You can add transgenders to the list of people who are allegedly being brutalized by the police on a daily basis.
President Obama's Justice Department on Thursday released a new training video for law enforcement teaching officers on how to deal with transgendered people they encounter, including if police are called to investigate a report of a man in a woman’s bathroom.
In the scenario depicted in the film, a woman calls the police after seeing a man dressed as a woman entering the women’s bathroom in a public place. The responding officer is then seen handling the situation “correctly” by simply approaching the man, asking him if he did in fact use the ladies' room, then apologizing for the inconvenience.
The woman who made the original call, on the other hand, is portrayed as an irritating, spiteful shrew.
The video’s narrator, Brett Parson, reminds officers that many transgenders “report having been assaulted by police officers” and “fear being stopped for something called ‘walking while trans.’”
“There’s an enormous need to repair this trust,” Parson states, adding that “transgender people are just trying to be their true selves and live their lives as members of our communities just like everyone else.”
A transgender woman then follows up on Parson’s claim, stating that many in the transgender community “see law enforcement as a non-ally.”
“Just because I’m transgender, you see me as a criminal or a sex worker,” the woman accuses. “There’s just not trust in law enforcement and that’s due to past treatment of us as a community.”
However, no actual data on transgender abuse or police brutality against LGBT persons are given during the entire 13-minute film.
Officers are instructed to use the full term “transgender,” as the abbreviated term “trans” may be offensive to some. The video also advises officers to “simply ask” a person how they’d like to be identified. This will ensure the person feels the officer is “knowledgeable about their community,” the video claims.
On top of how to handle transgendered persons, police are also taught to deal with the “broad spectrum” of gender identity, which the video alleges can range from a “feminine female” to a “masculine male.”
The video’s YouTube page has been disabled for comments. Watch the video here: