LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A popular downtown Los Angeles bar is hiring new security after a video showing transgender women being forcefully removed by the bar's security guards went viral on social media.
Members of the group said that they, along with several other friends, were forced to leave Las Perlas Friday night after a straight couple yelled slurs and attacked them.
Pouring With Heart, the company that owns Las Perlas, said in an email that it plans to hire a security company that has received sensitivity training, the Los Angeles Times reported. The company said that it also has retained outside counsel to “review the tapes and actions from Friday night to make more specific analysis of exactly what happened and how to ensure it doesn't happen again.”
Cedd Moses, the founder of Pouring With Heart, previously had said that the security guards had acted appropriately.
Cellphone video of the incident does not show the alleged attack, but the footage captures three people being forcefully removed from the bar. Police are investigating the incident as a potential hate crime.
In the video, a security guard grabs one of the women, Jennifer Bianchi, who repeatedly tells the man, “Don't touch me like that.” She pushes back, arguing that she needs to get her shoe. The guard then shoves her again, wraps his arms around her and moves Bianchi toward the door. Moments later, another bar employee grabs a transgender woman who was sitting down, wraps his arm around her chest and says, “We're done.”
The woman looks at the camera and says, “What happened?” before being dragged out of the bar, The Times reported.
Police said the group had filed a hate crime report and that the department was investigating the incident.
“Please know that the Department is committed to ensuring the safety of every Angeleno, as well as the right of all to live their true lives in peace, harmony, and free from anxiety or fear,” LAPD Assistant Chief Beatrice Girmala tweeted after the Friday night incident.