In a first-of-its-kind report on police abuse of sexual minorities in the United States, AI reveals that police mistreatment and abuse of LGBT people nationwide go largely unchecked due to underreporting and unclear, under-enforced or nonexistent policies and procedures.

Along with reports of abuses compiled by AI was the 2003 incident in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn involving a Filipino transgender who was arrested following a melee with the police during an LGBT fund-raising event:

“When he (the Filipino transgender) gave the police his ID and papers, an officer said, ‘I know what you are. I know your kind. I just want you to know you’re never going to have a family like me, kids like me, a dog like me. And know that whatever you strap on between your legs will never be as real or as big as mine. You’re going to end up like the rest of your kind: without a job, homeless and shooting up drugs.’

“The police put him in a cell with female arrestees.

“Officers walked past him repeatedly, mocking his name and asking, ‘What is this thing?’”

AI said at least 20 LGBT people suffered injuries in that Brooklyn incident and that a civil lawsuit against the NYPD is now pending.

“Across the country, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people endure the injustices of discrimination, entrapment and verbal abuse, as well as brutal beatings and sexual assault at the hands of those responsible for protecting them — the police,” said Dr. William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA. “Some, including transgender individuals, people of color and the young suffer disproportionately, especially when poverty leaves them vulnerable to homelessness and exploitation and less likely to draw public outcry or official scrutiny. It is a sorry state of affairs when the police misuse their power to inflict suffering rather than prevent it.”

The AI report also documents how even when LGBT people report hate crimes, their complaints are often ignored.

The report includes plenty of New York-specific material in this report.

The dense, 132-page report — “Stonewalled: Police Abuse and Misconduct Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People in the U.S.,” available online at www.amnesty.org  — was based on a survey of the largest police departments in 50 states and on hundreds of interviews, and focused specifically on a half-dozen of the biggest cities, New York City among them.

Even though the NYPD refused to respond to the AI survey, the group was able to interview a number of New York City police officers individually, according to Gay City News.

Another example cited involved a white transgender woman who was allegedly beaten, hogtied and dragged by police officers across a hot pavement upon her arrest in Sacramento, California. She was placed in the county main jail cell with a male inmate who struck, choked, bit and raped her.

That inmate received a mere three-month sentence. No officer has been disciplined for the incidents surrounding Kelly’s incarceration.

Seventy-two percent of police departments responding to AI’s survey said they had no specific policy regarding interaction with transgender people.

In New York City, the report says, “It is unclear whether or not the NYPD has a specific policy that governs interactions with transgender individuals.”