Date: Fri, 3 Feb 1995 17:47:12 -0500
From: GAYLESBLA@aol.com
Subject: lapd hate crimes

L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center and A.C.L.U. Demand
Immediate Action Against L.A.P.D. Officers Who
Committed Hate Crimes

  Immediate Hearings by Police Commission Demanded in Response to N.Y.
   Times Story (Jan. 22) Which Documents Hate Crimes Against Gay Youth

     LOS ANGELES, Jan. 27, 1995 -- At a news conference this morning,
the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Community Services Center was joined by
the A.C.L.U.  Foundation of Southern California and the Gay & Lesbian
Police Advisory Task Force in demanding immediate action against
L.A.P.D. officers who committed a hate crime against a young gay man
that was documented in a New York Times Magazine cover story (Jan. 22).

     The New York Times story quotes an L.A.P.D. officer in the Rampart
Division of the L.A.P.D. saying, "Stand still you [expletive] faggot.
You're a faggot aren't you?  You look like a faggot... Hey, you got
AIDS?" to Julien, a 19-year-old robbery victim.  The young man, alone on
the street, had called police for help.  Following their brutal abuse,
the officers violated L.A.P.D. policy by abandoning him when he said he
wanted to kill himself.

     "We will not tolerate hate crimes being perpetrated by our own
police force," said Lorri L. Jean, executive director of the Gay &
Lesbian Center.

 "The mission of the L.A.P.D. is to serve and protect, not seek and
destroy.  But that's exactly what some officers are doing to innocent
youth -- youth who call them for help, not abuse and harassment.

     "We at the Gay & Lesbian Center have a message for Julien, if he is
still alive.  Julien, please come to the Gay & Lesbian Center.  We have
a shelter for homeless youth that has room for you.  You can find a home
and safety here, free from abuse by the L.A.P.D."

     Specifically, the organizations demanded that all officers involved
in the incident be removed from street duty, that results of the
investigation be made public, that officers found to have behaved
inappropriately suffer the maximum punishment, that corrective measures
be taken to prevent future hate crimes by officers, and that the
L.A.P.D. issue a public condemnation of the officers' behavior and a
public apology to the young man.

     They also demanded that Chief Willie Williams appoint an openly
lesbian or gay police officer to serve as a liaison to the gay/lesbian
community, as is routinely done with respect to other communities, and
create a special hate crimes unit.

     "If this is how some police officers behave in the presence of a
reporter and a photographer," Ms. Jean said, "I shudder to think how
they must behave when they are not under such scrutiny."

     The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Community Services Center is the
world's oldest and largest gay/lesbian non-profit organization, a
leading equal rights advocate, and home to an array of free or low cost
health, educational, cultural and social programs serving more than
12,000 ethnically diverse youth and adults each month.  It is one of the
county's largest HIV/AIDS care providers and the nation's largest
anonymous HIV test site.  Other programs include a youth shelter and
services, legal aid, anti-violence project, mental health, job training
and placement, computerized AIDS information network, self-help and
education, lesbian health clinic, and extensive AIDS-related education
and outreach.