OFF THE WIRE
BY: JESSICA SICK
Source: nbcmiami.com
Plaintiff says defendants told him they were "sick of all the fucking fags in the neighborhood"
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the City of Miami Beach and two of its police officers for allegedly wrongfully arresting a gay man in February.
Harold Strickland claimed officers Frankly Forte and Elliot Hazzi were beating and kicking a handcuffed man as he laid on the ground in Flamingo Park. Strickland called 911, which was when the officers approached him and told him to hang up his phone.
"We know what you're doing here," Strickland said the officers told him. "We're sick of all the f***ing fags in the neighborhood." He was then arrested and allegedly subjected to the officers' gay slurs.
The charges were later dropped, and Hazzi and Forte were placed on desk duty.
The ACLU has been involved with the case from the start, but only now has the organization filed an official lawsuit.
"For years the ACLU has received reports that Miami Beach police have targeted gay men near Flamingo Park for nothing more than being gay," Shelbi Day, an attorney with the ACLU of Florida's LGBT Advocacy Project, said in a statement. "When the police become the problem rather than part of the solution, the entire community suffers. It is time for the City to end the discriminatory policies and practices of its police force."
Evidence for the case includes Strickland's 911 call and cell phone record as well as the officers' incident report, in which the ACLU claims the officers lied to cover up their misconduct.
Though the ACLU recognized that Police Chief Noriega had initiated improvements between the police and the gay community, the organization claims that Forte and Hazzi have still not been punished.
"With this lawsuit," Day said, "we hope to vindicate Mr. Strickland's rights and send the message to the City and the police that it will be held responsible for misconduct and discrimination."
In response to the lawsuit, the Miami Beach Police Department stated that "it is not the City's policy to comment on pending litigation or open investigations" and that they continue to "work closely with the City's GLBT community."
