This cop made a bigoted video calling for murder — and he still has a job

Of respondents who interacted with police or law enforcement officers who thought or knew they were transgender in the past year, 57% said they were never or only sometimes treated respectfully. Further, 58% reported some form of mistreatment, such as being repeatedly referred to as the wrong gender, verbally harassed, or physical or sexually assaulted. More than half (57%) of respondents said they were either somewhat or very uncomfortable asking the police for help.

Police often profile transgender people as sex workers simply for existing in public spaces. Activists in New York have worked to repeal Loitering for the Purpose of Prostitution, a misdemeanor commonly known as the “walking while trans ban.”

Bianey Garcia, a community organizer in New York, told the Eagle that she has seen the effects of this law firsthand. Garcia is a transgender Latinx woman who works for Make the Road New York, a group that advocates for immigrant and workers rights. She said transgender people “are afraid to express their gender” or to “wear anything sexy or put heels on for fear of being arrested.”

Last year, transgender activists and community leaders in Washington, D.C., advocated for sex work decriminalization, and argued that criminalization threatens transgender people’s well-being.

Sisco isn’t the first police officer this year who was allowed to keep his job after making anti-LGBTQ comments. In May, Chicago police officer Matthew Drinnan was recorded calling a protester a homophobic slur. While the Chicago Police Department initially stripped Drinnan of his police powers, it is unclear whether he will be fired altogether.

The city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability has called for Drinnan to be fired, according to records obtained by CBS 2 in Chicago. The outlet reported that an “additional review process” is still needed, however, before Drinnan can be terminated.

The Chicago police union is fighting his potential firing.

John Catanzara, head of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, said Drinnan only needs “maybe a little training,” and that his police powers should never have been stripped, CBS 2 Chicago reported.

Catanzara even went so far as to imply that Drinnan was justified in using a homophobic slur.

“No one talks about the fact that he was the victim of an aggravated battery,” Catanzara told news outlets earlier this month. “He was hit in the back with a traffic cone.”

Drinnan is back at work after receiving an unspecified training, according to Catanzara.

“We’re never going to accept. We’re going to keep fighting,” the police union president said.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.