cnn.com/2011-06-07/justice/florida.shooting.witness_1_officers-miami-beach-police-department-police-misconduct?_s=PM:CRIME>
, Narces Benoit had a pistol put to his head, his phone smashed and
was handcuffed for recording police fatally shooting an erratic driver
early Memorial Day morning.

People across the nation are being targeted and silenced by police. We
need to continue to stand up.

The United States prison industrial complex now houses 2,019,234
prisoners <http://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/sp/1044.pdf> . By
comparison, China houses 1,549,000 prisoners <http://bit.ly/NdlwHE> .
Keep in mind, China has a population roughly 4 times that of the
United States. I use China as an example because much of the rhetoric
in the U.S. is about human rights issues in China, and the evils of
communism in general. The land of the free looks fairly incarcerated
to me.

Here in the United States, Ohio State law professor, Michelle
Alexander says <http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2011/03/u-s-prisons-now-hold-more-black-men-than-slavery-ever-did/>
, "More African American men are in prison or jail, on probation or
parole than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War began."
According to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey
<http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fendtransdiscrimination.org%2Freport.html&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNHJMdYhXHukAevjIkb3-3ALnAw8tw>
, one in three trans* people in the United States will go to prison at
some point in their lives.

The new guidelines make clear that discrimination, harassment or
disparaging comments based on actual or perceived gender is now
defined as such, and prohibited. According to Speaker Christine C.
Quinn's website
<http://council.nyc.gov/html/releases/061312trans.shtml> , "The new
Patrol Guide formally outlines that discrimination or harassment based
on actual or perceived gender is prohibited by City law. [...] The
Patrol Guide updates create a written policy for the NYPD to follow
when addressing, processing, searching and housing transgender and
gender non-conforming people."

The New York Anti-violence Project
<http://www.avp.org/documents/AVPpressreleaseforNYPDPG.FINAL.6.12.12.pdf>
spells out some of the revisions:

• Defining "gender" to include gender identity and expression as
determined by the person in custody, consistent with the city's Human
Rights Law. This means that when the NYPD have to determine someone's
gender they must do so based on that person's self-identified gender
identity regardless of their sex assigned at birth.

• Prohibiting the use of discourteous or disrespectful remarks
regarding a person's sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.

• Instructing police officers refer to transgender and gender
non-conforming New Yorkers by names, honorifics and pronouns that
reflect their gender identity (even if it does not match the
information on their ID documents) and amending forms so that people's
"preferred name" can be recorded and used while they are in police
custody.

• Prohibiting police officers NYPD officers from conducting any
search for the purpose of determining a person's gender. This also
applies to school safety officers, NYPD personnel assigned to the
city's public schools.

• Requiring that individuals in NYPD custody be searched by an
officer of the gender the person in custody requests and, if that is
not honored, requiring the NYPD document reasons for the refusal.

• Holding individuals in NYPD custody in sex segregated police
facilities according to their gender identity, even if it differs from
their sex assigned at birth, unless there is a concern for the
person's safety, in which case they will be considered "special
category prisoners" and housed in the place safest for them.

• "Special category prisoners," including transgender people, will
not be cuffed to rails, bars or chairs for unreasonable periods of
time.

In an article published in June in El Diario La Prensa
<http://web.saxotech.eldiariony.com/Article/20120608/LOCALES/306089959>
, Juan Matossian explains that on June 7, 2012, just days before the
new patrol guide was announced, more than a dozen transsexual Latinas
said that besides racial discrimination, they have also been victims
of sexual harassment, physical abuse, derogatory comments and arrests
where they were falsely accused of prostitution.

The revisions to the NYPD patrol guide make it clear that sexualy
harrasing, physically abusing and making derogatory comments because
someone is gender nonconforming is prohibited. However, as great as
these changes to the patrol guide are, they will not stop the false
arrests in suspicion of prostitution, or racial profiling. They will
not stop the NYPD "stop and frisk" policy. The new guidelines will not
stop possession of condoms being used as evidence of prostitution. For
these reasons, New York City still has a huge issue on their hands.
The NYPD specifically targets black and latino people, and will still
target trans* people of color. The patrol guide changes do not change
this fact.

Mayor Bloomberg continues to support the ridiculous "stop and frisk"
policy <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/10/mayor-defends-stop-and-frisk_n_1584873.html>
. He basically explains that black and latino people are targeted
because they are the ones committing the crimes.

Wherever you live, whatever race, sexual orientation or gender you
are, stand up against police violence. Stand up against the prison
industrial complex. Stand up even if this violence is not something
you have experienced first hand. I found out first hand on October
1st, 2011 that you never know if you will be the next person trapped,
falsely arrested and mistreated by police.


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