Memphis Police Association President J.D. Sewell says Bridges McRae went into today’s administrative hearing thinking that he would be keeping his job. I’m so glad he was unpleasantly surprised. According to Sewell, McRae says he did nothing wrong. He beat a defenseless trannsexual in the face with his hand wrapped in handcuffs for not answering to hate epithets and he didn’t think he did anything wrong. They had already fired the guy who held her down (Swain). I have no idea how he could think his behavior was justified. That mindset makes it clear how large a problem this police force really has. Simply firing the perps isn’t enough. Officers still on duty need to see these 2 prosecuted and properly punished.

From the looks of them, I bet if she’d been on her own turf, Duanna Johnson would have kicked the crap out of both of them.

keep up writing and calling.

Mayor Willie W. Herenton
City Hall
125 N. Main St. Room 700
Memphis, Tn 38103
901-576-6007

Shelby County District Attorney’s Office
201 Poplar Avenue, Third Floor
Memphis, Tennessee 38103
901-545-5900

Media inquiries should be directed to:
Jennifer Donnals, Communications Director
901-545-5988
jennifer.donnals@scdag.com

Detective Monique Y. Martin
Memphis Police Department
Office of Public Information/Media Relations
201 Poplar Avenue Room 12-08
Memphis, Tennessee 38103
901.545.3024 office
901.545.5740 fax
pio@memphistn.gov
www.memphispolice.org

The Honorable Governor Phil Bredesen
Governor’s office
Tennessee State Capitol
Nashville, TN 31243-0001

Phone: 615-741-2001
Fax: 615-532-9711

phil.bredesen@state.tn.us
A list of elected government officials may be found at:
www.tennesseeanytime.org/government/elected.html

More coverage of Memphis Police Officers Bridges McRae and James Swain beating of transsexual Duanna Johnson while she was in custody is hitting the net as we speak.

Also more details are surfacing. Apparently the ONLY reason this brutal assault was brought to the attention of Memphis Police Department’s Internal Affairs was because McRae has the gall to file a complaint against another officer who was present for not helping McRae “during the incident” (the incident in question would be the beating). These people have NO idea that what they did was wrong and we CANNOT trust this system to police itself.

Associate Press:

and Surprise Surprise FOX NEWS even covered it.

here are some great thoughts on the matter that were posted as comments at one of my favorite sites for gay news, Queerty.

I think the Memphis Police Department has some explaining to do and at the very least, owes the LGBT community an apology. I would strongly urge the writing of letters of protest, as is my intention to do, from the LGBT community to the governor of Tennessee and other state representatives demanding a full investigation into this matter.

The Honorable Governor Phil Bredesen
Governor’s office
Tennessee State Capitol
Nashville, TN 31243-0001

Phone: 615-741-2001
Fax: 615-532-9711

phil.bredesen@state.tn.us
A list of elected government officials may be found at:
www.tennesseeanytime.org/government/elected.html

via Queerty and Lavender Newswire

Contact info for the Mayor of memphis and the Memphis District Attorney’s office can be found in my original story.

This video, taken February 12th 2008 clearly shows Memphis police Officer Bridges McRae, 28 walk over to Duanna Johnson - a transsexual suspect being held after a prostitution arrest - and hit her in the face several times while Officer James Swain, 25 holds her back.

The beating began after the bigoted officer got upset when she refused to answer to anti-gay slurs such as “faggot” and “he-she”. This is unacceptable behavior for a public servant. This is a violent assault proceeded by hate speech. Sounds like a hate crime to me. After the incident the Police dropped the prostitution arrest against Ms. Johnson (no doubt hoping that would be the end of it), but no charges have been filed against the officers in question.

I hope they throw the book at the officers, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. Swain is no longer with the MPD, but McRae has only been placed on non-enforcement status pending an administrative hearing. I hope Duanna Johnson presses charges.

video wouldn’t embed - but here is a link.

If you’d like to know what is being done about this, ask the Mayor of Memphis or the District Attorney’s office… their contact info is after the video, and elected officials are always the best ones to deluge with complaints. The DA’s office has the discretion to prosecute who they want and I spoke to their media rep Jennifer Donnals who says they have NO PLANS to prosecute these officers. Lets see if we can change that.

Mayor Willie W. Herenton
City Hall
125 N. Main St. Room 700
Memphis, Tn 38103
901-576-6007

Shelby County District Attorney’s Office
201 Poplar Avenue, Third Floor
Memphis, Tennessee 38103
901-545-5900

Media inquiries should be directed to:
Jennifer Donnals, Communications Director
901-545-5988
jennifer.donnals@scdag.com

A request for a comment from the Memphis Police Department resulted in them sending the following prepared statement…

The Memphis Police Department does not condone any misconduct of a police officer that will compromise official law enforcement duties or the rights or safety of our citizens.

As it relates to the February incident that occurred at the jail facility, the police department has been conducting a thorough internal investigation. The details surrounding the complainant, witnesses and law enforcement officials’ statements are part of an ongoing investigation and can not be released at this time.

As a standard departmental policy, a full, impartial hearing will be held with the accused officer.

Memphis Police can confirm the work status of the two primary officers involved in this complaint. Officer J. Swain was a probationary officer and has been separated from the Memphis Police Department. Officer B. McRae has been placed on non-enforcement status pending an administrative hearing.

Memphis Police can also confirm the Federal Bureau of Investigation had been notified and requested to look into the complaint further.

Regards,

Detective Monique Y. Martin
Memphis Police Department
Office of Public Information/Media Relations
201 Poplar Avenue Room 12-08
Memphis, Tennessee 38103
901.545.3024 office
901.545.5740 fax
pio@memphistn.gov
www.memphispolice.org

via Queerty and WMC-TV

Call it what you like. Former Politically Incorrect star Bill Maher has found a new way to piss off religious people. He has teamed with director Larry Charles (Borat, Curb Your Enthusiasm) to bring us Religulous, a documentary about the current state of world religion with a distinctly Maher point of view.

Here are 3 more reasons to love Bill Maher…

Maher’s heartfelt eulogy for perpetual thorn in our side, Jerry Falwell…

The recent rant on child raping cults and funny hatted former nazis that started the Catholic League et al., to do their best to get him fired…

His equally amusing and somewhat superior non-apology…

via BWE

Just saw this on CNN and has to track it down and post it…

Not endorsing anyone, but thought it was kinda funny…