Prostitution arrest raises concerns about D.C. police transgender treatment
October 4, 2010 - 03:30 PM
By Amanda Hess
http://www.tbd.com/blogs/amanda-hess/2010/10/trans-prostitution-arrests-d-c-police-2643.html (http://www.tbd.com/blogs/amanda-hess/2010/10/trans-prostitution-arrests-d-c-police-2643.html)
On Friday, Sept. 24, D.C. police conducted an undercover sting operation inside Woodley Park's Marriott Wardman Park hotel. Police arrested six people on charges of solicitation of prostitution that night—one of them a transgender woman.
Following the arrest, local trans advocate Ruby Corado says she received reports that the woman had been unfairly targeted based on her gender identity, and that she was later placed in a cell with men. Both allegations are violations of the police department's regulations on interacting with trans citizens.
I just don't understand the District some times, I mean the city government has done so much in the way of protecting TG/TS people with the law, but at the same point the workers on the ground seem always to be causing problems. IIRC it was only a few years ago that emergency workers coming to a traffic accident refused to help a transwoman resulting in her death. What recourse is the law, if it isn't even enforced?
I need to move to Canada, it might not have a spotless record either, but personally I have yet to meet a Canadian who would let someone die right in front of them, and sadly I know many people locally who would.