In a case in which an HIV-positive Blue Island man has filed a complaint against the city of Blue Island and two of its police officers, a judge has allowed the plaintiffs to file a hate-crimes count.
Demetrius Anderson—in a suit filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern District—said that on April 20, 2009, he attempted to stab himself in the chest with knife. (Anderson claimed he suffered from clinical depression and anxiety.) After his sister summoned an ambulance, Anderson informed the emergency medical technicians of his HIV status.
Anderson, according to the complaint, started to panic as they neared the ambulance, and he started running. Two policemen, identified as Officers Benton and Podbielniak, gave chase and eventually apprehended him. Anderson claimed that the officers handled him so roughly as they handcuffed him that, among other things, he suffered numbness in his right hand.
Anderson also alleged that the officers verbally assaulted him, saying, among other things, that the plaintiff would have nightmares for the remainder of his life because of his HIV status. Federal Judge Charles P. Kocoras has granted the plaintiffs’ motion to file a hate-crimes charge in addition to the other allegations. The amended complaint contains a charge that the defendants violated the Illinois Hate Crimes Act.
In an e-mail to Windy City Times, civil-rights attorney Jon Erickson said, “Hate crime disguised as police work is still a hate crime. This situation called for first-aid and crisis intervention, but what [Demetrius] got was unimaginable hate, bigotry and emotional and physical violence. The extreme and outrageous conduct of these officers makes clear that Blue Island is wholly ignorant to the issues of race, suicide, HIV and gay youth.”
Erickson added that research has shown that this is the first time a hate-crimes statute based on sexual orientation, mental disability, religion or HIV status has been used in a federal civilrights suit.