On July 28, a Staten Island woman buying marijuana at a local deli was reportedly maced, dragged outside by her hair, and kicked in the head after the cashier mistakenly identified her as trans. Now, she’s seeking legal action.
On Monday, Jasmine Adams’ lawyer, Robert Brown, filed a discrimination suit in Staten Island Supreme Court against the West Brighton Deli Grocery & Grill, where she was attacked. The NYPD told New York Daily News that although the cashier has been fired, the store hasn’t cooperated in identifying him.
According to the suit, Adams, 35, had stopped at West Brighton Deli Grocery & Grill to buy weed (cannabis is legal in New York City) for a friend at around 11:30 p.m. Because she is not a smoker, Adams had her friend on the phone to help her complete the $40 purchase. However, Adams told the Daily News, the cashier misunderstood the call as an attempt by Adams to haggle for a lower price.
“I said it wasn’t about the price and that I was just trying to figure out what I was buying, so I paid,” she said. “But he sucked his teeth and got mad at me and threw [the marijuana packet] on the floor.”
After Adams asked for her money back, she says the cashier accused her of trying to get him fired and threatened to call the police before calling her “a transvestite.” At the time, Adams — who is a cis bisexual woman — was wearing an Apple Watch decorated with pride rainbow colors.
“Even if I was a transvestite, what does that have to do with anything?” Adams added. “Why were you so comfortable putting your hands on me? I didn’t have any weapon. I was a customer.”
Suddenly, Adams says, the cashier maced Adams in the face and ran around the counter. She attempted to defend herself by swinging a coffee pot at him, but her attacker called her a “bitch,” dragging her outside. According to a video obtained by the Daily News that was recorded by one of several witnesses, the cashier then threw her onto the concrete sidewalk and kicked her in the head.
“I said to myself that I gotta get outta here because I don’t know if he’s going to kill me,” Adams remembered.
After the attack, Adams managed to drive off in her car before flagging down a pair of strangers a block away for help getting home. Adams says that she then called 911 and was told to go to the precinct where the attack occurred and call 911 from there. When police arrived — four hours after she placed the call to 911 — Adams said that they appeared to know her attacker, calling him “Mr. Fourth of July.”
She ultimately decided to file a discrimination suit months later, citing the support of her family.
“For me, it’s not about the money,” Adams said. “Whatever my sexual preference is, it shouldn’t be questioned when I walk in the store.”
Transphobic violence doesn’t solely affect trans people, as devastating attacks like Adams’ make all too clear. The same month of Adams’ assault, two cis people — a 59-year-old Black cis woman named Michelle Dionne Peacock and a 32-year-old white cis man named Colin Smith — were murdered for allegedly misdirected anti-trans hostility.
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