This made the front page of CNN this morning:

Police video that was recorded on Feb. 12 shows transsexual Duanna Johnson in the booking area at the Memphis Police Department after an arrest on prostitution charges.

Surveillance video shows an officer walk over and hit her in the face several times.

The policeman was heckling Johnson, calling her "he/she" and a "faggot," and she replied by telling him that "that wasn't my name. My mother didn't name me a faggot or a he/she." Basically, she doesn't take any flack from the police -- good for her. But it turned sour when the policeman came around the desk and started beating her. A jail nurse apparently walked past Johnson after she was beaten without offering her help. There's video footage (warning: obviously violent) posted on the news article.

Repercussions were swift but mild at the start. The officer, James Swain, was fired. Another officer was put on desk duty. An "internal investigation" has begun. But does anything ever come from internal investigations post-police brutality? Call me cynical, but we've all seen too many cases of fucked up treatment like this by the police -- even *murder* -- without so much as a slap on the wrist. Let's hope that this case is different.

Sadly, transgender women of color -- particularly those that are homeless and/or engage in sex work -- are often the target of violence today. It wasn't long ago that the body of Ruby Rodriguez was found near a freeway off-ramp in San Francisco. No arrests were ever made in the case, as far as I know. And before that, of course, there was Gwen Araujo.

I remember first realizing this kind of targeted violence while attending the LGBT youth group in my hometown of Charlotte, NC. A transgender woman named Cocoa attended regularly, and she had a large scar that ran across her neck. I found out later that a client slit her throat and left her for dead. Luckily -- miraculously -- she survived the attack.

As long as they are viewed as being less than human, we can expect these kind of horrific attacks to continue.