For the third time in the past year, a Chicago man is accusing police officers of gay-bashing him and has filed a federal civil-rights suit seeking damages.
Kentin Waits, 31, has named the City of Chicago, Office of Professional Standards Chief Administrator Callie Baird and unknown police officers in a suit stemming from a July 23, 2000, arrest.
Waits released details of the suit at a press conference last week attended by his attorney, Jon Loevy, and members of the Chicago Anti-Bashing Network.
According to Waits, his arrest came after a heated verbal volley between him and a Chicago police officer directing traffic at Irving Park and Ashland, after a Cubs game July 22. Waits admits that he squirted the officer with a water bottle and drove away. When he woke up the next morning, seven officers had surrounded his apartment building, and they took him to the 19th District station at Belmont and Western. On the way to the station, an officer apologized for the damage being done to his truck, which was impounded.
It was at the station that Waits said he was slammed into walls and doors while handcuffed and an officer asked if he had "heard all of those stories about police officers beating the shit out of punks," the suit says.
Waits said he was then taken into an interrogation room, handcuffed to a wall and slapped in the face and head about 15 times. He said officers also kneed him in the groin, all the while calling him "faggot" and other names.
He was held in custody for 22 hours, during which he said officers refused to give him food or provide him medication for a serious medical condition.
Waits was found guilty of simple assault, a misdemeanor, and received a year of non-reporting supervision. He subsequently filed a complaint against the officers with the Office of Professional Standards ( OPS ) , the police body in charge of investigating misconduct allegations.
OPS did not sustain Waits' allegations and has refused to disclose the names of the officers involved. In his suit, Waits accuses the department of trying to cover up the incident. "The Chicago police department does not value our rights, the rights of gays and lesbians in Chicago," Waits said. "I look over my shoulder now more than I ever did before."
A police spokesman would not comment, saying the department does not issue remarks on pending litigation.
Andy Thayer, of CABN, said, "What we have here is a culture of police violence, and unfortunately, it continues on and on."
In the past year, two other Chicago men...Frederick Mason and Jeffrey Lyons...have filed civil rights suits accusing officers of gay-bashing. Their cases are detailed in a report by the human-rights organization Amnesty International.
