Police beat transgender inside Memphis station, videotape emerges
”Actually he was trying to get me to come over to where he was, and I responded by telling him that wasn’t my name – that my mother didn’t name me a ‘faggot’ or a ‘he-she,’ so he got upset and approached me. And that’s when it started…. I was afraid. I had had enough. Like I said, I thought the other officers that were witnessing this would at least try to stop him…. I mean, he hit me so hard. Like the third time he hit me, it split my skull and I had blood coming out. So I jumped up…. I couldn’t breathe, and they just made me lay there,” Johnson said. “Nobody checked to see if I was okay. My eyes were burning. My skin was burning. I was scared to death. Even the nurse came in and she just ignored me, and I begged her to help me.”
Duanna Johnson, an M2F transgender who was arrested on February 12 on allegations of prostitution, recounting the abuse she received at the police booking center. In a tape of the incident that has come forward, an Ofc. Bridges McRae can clearly be seen punching Johnson in the face several times. He is apparently wearing gloves and has handcuffs wrapped around his fist. Another officer, James Swain is seen holding her down briefly while she is being hit. Johnson can be seen defending herself, then sitting back down, at which point she is maced and put on the floor in handcuffs. Other officers in the room appear to do nothing and a nurse who enters the room also appears to do nothing to assist Johnson. (WMC-TV)
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