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Protesters Demand Justice for Slain Transgender Woman Islan Nettles

HeadlineJan 31, 2014

A group of transgender women and their allies gathered outside New York City Police Department headquarters to demand justice for Islan Nettles. Nettles was a 21-year-old transgender woman of color who was taunted with anti-gay slurs and then beaten to death in Harlem last August. A suspect was arrested on assault charges, but the case against him was later dismissed. So far no one has been charged with murder in the case. Protesters accused police of mishandling the investigation.

Lourdes Ashley Hunter, Trans Women of Color Collective of Greater New York: “With Islan Nettles, she was beaten until she could move no more, outside of a police station. She was in a crux of three different police stations in a gentrified neighborhood of Harlem where 10 different cameras are not working. This goes beyond just brutality and discrimination and against trans folks. What about the safety of all New Yorkers? How could it be in the middle of Harlem and cameras don’t work? This could happen to anyone. If it happened to a white woman, would we be standing out here right here in the freezing cold fighting for justice six months later?”

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