Call to action on police
High-profile members of the LGBTI community have united in a call to action to curtail heavy-handed police tactics at queer events and agitate for greater police accountability.
Founded by Queer Screen board member Jonny Bastin and Organisation Intersex International Australia (OII) secretary Morgan Carpenter, the ‘Police Service, Not a Police Force’ community action group has called for an end to “paramilitary-style policing” at major LGBTI events.
In a statement signed by more than 60 prominent queer individuals and organisations, the group highlighted the increased use of sniffer dogs, strip searches and arrests for offensive language at Mardi Gras over the last few years and demanded an end to internal police investigations of allegations of police brutality. Former Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras president Rob Patmore, political satirist and former Senate candidate Pauline Pantsdown, and ‘78ers Dave Urquhart and David Abello have all put their names to the movement
The demands follow numerous complaints of excessive police force on Mardi Gras night including the controversial arrest of 18-year-old gay man Jamie Jackson, whose rough treatment at the hands of officers was captured on film and sparked condemnation, protest and an internal police investigation.
The group have labelled the searching of more than 200 people at the Mardigrasland party, including a number of strip-searches of people suspected of drug possession, as “humiliating to individuals” and “damaging to Sydney’s tourist destination”.
Bastin said that police were “destroying Mardi Gras” and that gay leadership organisations needed to take “a tougher stance” on enforcing appropriate police behaviour.
“This isn’t just some isolated incidents – the last few Mardi Gras have seen a really concerning attitude from police. What we’ve seen from ACON and Mardi Gras so far has just been cleaning up the mess – they haven’t done enough to deal with the big picture,” Bastin said.
The group also highlighted the cases of 21-year-old Brazilian student Roberto Laudisio Curti, who was tasered to death by police after stealing a packet of Tim Tams in March last year, and 24-year-old Aboriginal man Corey Barker, who was allegedly bashed by police without provocation in Ballina police station in 2011.
The statement’s release came only hours before police representatives were due to face a community forum brokered by Sydney state MP Alex Greenwich on Tuesday night.
