On September 12 of last year, Kam Brock was stopped by the NYPD under suspicion of being high. No marijuana was found on her vehicle, but the NYPD stole her car 2003 BMW 325Ci anyway. (The appropriate term is “confiscate” but please remember the police will literally steal your stuff for no reason and you will likely never get it back.) Why was she stopped in the first place? We can’t be 100% certain, but it’s the NYPD, a Black person driving a BMW, and the charge being suspicion of drug usage, so you can fill in those blanks.
The next day, Brock went to retrieve her car and emotionally admonished those present for putting her through this ordeal in the first place. She was arrested and admitted to Harlem Hospital’s psychiatric ward for 8 days through numerous protests of her sanity. She was finally released with no explanation and no apology, and now Ms. Brock is suing the city.
Much is being made of her race (which, to me, is the most obvious reason why she was stopped in the first place), but I don’t think enough people are addressing the fact that — regardless of race — being instituted against your will is far less likely to happen to a man.
A group of homophobic cops committed “a hate crime” at a gay pride party in Brooklyn early Sunday, beating up the host while screaming hateful slurs, the alleged victim told the Daily News.
Officers from the 77th Precinct, responding to reports of noise at the Sterling Place party, “bum-rushed” Jabbar Campbell after he opened the door of his apartment.
“They were screaming and cursing saying things like ‘fag,’ ‘homo,’ ‘a—hole,’ just a bunch of anti-gay slurs,” Campbell, a 32-year-old forensic specialist, told The News.
Campbell said he was beaten by the officers, who bloodied his mouth, split open his lip and caused swelling to his left eye. He was then handcuffed and charged with resisting arrest — and spent 24 hours in police custody.
Campbell filed legal paperwork Wednesday revealing his intention to sue the city.
The incident began around 2:50 a.m. with two cops responding to a noise complaint at Jabbar’s Crown Heights building. The officers told revelers — some dressed in drag — outside Campbell’s home to keep it down.
Those officers left, but about 10 minutes later, another group of cops arrived, Campbell said.
The officers buzzed at the locked door — and one even reached out to disable the surveillance camera in the vestibule.
“They were trying to open the door, but it was locked,” Campbell said. “They were banging with their flashlights.”
After about 10 minutes, Campbell let the officers in.
“They said, ‘Stop resisting arrest.’ I said, ‘I am not resisting.’”
But the cops beat him up anyway, he said.
“I blacked out. I was concerned for my life,” said Campbell.
The victim’s lawyer said the officer’s attempt to disable the camera would be a key part of the case.
“They were trying to conceal the evidence by turning the camera away,” said the lawyer, Herb Subin. “They committed a hate crime inside a gay pride event.”
The NYPD did not respond to an initial request for comment.
Note: A protest will be held on Monday the 21st at 1313 Sterling Place Brooklyn @ 4pm to demand justice for Campbell.
And you wanna know why black queer folks don’t get down with cops??? Things like this happen all too often, yet we’re supposed to be satisfied with gay marriage?
please, tell me more about how we should focus on homophobia before racism because “racism is over”
:|
I don’t think racism is over but it looks like this was an attack on his sexuality more than his skin colour. Maybe he would be more likely to be a victim of this kind of attack than a white gay man but the evidence clearly shows this was a more of a homophobic attack than a racist one.
Sorry, the Oppression Olympics is cancelled.
Time for a lesson in remedial intersectionality.
Intersecting oppressions don’t add together, they multiply by each other. Take a look some time at the names and faces of the people we remember on the Transgender Day of Rememberance… most of those people are women who died because of transphobia/transmisogyny, and yet… most of them are women of color. Wouldn’t it be an astounding coincidence if that just sort of happened?
The cops who did this were homophobic, yes. That was the positive motivating force behind their attack, the “motive”. But the reason they attacked this man, this party, and not others is that white privilege protects white gay men. A cop who did this might have passed dozens of white men and thought (or said) slurs, but he knew there would be hell to pay if he acted on his bigotry, so he took it no further than that.
Racism is so entrenched in our society that at this point it’s all but invisible to those who benefit from it. The effects are there in what we don’t suffer, and this is particularly obvious in dealings with police. When white kids caught with drugs are let off with a warning or given drug court/treatment options and Black kids are sent straight into the bowels of the penal system for the rest of their lives, you can say “Well clearly they were sent to prison for drugs, not for being Black.”
And your logic would be as sound as it is in this case.
Which is to say, only sound if you insist on throwing out most of the picture of what happened.
You say you can read, but the question is: can you think?
The media will probably soon portray him as a hoodlum/thug.
A prominent and respected Connecticut priest has been indicted along with four other men in an alleged plot to sell crystal meth.
Monsignor Kevin Wallin and another suspect, Kenneth “Lyme” Devries, were arrested Jan. 3, after law enforcement discovered evidence of meth, drug paraphernalia and drug packaging materials at Wallin’s home, reports the San Clemente Times.
The U.S. Attorney’s office claims that Wallin sold shipments of methamphetamine to an undercover cop six times between September 2012 and January 2013. Wallin is believed to have received the meth from California.
Wallin had been pastor of the St. Augustine Parish in Bridgeport, Conn., for nine years, before stepping down last summer, according to NBC.
On Jan. 16, the Diocese of Bridgeport released a statement in response to the indictment. The statement called Wallin “a gifted, compassionate and accomplished priest,” and said that his arrest and indictment by the grand jury both shocked and concerned his colleagues.
Apparently, the Monsignor had gone on sabbatical prior to stepping down as St. Augustine’s pastor. During that time, he stopped talking with his Diocese, worrying his fellow priests.
“As a result, his faculties for public ministry were suspended in May 2012, and he has not been reassigned,” the Diocese of Bridgeport’s statement read. “To date, he has not spoken directly with diocesan officials, though the Diocese stands ready to help as it has throughout the past two years. We ask for prayers for Msgr. Wallin during the difficult days ahead for him.”
During his long career as a priest, Wallin, 61, served as pastor of St. Peter Parish in Danbury from 1996 to 2002 and was an aide to Bishops Walter Curtis and Edward Egan, according to The Connecticut Post. Egan later became a Cardinal.
Wallin was arrested after a joint task force made up of federal DEA agents and the Connecticut State Police used wire taps, drug buys and surveillance to uncover the alleged drug ring, according to the Post.
“The hard work of the DEA and the Connecticut State Police in this case resulted in the dismantling of what we allege was a significant methamphetamine distribution organization that spanned from California to Connecticut," U.S. Attorney David Fein told the Post.
All five suspects are being charged with participating in a drug distribution conspiracy, according to The Hartford Courant, and all are being held without bail.
If convicted, Wallin faces a minimum of 10 years on the conspiracy charge, plus an additional 20 years on other charges.
