Trans woman awarded $1.5 million for bogus drug arrest
metroweekly.comAtlanta Journal-Constitution in an emailed statement. “It should not have taken seven years and a federal jury trial to bring this to light.
It’s terrifying to think what other abuses the City of Atlanta has tolerated that haven’t gotten our attention. Our client was obviously profiled, as are so many others.”Goldring’s attorneys had argued in court that the arresting officers violated the department’s Transgender Interaction policy, adopted in 2014, which instructs officers to use a transgender individual’s name and correct pronouns during interactions and to treat them “in a manner appropriate to the individual’s gender identity.”In a written judgment last week, Judge William Ray, of the Northern District of Georgia’s Atlanta Division, said the cases highlighted two “injustices” at the hands of the department — the use of jaywalking charges as a pretext for charging people with other crimes and the existence of a point system that might coerce officers into issuing citations or making arrests in order to earn a certain number of “points” and avoid negative performance reviews from supervisors.“[D]ifferent witnesses at trial testified that APD officers sometimes arrest individuals — actually arrest them, not just write them a citation — for jaywalking.
In fact, Defendant Henry testified that, when he was an officer, he arrested everyone he saw jaywalking. Everyone. While the Court recognizes that jaywalking is a crime and that officers have discretion when to make arrests, the Court is nonetheless troubled by this practice,” Ray wrote.“For one thing, any arrest, even for a low-level offense likejaywalking, can seriously disrupt a person’s life, including by making it harder for him or her to obtain employment.
