Frith Street Two

Two trans people on their way to the zombie flashmob in Soho Square, run by Queer Resistance, were detained, stopped and searched and arrested for breach of the peace after police found a tube of facepaint and a flyer for the flashmob. They were also sexually assaulted by the police officers who subjected them to unnecessary and illegal “intimate body searches”. These searches appeared to be purely to satisfy the individual police officers’ curiousity or to cause distress.

The sexual assaults are being dealt with separately to the Judicial Review as that is a criminal law matter regarding the behaviour of individual officers. The Judicial Review will cover their arrest and detention.

Who? What? When? Where? Why?
Personal Account
Media Coverage

Who? What? When? Where? Why?

Who: One transgender man (Logan Le’Belle) and one trangender woman (JMC) who were on their way to the zombie flashmob.
What: They were stopped and searched by police, both suspect they were targetted because they look different. Once detained they were groped repeatedly by officers – both at their arrests and later at the police station.
When: Initially detained at 10:30 AM 29th April
Where: Frith Street, London, later a police station.
Why: Arrested for ‘breach of the peace’ for possession of a flyer, some fake blood and a tube of face paint. Presumably sexually assaulted to satisfy the police officers’ own curiousity, to harass or intimidate them.

Personal Account

JMC says she was cupped repeatedly in the genital area when taken to the cells. “The copper who searched me at the cells first asked her sergeant if he was sure, and promptly spent the search looking like the piss was being took,” she says. “I presume I got cupped both a) to check, and b) to remind me I was in their power.”

Logan Le’Belle has written about his experience. Read the whole blog post here.

“At around 10.30am we made our way out of the of the sq smelling trouble coming and not wanting any, as we walked out onto one of the a joining roads out of the area heading south we pulled our bandanas up as some paparazzi took our pictures, neither of us wanted our pictures used as part of some media stunt. As we moved further up the road we pulled our bandanas down as to not be concealing our faces, as we knew this would single us out, fat luck really because we had already been spotted by a group of 6 police officers, consisting of five male and 1 female officer who then proceeded to pull us over and use Section 60 to stop and search us.”

“when searching my person the female police officer said to me “Okay, I’m going to feel under your bra now” To which I replied “That’s not a bra” At this point her hands were still on my chest “What is it then?!” ”A binder” ”Whats a binder?” (At this point, may I point out her hands were STILL on my chest) To this I said “I’m Transgendered” … May I mention at this point, that I am a fully trained security guard? So I know how to do a pat down, that was not a pat down that was a grope and a violation of my privacy”

Media Coverage

LGBT activists arrested during royal wedding Lesbilicious 29/04/2011

London Police Sexually Assault 2 Trans People During Royal Wedding? The Bilerico Project 02/05/2011