| Beating of Chrissy Lee Polis | |
|---|---|
 Interactive map of Beating of Chrissy Lee Polis | |
| Location | 39°20′20″N76°30′20″W / 39.338778°N 76.505543°W /39.338778; -76.505543 Rosedale, Maryland, U.S. |
| Date | April 18, 2011; 14 years ago (2011-04-18) c. 8:00 p.m.EDT (UTC-05:00) |
Attack type | Beating,hate crime,violence against LGBT people |
| Victim | Chrissy Lee Polis |
| Perpetrators | Teonna Monae Brown and unnamed 14-year-old girl |
| Motive | Transphobia |
| Verdict | Pleaded guilty |
| Convictions | First-degreeassault,hate crime |
| Filmed by | Vernon Hackett |
| Outcome | Hackett fired fromMcDonald's for being abystander |
| Sentence | Brown: 5 years in prison, plus 5-yearsuspended sentence 14-year-old: Indefinite sentence injuvenile detention; mandatory release at age 21 |
Chrissy Lee Polis is atransgender woman who was beaten in ananti-transgender motivatedhate crime on April 18, 2011, at aMcDonald's inRosedale, Maryland, just northeast of the city limits ofBaltimore. A video of the beating was posted online and wentviral. The attack had been conducted by two teenaged females, aged 14 and 19. They were both prosecuted. The case heightened awareness of violence against transgender people in Maryland and protests were conducted.
A state law that had protections for transgender people failed to pass shortly before the attack.Gov. Martin O'Malley said he intended to work with the legislature on a bill to provide more protections for transgender people. In addition,Howard County passed a county law protecting transgender people within its boundaries.
Shortly before 8 p.m. on April 18, 2011,[1] two teenagers beat a transgender woman at aMcDonald's inRosedale, anunincorporated community inBaltimore County,Maryland, inGreater Baltimore.[2] The McDonald's, located at the 6300 block of Kenwood Avenue, (39°20′20″N76°30′20″W / 39.338778°N 76.505543°W /39.338778; -76.505543)[3] was in proximity to theGolden Ring Mall.[4]
The victim, Chrissy Lee Polis, was 22 at the time of the attack.[2] Polis, then a resident ofBaltimore,[3] said that she was going to use a restroom, when a female individual spat in her face. Then she and another female person started attacking Polis. One of the attackers was 14 years old. A McDonald's employee, Vernon Hackett, filmed the beating and the attempts of another employee and a customer to intervene in the attack.[5][2] Other McDonald's employees in the video are heard to be laughing.[6] Hackett was fired on April 23, after makingtransphobic remarks about Polis on Facebook.[4]
The beating lasted for several minutes. Weijia Jiang ofCBS Baltimore said, "Then after a powerful blow to the head, the victim appears to have a violent seizure, and as she bleeds from the mouth, spectators warn the attackers to flee before cops arrive."[1] Polis said that she had been intoxicated during the attack, and that she had a seizure.[7] She received cuts to the face and mouth. Polis stated that she believed that beingtransgender was to blame for the assault.[3]
The three-minute video of the incident was posted online and became popular. Justin Fenton ofThe Baltimore Sun said that the video was "apparently" first posted onYouTube but was later taken down.[8] The same video later was posted to other websites,[8] includingWorldStar HipHop.[9] On one website, the video received over 500,000 views by the early evening of April 22, 2012.[8]
TheDrudge Report linked to the video and gave it a prominent status for much of the day it was posted. Fenton said "The video received widespread attention part because of the racial dynamics of the attack – the attackers were black, and the victim is white."[8] McDonald's issued a statement, saying that it fired the employee who had taped the incident.[2]
After the attack, a pro-transgender advocacy group, Equality Maryland,[8] asked the county officials to consider investigating the case to determine if it was ahate crime.[10] Scott D. Shellenberger, an attorney for the state of Maryland, said that hate crime charges may result from the attack; at the time he was not aware of the gender identity of the victim.[8]
On July 1, 2011, the 14-year-old admitted responsibility in the juvenile criminal system. The other attacker, 19-year-old Teonna Monae Brown, pleaded guilty to her role in the attack on Thursday August 4, 2011,[11] in the Baltimore County Circuit Court.[12] Brown pleaded guilty to one count of first degree assault and one count of a hate crime.[11]
Prosecutors sought to give Brown a 10-year sentence, with 5 of those years suspended. The maximum possible sentence for all of the crimes committed would have been 35 years.[11] Brown was given the sentence sought by prosecutors.[12] Some advocates for transgender people argued that the sentence was not severe enough.[13]
David Zurawick ofThe Baltimore Sun said that the posting of the video publicized "the vulnerability and lack of protection for transgendered citizens in Baltimore".[9]
The week after the attack, hundreds of people started a protest against the incident. Some organizations representing transgender people stated that they wished to use the incident to highlight violence against transgender people.[14] Shortly before the beating had occurred, a proposed Maryland law that would have added protections for transgender people failed to pass the legislature. The modified version that was passed did not have these protections.[15]
By November 2011 a bill to add protections for transgender people began circulating in the government ofHoward County, Maryland.[15] On Monday, December 5, 2011, Howard County passed the protections for transgender people into county law.[12]
