Bashing Back: Gay and Lesbian Street Patrols and the Criminal Justice System
![handle is hein.journals/lieq11 and id is 301 raw text is: Bashing Back: Gay and Lesbian Street
Patrols and the Criminal Justice
System
Kirstin S. Dodge*
I. Introduction
Burlington, Vt.: An assailant brutally attacked a gay man
outside of Pearls, a gay bar, leaving him unconscious in a pool
of blood. As a result of the assault, the victim suffered multiple
skull fractures, brain damage, and partial blindness. After his
arrest, the suspect said to police, You want to know the truth?
I went looking for it. I went to Pearls, found a fag, and kicked
the shit out of him.'
[Six police officers] forced me against the police car with my
face against the car .... At that point, they punched me and
used a nightstick. They pulled me up off the car, they called me
a faggot and put me down on the ground. They kicked me and
spat on me, pulled me up from the ground, put me back down
on the ground and kicked me again.2
The message is simple: queer folk are banding together and
walking the streets in cities around the United States to protect
their own. Their tactics and strategies differ, but the basic aim
is always the same: stop the violence in gay and lesbian
neighborhoods.3
Targeted, assaulted, battered, and murdered because of their
sexual orientation, people in the gay and lesbian community are
fighting for their lives. But in their struggle, they cannot simply
turn to the police and courts to protect them. Police dismiss the
violence directed against the community and insult and demean
lesbian and gay persons who come to them for help.4 Sometimes,
* B.A. Yale University, 1988, J.D. Harvard Law School, 1992. Special thanks
to Professors Charles Ogletree and Martha Minow, and to Ruth Bolden, Jill Hargis,
and Anita Krattinger. Thanks, also, to Alex Cleghorn and the Seattle Q-Patrol.
1. Steve Karpf, Don't Tread On Us!: The Rise of Community Safety Patrols, GAY
CoMMuNrTY NEWS, Aug. 11-17, 1991, at 8, 9 (incidents extracted from NATIONAL GAY
AND LESBIAN TASK FORCE POLICY INSTITuTE, ANTi-GAY/LEsBIAN VIOLENCE, VICTIMIZA-
TION AND DEFAMATION IN 1990 (1991)).
2. Nina Reyes, Cops Charged With Brutality Again After Demo, OUTWEEK, Feb.
27, 1991, at 11.
3. Steve Karpf, Getting Defensive: Queer Patrols Hit the Streets, GAY Coweu-
NTrY NEWS, Aug. 11-17, 1991, at 1.
4. See infra notes 99-103, 119-123 and accompanying text.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/lieq11&div=13&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Bashing Back: Gay and Lesbian Street Patrols and the Criminal Justice System
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