Streamer 'Keffals' Held in Transphobic 'Swatting,' Alleges Police Bias
newsweek.comPolice took the fake messages seriously despite a series of grammatical errors and other hints that they could be the work of online trolls—including information about her "deadname," a term that transgender people sometimes use to describe their legal names before transitioning.Sorrenti said that she was arrested after being woken up by London Police Services officers pointing an assault rifle in her face.
She later learned that forged emails detailing the fake violent narrative about her had been sent to every city councilor a short time earlier.
Sorrenti said that police booked her under her deadname and repeatedly used the name to refer to her during interrogation, despite her having changed her name legally more than 10 years earlier."The police referred to me during the arrest by my deadname.
I was booked in the station under my deadname. The police, when talking to my mother, called me 'her son,'" Sorrenti said in a YouTube video about the incident. "This is despite the fact that I have run for political office both as a member of Parliament and a member of Provincial Parliament under my name, Clara Sorrenti.""The fact that a fake email—the one that made police officers point an assault rifle at me—led to London Police Services booking me under my deadname reveals the prejudice that many police have towards transgender people," she added.A name that appears on photos of bags that police gave Sorrenti to return some of her items appear to back up her claim of being "deadnamed" during the arrest and interrogation.
