When 3 Trans Women Were Attacked On Hollywood Boulevard, Bystanders Did Nothing

Early on Monday morning, three transgender influencers were brutally attacked on Hollywood Boulevard, the most famous and tourist-heavy street in Los Angeles, in a transphobic assault by a group of men. Eden the Doll, Jaslene Whiterose, & Joslyn Flawless documented video footage on their Instagram accounts of men chasing, bludgeoning, and robbing them. Both Whiterose and Flawless are Black trans women.

Videos from the influencers’ accounts and from accounts that appear to be associated with men in the group that assaulted them show the women being taunted, robbed, and beaten. The women beg bystanders and passersby for help, but no one stops to help them and, in a few videos, appear to encourage the group of men. Eden compiled the graphic documentation in a highlight on her Instagram page.

According to the footage and the women’s accounts, the three were standing on Hollywood Boulevard waiting for an Uber when a group of at least six men approached them and stole Eden’s phone, at which point the women began to chase them to get the phone back. The incident then escalated, with the men beginning to jeer at them, mock them, and assault them.

The footage shows the men throwing a scooter at the women, comparing them to the characters from the film White Chicks, and calling them men. They also pulled a knife on them and chased them down in cars when they tried to run away. One of the assailants can be seen attacking Whiterose and hitting her in the head, which Eden says knocked Whiterose unconscious for a time. In the men’s footage, they can be heard saying "She's dead" and "Hit her again."

In a statement from the Los Angeles Police Department, they confirmed that a suspect first approached the three women at 2:15 a.m. with an offer to buy them merchandise, returning a few minutes later with a metal bar and demanding one woman hand over her shoes and bracelet. "In fear, the victim compiled, the suspect grabbed her by the hand and they walked together for a short distance before she was able to escape," a report sent to Refinery29 reads. According to the report, this is when Whitehorse was hit over the head. The LAPD said that no arrests have been made yet, but that it is searching for suspects, though at least one of the women has named her attackers.

“Scariest moment of my life,” Flawless wrote in a post. “He held a crowbar to my face and threatened to kill me unless I stripped my shoes off and gave him my jewellery and all my processions. He said if i was trans he would kill me. He then forced me to hold his hand while he looks for my friends to kill them for being trans. Meanwhile men and WOMEN screaming that I’m a man and telling him to beat me.”

Flawless's post also included a video filmed by one of the men in the group she accused of attacking her. The posted video by the alleged attacker is captioned: “He mad she was a man.”

"More people keep walking past us,” wrote Eden, who is shown crying and begging for help in the videos after being robbed. “No one is stopping no matter how much I begged."

The women’s story has gained widespread attention due to singer Zhavia Ward and Pose actress Indya Moore signal-boosting the incident on their Instagram page. “Every day time and time again, it is proven that the welfare life peace safety of black and brown trans femmes is betrayed by everyone including the very black and brown people we are and fight for,” Moore wrote. “The senseless targeting [sic] of Black and brown trans femmes with violence, and baseless punishment must come to an [sic] end and for so long as Noone centers the intra communal and systemic wide liberation of black trans women none of us Will be free.”

This year has shown a surge in anti-trans violence. According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, by August, the number of trans people murdered in 2020 had surpassed the entire number killed in 2019. As of August 7, at least 28 trans people had been killed in the U.S. Twenty-three of those victims were trans women. In 2019, all but one of the 22 trans people who were murdered were Black and nearly all were Black trans women.

In a 2016 survey by NCTE, nearly half of Black respondents reported being verbally harassed or physically attacked in the previous year due to being transgender and Black trans women were more likely to be physically assaulted than Black non-binary people or Black trans men.

“Transgender people – and particularly Black and Latina transgender women – are marginalised, stigmatised, and criminalised in our country. They face violence every day, and they fear turning to the police for help,” Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, deputy executive director for the National Center for Transgender Equality, said in a statement earlier this month.

According to Moore, who says they do not personally deal with the police on issues like this, the three women would like their assailants to be arrested and are asking people to demand that LAPD arrest the men who assaulted them.