‘Police officer doesn’t like people like us’

‘Police officer doesn’t like people like us’

Statement of a gay cross-dresser

My name is Adel Abdulrahim, and it took me many hard years to look in the mirror and not only accept the person that was staring back at me, but to respect him also. This is when I was able to accept and respect others as well. In the early morning of Friday March 25th, 2005, I was sitting in the Beaver Doughnut Shop at the corner of Sherburne and Wellesley in downtown Toronto with my friend “Loraine”. When I was interrupted and then escorted to the door where I was physically pushed outside. During his actions the man said that he was a police officer and that he did not like people like us.

My friend Loraine is a transsexual and I am a gay man who likes to cross dress. Both Loraine and I love to go out to that coffee shop all dressed up and have a coffee and something to eat. The staff has always been extremely nice and polite towards us. The police officer was not in uniform and he did not show his badge to us. We were able to get the license plate number of the car which he came out of.

The plate number being ‘AHVZ 843’ the car was not a marked police car either. He came into the coffee shop and immediately approached my friend and I, he told us to get up and leave and to never return to this shop again, we politely asked why, and he told us that we are trespassing and that he “does not like people like us”. The man did not ask for my name, nor did he ask for my id. He told the staff of the shop to never serve me again and this is when he pushed me hard out of the coffee shop.

At this time I was in shock and very scared because of the way I was just humiliated, escorted, and physically pushed out of the shop. I felt very discriminated against, and worst of all it was from the people who I believed where there to serve and to protect. I did not know what to do or where to go. I only knew that what just happened was not fair or proper. I called 911 and they sent a car right away.

While I was doing this, there were three plain clothed police officers (two men and one woman) who were looking at us and laughing. The police car came and I asked the police officer in the car, “Are you here for Adel?” They replied, no, and started talking to the police officer who had just pushed me out and other men with him. Then the police car just left. I kept on waiting in the cold for another ten to fifteen minutes, but still nothing, no police officer looking for Adel. Therefore I called 911 again and they told me that they had someone coming soon. The exact same police car came again and still they showed absolutely no interest in approaching me. I approached the car and asked them again, “Are you here for Adel?” This time they responded, yes. I explained to them what had just happened and told them that the plain clothes officer had just kicked me out of the coffee shop with excessive force, that he also did not show me his badge and I told them the remark he made which was he “he does not like people like us”. The police officers in the car told me that they could not take a complaint against another fellow officer and that I would have to wait for a sergeant to arrive. I told the two police officers in the car that it was very cold out and that I could not wait outside any more. They advised me to go to the police station.

Then on the early morning of Wednesday, March 30th, 2005 the same man who had forcibly removed me from the coffee shop on March 25th, 2005 came in with another man. This time he showed me his badge and introduced himself as “Mike”, this was the first time I had heard his name. He said to me “Do I have to arrest you now, to make you never come here again?” He then asked to speak with me outside, I followed him out and this is where he said to me that the owners had told him that people like me are unwelcome there. I did not understand why he was saying this, when, while I was a customer there I had the best service by the staff. I have known the staff at that coffee shop for the last six months and they have been extremely nice to me and always welcomed me in their shop with open arms.