New York gay hate crime victim blasts police

By

CAHIR O'DOHERTY,

Irish Voice Reporter

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Tarlach MacNiallais (center) was very unhappy with how he was treated by police following his assault at a nightclub

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“I was kept face down on the sidewalk the whole time. I was not allowed to explain the situation to anyone. Whenever I tried to talk I was told to shut up. One particular cop went beyond that by swearing at me repeatedly.”

Eventually, MacNiallais says, a female police officer allowed him to give his version of events. At this point he was released from handcuffs without charge. A nearby ambulance was waiting to transport him for treatment after the assault. But when MacNiallais asked for his partner to join him in the ambulance he was refused.

“No one is going with you in the ambulance, the police said. When Juan tried to get into the ambulance they would not let him.  When Juan explained to the officer that they were all members of his family they replied, “No one is going with him.”

MacNiallais was so disturbed by the actions of the police by this point that he decided he would not travel to the hospital without his partner. He got out of the ambulance and refused to go. Meanwhile, MacNiallais, another police officer told Juan’s brothers that they should simply leave the scene before the police chief arrived, or they would be in trouble.

“My brother’s in law and my partner and I all left. They took me home. They did not arrest my assailants, even though it was my brother in law who had called them to the scene. They did not afford me the opportunity to make a report about the assault, even though I asked them to.

They refused to bring me for medical attention because I did not want to go alone. And, from what I was told by the Police Internal Affairs Department, any time they put someone in cuffs there needs to be some sort of report written, but Internal Affairs are having a really tough time finding it, or finding out who the police officers I encountered were. I was told no report was filed.”

MacNiallais is at pains to point out that he is not attacking the NYPD in general. There are, he says, a majority of fair and decent police officers. When he called the police the morning after the assault he was well treated. He also received a call, he says, from John Lavelle, the Commanding Officer of the 115 precinct apologizing for what he called the disrespectful treatment of some officers.

“He apologized, he asked if I was doing better, and to assure me he would do everything in his power to make sure the police who were disrespectful would be investigated. It was the particular officers that I encountered who were not doing their duty to address the fact that I had been assaulted. They did not allow me to file charges, they arrested no one, and they refused to allow my partner to travel with me to the hospital even though I have the right to request that.”

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