美国国家公共电台 NPR Transgender Killings Spur Calls For Police Reform

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Four transgender women have been shot this year in Jacksonville, Fla. Three of the women died. There's been an outcry over how police have handled the cases. And as Lindsey Kilbride from member station WJCT reports, the sheriff's department is responding to calls for a better relationship with the local LGBT community.

LINDSEY KILBRIDE, BYLINE²: At nearly 4 a.m. on June 1, Antash'a Devine English was found between two abandoned homes with a gunshot wound. She later died in the hospital. Her close friend Chloie Kensington is still mourning her death.

CHLOIE KENSINGTON: I hadn't felt that type of hurt in a long time - long time.

KILBRIDE: English was the second transgender woman of color to be shot in Jacksonville this year; two more would soon follow. And Kensington considered English to be her god sister.

KENSINGTON: Especially during that time in my life when I didn't have many people to identify to.

KILBRIDE: The Human Rights Campaign has tracked 16 homicides of transgender people this year, three of them in Jacksonville alone.

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UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting) Black Trans Lives Matter. Black Trans Lives Matter. Black Trans Lives Matter.

KILBRIDE: With each of the shootings followed vigils and protests like this one at city hall earlier this summer. Equality Florida's Gina Duncan spoke³ saying, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, or JSO, is impeding⁴ its own investigations⁵ by not using victim's preferred names and pronouns, the way their friends knew them.

GINA DUNCAN: Besides misgendering these transgender women of color, JSO is also not interacting with the community.

KILBRIDE: None of the victims had legally changed their names to ones they actually used in life. The sheriff's department says these cases are also complicated. Not only were these women trans, they were also involved in prostitution-related activity. Authorities think their deaths have more to do with sex work than being trans. And the department says it's difficult to know someone's gender¹ identity if they're found deceased.

MATEO DE LA TORRE: That is why precisely⁶ you build a relationship with your community, your local transgender community. They will have the answers for you.

KILBRIDE: Mateo De La Torre with the National Center for Transgender Equality is working on a project grading police department's trans-inclusive policies, which Jacksonville doesn't have.

DE LA TORRE: There is a reason why according to the U.S. trans survey that 57 percent of transgender people do not trust to call the police when they're in need.

KILBRIDE: De La Torre says one of the most effective ways to repair that relationship is continual police training. Four years ago, Seattle's police department began training after appointing LGBTQ Liaison⁷ Officer Jim Ritter.

JIM RITTER: You wanted to make sure the officers really understood what transgender folks go through in their life.

KILBRIDE: Officers in Seattle now have to watch a training video and take a quiz on it. And the department made a policy saying officers have to use people's preferred pronouns and names, even including them on official documents. Jacksonville advocates hope the sheriff's department will follow a similar course. Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams eventually agreed to an LGBT community meeting earlier this summer. From the stage, he tells the audience he's now assembling an LGBT Liaison Team.

MIKE WILLIAMS: It shouldn't take a crisis like this, but because of this crisis I think that the team is an absolute necessity.

KILBRIDE: And offstage, he explains how he thinks the team can help.

WILLIAMS: These incidents really highlighted the need for us to have the ability to, again, to speak directly into the community.

KILBRIDE: And in the last couple months, Williams says his office has begun referring to the victims as transgender and by several names, their legal ones and the names they actually used.

WILLIAMS: There's an investigative benefit to identifying someone by the way that they were identified in the community.

KILBRIDE: The new liaison team has already had its first meeting and new training is in the pipeline⁸. It started reviewing material from an array of agencies, including Seattle's police department. For NPR News I'm Lindsey Kilbride in Jacksonville.

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1 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 impeding   

a.(尤指坏事)即将发生的，临近的

参考例句：

• Fallen rock is impeding the progress of rescue workers. 坠落的石头阻滞了救援人员的救援进程。
• Is there sufficient room for the kiosk and kiosk traffic without impeding other user traffic? 该环境下是否有足够的空间来摆放信息亭？信息亭是否会妨碍交通或者行走？ 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

5 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

6 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

7 liaison   

n.联系，（未婚男女间的）暖昧关系，私通

参考例句：

• She acts as a liaison between patients and staff.她在病人与医护人员间充当沟通的桥梁。
• She is responsible for liaison with researchers at other universities.她负责与其他大学的研究人员联系。

8 pipeline   

n.管道，管线

参考例句：

• The pipeline supplies Jordan with 15 per cent of its crude oil.该管道供给约旦15%的原油。
• A single pipeline serves all the houses with water.一条单管路给所有的房子供水。