Tag Archives: police brutality

Gay History - March 9, 1969: The Tragic Death of Howard Efland By Police At The Dover Hotel

Gay History – March 9, 1969: The Tragic Death of Howard Efland By Police At The Dover Hotel

The Dover Hotel was a rundown five-story brick building located in downtown Los Angeles.  The hotel operated as an early version of the soon to become popular bathhouse scene.  Gay men checked in, removed their clothing, and laid on their beds with the doors ajar waiting for others to walk by in the hopes of meeting someone.

The Dover not surprisingly, was also the scene of a number of raids by the LAPD’s Vice Squad and was known to them as an easy bust for “faggots”.

During a raid by the Vice Squad on March 9th, 1969, just 4 months shy of the Stonewall riots in NYC, Howard Efland, a male nurse who checked into the hotel under the pseudonym of J. McCann.  By the end of that day Efland would be brutally beaten outside the hotel by police in front of numerous witnesses and would later die.

LA vice officers Lemuel Chauncey and Richard Halligan claimed that Efland groped them so they arrested him, dragged him naked, bleeding and screaming down a flight of stairs by his feet and into the street.  In front of several witnesses the two police officers who were well over 6’2 inches  started beating the slightly built, unarmed and and non-resisting gay man to death while he screamed  “Help me! My God, someone help me!” The two police officers kicked him repeatedly, did  knee drops onto his stomach, and savagely beat him.

While several witnesses claimed that Howard Efland died at the scene. Chauncy and Halligan stated that Elfland was alive as they “threw” the body into the back of the police wagon. The claimed that halfway down to the station from where they had arrested him that Efland  had kicked open the door and fell out onto the Hollywood Freeway.

The Admissions Officer who was on duty at County General Hospital testified at the Coroner’s inquest that when they received Efland, they tied him down to the bed and he was in bad shape. The Nurse testified that she went into the other room with the cop because the guy had bitten his finger. Forty minutes later while she’s still working on the cop (?) another nurse came and said ‘hey, the guy in the other room died.’

The L.A.P.D. first informed Efland’s parents that their son had merely died of a heart attack. Later the L.A. County Coroner ruled Elfland’s death an “excusable homicide” and the story was withheld from the mainstream media. However the once great gay newspaper the Advocate picked up the story and responded strongly by calling the L.A.P.D. “psychotics” 

The  Rev. Troy Perry, founder of the Metropolitan Community Church would lead 120 marchers in a rally to the the site of Dover to commemorate Efland’s fatal beating and murder.

“I had told my congregation over and over that our church was built on a three-prong gospel: the gospel of Christian salvation,  the gospel of Christian community and the gospel of Christian social action. Absolutely: Christian social action. We are meant to go out and bring deliverance to people. So I told them ‘I want you to come and march with me’. Perry said.

In the end no one was ever held accountable for the murder of Howard Efland.

After publishing this story in 2014 the nephew of  Howard Eflland contacted Back2Stonewall.com  Being very young when it happened he was never told the true nature of his Uncle’s death.

Back2Stonewall has attempted to contact the LAPD numerous times in the hopes of  getting an apology for Howard Elfland’s surviving family.

There has never been an official response to any of them.

We continue to try.

#NeverForget.

Gay Man Sues NYPD for $6 Million for Beating Him Mercilessly And Calling Him a ‘Fucking Faggot’

Gay Man Sues NYPD for $6 Million for Beating Him Mercilessly And Calling Him a 'Fucking Faggot'

James Rolkiewicz of Staten Island was walking through  Manhattan’s gay-friendly West Village neighborhood when he began to have an asthma attack. The 53 year old Rolkiewicz sat on the steps of a local business, trying to find his inhaler, when a patrol car stopped and police began to harass him according to the New York Daily News.

According to the lawsuit, the officers “repeatedly called him ‘a fucking faggot’ while demanding his identification, while plaintiff was having an asthma attack.”

Rolkiewicz said he could not comply with the officers’ requests because he was struggling to breathe and searching for his inhaler. But that only made the police angry.

The lawsuit alleges that Rolkiewicz was “brutally handled, punched, kicked, abusively treated, placed in a chokehold, handcuffed and choked until he lost consciousness.” He spent two days in custody, part of which was to treat his police-inflicted injuries at Bellevue Hospital.

The NYPD told the Daily News it was “reviewing the complaint.”

#GayLivesMatterToo

CAUGHT ON VIDEO- Gay Staten Island Man Called “Faggot” While Being Brutally Beaten By Police

NYPD police gay brutality

An unarmed gay Staten Island man was violently beaten and called “faggot” in front of his own house by NYPD officers on June 19th. and now plans to sue in federal court for civil rights violations

Louis Falcone, a catering assistant says his nightmare began around 4:30 a.m.when his brother arrived at the home that they both share with their mother “obnoxiously drunk” after a night of partying.

“We had words,” he said. “I was yelling at him; he was yelling at me.

About an hour after the argument ended four NYPD cops showed up at the front door.

I’m talking to them through the screen door, they’re saying to come outside,” Falcone recalled. “I said, ‘For what?”

Then, his dog Looch, part pitbull, began barking.

“The cops said, ‘Get your dog out of here or I’ll f—— kill it!’” Falcone says. “I was like, ‘What do you mean you’re going to kill my dog?’”

He said he was shooing Looch away when an officer yanked Falcone outside.

“They threw me against the concrete in front of my house,”  They were hitting me for no reason. One puts his knee on my neck. They were all piling on top of me.”

And while the four policemen beat the 150 lb. Falcone they repeatedly called him “fag” and “faggot”

“While I was on the ground, I had mud and blood in my mouth,” he said. “One (of the cops) said, ‘Don’t let it get on you, he probably has AIDS, the faggot.’”

Falcone suffered a broken nose, two black eyes, cuts to his face and body.

A neighbor cross the street videotaped the incident.

The N.Y.P.D. did not return phone calls from this website.

 

 

Source N.Y. Daily News

International Olympic Committee Backs Russia On Arrest and Beatings Of LGBT Protesters

Nazi IOCReports have upped the number of LGBT protesters arrested in Russia yesterday at well past 60 with many reporting being harassed and beaten by Police.  And guess what?  The International Committee appears to be just fine and dandy it.

“We understand that the protesters were quickly released,” Emmanuelle Moreau, the IOC’s head of media relations, said in an email to BuzzFeed. “As in many countries in the world, in Russia, you need permission before staging a protest. We understand this was the reason that they were temporarily detained.

Unfortunately in Russia you can’t get permission to stage an LGBT protest because LGBT protests are outlawed.

Raise your hand if you are really surprised.

Watch Rachel Maddow’s report on the arrests here.

Teen Savagely Beaten By Cops At Sydney’s Gay Mardi Gras Was Arrested For “Offensive Language”

Jamie Jackson Sydney Police Brutality

In response to the video posted here and on other websites yesterday shows Sydney Australia police brutally arresting and physically abusing 18-year-old Jamie Jackson at Sydney’s Gay Mardi Gras, Sydney’s Assistant Commissioner Mark Murdoch has released information that the reason for Jacksons arrest stemmed from the fact that he used “offensive language”

The Sydney Morning Herald:

“Mr Murdoch told reporters on Wednesday afternoon that the initial offence that led police to apprehend Mr Jackson was for offensive language. Mr Jackson was then charged with assaulting police and resisting arrest as a result of his interaction with the Fairfield officer and he will appear in court on April 1.

The state MP and gay rights campaigner, Alex Greenwich, said it was very concerning that a large police officer ‘‘body slammed’’ a teenage boy for swearing.

‘‘If the only thing that the individual did was use offensive language, then I think many would agree that the approach the police took to the situation and the body slam on the ground is certainly a heavy-handed approach to the matter,’’ he said.

…Mr Greenwich and the Mardi Gras board will meet with the Police Minister, Michael Gallacher, and the chair of this year’s Mardi Gras, Peter Urmson, said: “We’re not gonna let this get swept under the carpet”.

Mr Murdoch said the officer from Fairfield was still on duty pending an internal investigation.

Also troubling is the arresting officer’s order to the person filming to stop.”

In a report of a second police brutality  gay activist Bryn Hutchinson said up to five police  held him down and kicked him, after he ignored their instructions to not cross a  road.

“I was kicked several times,” said Mr Hutchinson, the former convenor of  Community Action Against Homophobia. “I was handcuffed and had my face pushed  into the ground.

“I had a police officer leaning on me. I told him I couldn’t breathe. He  said, ’If you can talk, you can breathe”.

Sydney LGBT activist groups are  planning a march this Friday night and demanding an independent inquiry.  Since yesterday more than 1500 people have responded to the march’s page on Facebook.

You can watch the video of this heinous brutality against Jamie Jackson by the Sydney Police by CLICKING HERE

 

Anti-Gay Police Brutality Reported At Sydney Gay Mardi Gras – Shocking Video

Gay Bashing Sydney Mardi Gras Police Officer

Disturbing news out of Sydney, Australia as police have been accused of using heavy tactics and police brutality during last weekend’s Sydney’s Gay Mardi  Gras, which are being PROVED by a video uploaded to YouTube and has sparked an angry outcry  for an a full formal police investigation and dismissal and criminal charges against the officers involved

The Australian gay news site Same Same reports on the story that one of that nights victim, shown in the video being savagely handled by police claims he was arrested for simply attempting to cross the road during the parade.

A witness at the scene with her two teenaged sisters says the violent actions of the officers involved left her younger siblings seriously traumatized. “They were crying while the police bashed the boy’s head into the cement,” she said. “It was horrible, disgusting behaviour.”

Another witness adds: “They picked him up by the throat and slammed him into the ground with his head hitting the ground that hard it sounded like a bowling ball hitting the ground,” she said. “This was while he was in handcuffs.”

Onlookers in the video can be heard protesting and alleging the man had been  handled violently before the video started rolling. “We just saw you whack his  head against the ground,” a woman can be heard to say. “His blood is on the  ground”.

Another police officer instructs the person behind the camera to “stop  filming, mate”. When asked why, the officer responds: “Cos I said”.

Watch the shocking video of the incident below.

WARNING:  Graphic and disturbing content.

Two Gay Men Sue Cleveland PD, Claiming They Were Beaten Because of Sexuality

Fox 8 News in Cleveland is reporting that two gay men, Steven Ondo and Jonathan Simcox, are suing the Cleveland Police Department because, according to their attorney, “[their] rights were violated in part of who they are, because they are homosexuals.”

According to the report, Simcox and Ondo were hauled off to jail in their underwear last April after an argument outdoors. Simcox’s brother asked police if he could get the couple pants and shoes, one of the officers responded by saying, “You can go get them shoes, but faggots don’t deserve to wear pants in jail.”

Head over to the Fox 8 website to see the full report.

Video – Lieutenant John Pike Viscously Pepper Sprays Unarmed Student Protestors At UC Davis

Pike and his fellow officers claim they were in fear of thier lives.

They look threatened by the unarmed kids sitting on the ground, don’t they?

Lieutenant John Pike Phone: 530-752-3989 –  email: japikeiii@ucdavis.edu

Thousands March In Occupy Wall Streets Day Of Action, NYPD Reacts With Brutality And Arrests

Thousands of protesters have descended on lower Manhattan’s  financial district for Occupy Wall Street’s Day of Action literally shutting down Wall Street and lower Manhattan.

Peaceful protestor violently arrested

Occupy Wall Street’s Day of Action had been planned before the city and park owners cracked down on the encampment in Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, but took on added importance after police brutally evicted protesters from Zuccotti Park destroying  tents, tarps and even books by orders of Mayor Bloomberg who planned along with 18 other Mayors across the country planned on how to stop the protestors, including openly gay Democrat Sam Adams of Portland, OR

This is a critical moment for the movement given what happened the other night,” said Paul Knick, 44, a software engineer from Montclair, N.J. “It seems like there’s a concerted effort to stop the movement and I’m here to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Reports of whats happening at this morning action in Downtown are sketchy but Jamie Kilstein, activist and cohost of Citizen Radio, is reporting via Twitter that arrests are happening and the NYPD is using forcing, clubbing and dragging away protesters indiscriminately including the arrest of Nadia Lapsina, a disabled woman in a wheelchair.

One of the more dramtic moments of the morning so far has come with the arrest of  retired Philadelphia Police Captain Ray Lewis, who in uniform, knelt in front of police line and asked to be arrested in a show of solidarity to the protesters and to make a statement against the police brutality and excessive force that the NYPD is using on the protestors.

Jamie Kilstien will be folowing the events of the day and pisting vis Twitter.  

Follow Jamie @JamieKilstein  or use the Twitter hashtags #OWS and #N17 to get the real story and news updates that the mainstream media news outlets are refusing to cover.