LGBT POV

I was unable to attend the press conference regarding the arrest of Jesus Catalan (pictured), suspect in the murder of transgender Paulina Ibarra last year. However, Lt. Wes Buhrmester, the detective from the LAPD’s Rampart Division, provided the update below. Please click inside if you are interested in a personal comment on why I think this arrest has broader implications.

Here’s Buhrmester’s update on the arrest of Jesus Catalan:

“At the press conference, we divulged a few more details.  On July 3, 2010, Jesus Catalan was involved in a dispute at a motel in Tijuana, Mexico.  The landlord called the police and they responded.  Catalan was involved in a dispute with them also, and was taken into custody.  Because he was not a Mexican citizen, but an American, and had no ID, he was transported to the border crossing and handed over to authorities there.

The U. S. Border Patrol did a fingerprint check of Catalan, and that revealed the outstanding murder warrant in Los Angeles.  He was booked in San Diego pending his being transported here.  That was done, and he now has a preliminary hearing date, as you wrote, of July 19, 2010.

It was gratifying and humbling that we could cause Catalan to be brought to justice.  I was going to write, “to bring him to justice,” however credit where credit is due, it was the Tijuana police who set his arrest into motion.  In any event, the support and interaction with the LGBT community in Los Angeles was most satisfying, and we on the Department and especially at Rampart do not intend for the associations and friendships to end with Catalan’s trial.  We and the community intend to keep the dialogue going.  As part of that dialogue, I always post my e-mail and phone number if anyone has comments or questions. (25214@lapd.lacity.org and 213-484-3400) If it’s criticism, I will hear that especially.  Community exchanges are what help us, like any company or organization, to improve.

At the historic August 2007 forum in which Democratic presidential candidates were questioned about their beliefs and policies on LGBT issues, singer Melissa Etheridge talked to Sen. Hillary Clinton about how wonderful gays felt finally being recognized under President Bill Clinton.

“We were very, very hopeful – and in the years that followed, our hearts were broken. We were thrown under the bus. We were pushed aside. All those great promises that were made to us were broken. And I understand politics. I understand how hard things are, to bring about change. But it is many years later now, and what are you going to do to be different than that? I know you’re sitting here now; it’s a year out — more than a year. A year from now, are we going to be left behind like we were before?”

Please click inside to see where I’m going with this. UPDATE: THE WASHINGTON POST REPORTED LATE THURSDAY THAT THE SENATE ARMED SERVICES WILL HOLD A SEPARATE HEARING WITH DEFENSE SEC. ROBERT GATES AND ADMIRAL MIKE MULLEN, CHAIR OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF ON DADT. RACHEL MADDOW LATER SAID THE RESULT COULD BE A DADT-LITE WITH RESTRICTIONS PLACED ON THE INVESTIGATORY PROCESS.

Not only did the LA Police Commission finally sever ties between the LAPD and the antigay Boy Scouts of America after almost two decades of contention, but LGBTs are stepping up to help make the transition from the BSA-Learning for Life Explorer Program to the new LAPD Cadets, according to openly gay LA Police Commissioner Rob Saltzman, Associate Dean at USC Gould School of Law. Click inside for the story and reaction from Roger Coggan, Jon Davidson and Rev. Troy Perry.

I interviewed new LAPD Chief Charlie Beck last week for Frontiers In LA magazine with an eye to getting to know the man behind the badge. As a fan of former Chief Bill Bratton – who supported Beck over Assistant Chief and volunteer LGBT liaison Jim McDonnell – Beck also believes in Bratton’s famous “broken glass” and gang intervention policies. But Bratton, like LA Sheriff Lee Baca, has a lesbian sister so there has been some sense that LA’s two top cops at least have some understanding of LGBT issues. We don’t know Beck, other than a few initially favorable comments after Beck was selected. However, if his meeting with me is any indication, he’s off to a good start as a promising LGBT ally. What a long way from Ed Davis and Daryl Gates. Beck is expected to receive unanimous confirmation from the LA City Council this morning.

Last Aug. 28, Paulina Ibarra, a 24-year-old transgender woman, was found stabbed to death in her apartment at 939 N. Mariposa Avenue in Hollywood.
Soon thereafter, with the help of the Los Angeles-area transgender community, the LAPD named Jesus Catalan as a person of interest. He is now wanted for murder. Click inside for the story. Here is a TV news report broadcast shortly after the murder: