Gay Man Alleges PD Hate Crime

Coppers Beat Queer?

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The Chicago Police Department’s getting all sorts of negative attention after Alexander Ruppert alleged coppers smeared him in an anti-gay attack. According to Rupert’s lawsuit, officers took him into custody after he “caused a disturbance” at Uptown Lounge. That’s when things got ugly. And hateful.

From Chicago’s WBBM:

The officers allegedly escorted 35-year-old Alexander Ruppert at about 10:30 p.m. March 5, 2006, from the Uptown Lounge, at 1136 W. Lawrence Av. Ruppert’s life partner, David Flood, called Ruppert as he sat in the squad car without handcuffs.

According to the suit, Foster Avenue District Officers Vincent Torres and Kent Pemberton stated in their report on the incident that they intended to take him to fill out a “contact card.”

Ruppert, who is 5’5″ tall and weighs 120 pounds, claims in the suit that the officers, twice his size, took him instead behind the nearby Uptown Theater, out of sight of nearby traffic, and beat him, while taunting him for being gay, calling him a “faggot” and using other derogatory remarks.

Attorney Jon Erickson said the beating stopped only when Ruppert told them he had AIDS did they stop punching him.

After that, said attorney Michael Oppenheimer, Ruppert was taken to Weiss Memorial Hospital, received 16 stitches for injuries to his face and head, and was then taken to the Foster Avenue police station, held for 48 hours before being charged with resisting arrest and aggravated battery against a police officer, and then was held for a week in the Cook County Jail, until he could make his $50,000 bond.

Because beating someone simply isn’t enough, right?

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