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5 Lesbian Friends Beaten In D.C. – Police Refuse To Arrest Attacker
Scene of the crime.
Barely two weeks after a July 6 Washington D.C. Council hearing where Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier met with community leaders over concern that police response to recent bias-related incidents targeting the LGBT community was lacking, five lesbians were attacked near the Columbia Heights Metro Station.
21-year-old Yazzmen Morse, her girlfriend, and three of their friends were approached by two men who hit on them. One of the women said they weren’t interested, and that Morse was her girlfriend to shoo the men off.
Realizing that the women weren’t going to be sleeping with them anytime soon, one of the men instead began to repeatedly punch Morse in the face and head, all the while calling the group anti-gay slurs. By the time police arrived, four out of five of the women had been beaten.
The D.C. police officers who arrived on the scene refused to file a report or arrest the two men who had just attacked the women, even as the men continued to shout anti-gay epithets while the police spoke with the group.
It took a week of talking with the police, and a phone call from Morse’s mother to the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit for charges to be officially filed. 19-year-old Christian Washington has now been charged with assault.
What’s with the unequal treatment under the law, D.C.? Are these officers being terminated or disciplined? This type of professional conduct is obviously inappropriate, but also illegal. We hope and expect to see the officers in question dealt with immediately.
(via GLAADblog)
