Enough is enough
A year after this community came together in Harmony Park to demand action on homophobic violence in NSW, another gay couple has been savagely beaten and our state police force found lacking again.
The ambush-style attack on Aaron Wernecke and Greg Harland in Blacktown fits among the worst categories of crime. A metal pole is a potentially deadly weapon. A beer bottle can maim someone for life.
It’s only the attackers’ dumb luck that they didn’t kill Aaron. They showed no concern for his survival. They should be charged with attempted murder and this treated as a hate crime.
The very least citizens should be able to expect is, if they can identify the perpetrator of a crime, police will seek that person post haste.
The attacker whose identity was made known to police should’ve been cooling his heels in a cell the very night of the attack and the names of his accomplices demanded. Instead they’ve had three months to get their stories straight, and evidence left uncollected. It’s just not good enough.
Between them, Blacktown and Quakers Hill LACs span 25 postcodes, three police stations, and an area home to 100,000 people. Yet NSW Police have just one Gay aand Lesbian Liaison Officer to serve the thousands of GLBT residents and workers who live in the area or pass through it each day.
Despite hard work by Surry Hills LAC in restoring community confidence since last year, if police have a problem attracting gay recruits, they only have themselves to blame.
Just days before we broke this story, Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione touted the release of an official police Bible — with Old and New Testaments bound in cop blue and the NSW Police crest stamped on the cover.
In 2004 this same man as Deputy Commissioner attended a memorial service for the self-confessed pedophile and disgraced Assemblies of God pastor, Frank Houston, father of Hillsong’s Brian Houston.
Under Scipione, every police officer who graduates from the Goulburn Academy is offered a Bible.
Said Scipione, “I believe the police Bible will impact on generations of police officers to come… I would like to think an officer who receives one of these special police Bibles will one day sit in my seat.”
What message does that send to potential recruits from the GLBT community and other faiths about what the ‘right stuff’ for career advancement under this Commissioner might be?
We can be forgiven for feeling we’ve been failed yet again.
Well I for one don’t like this. The police force is a public service, and it should be non-partisan in spirit, and certainly non-religious.
All very well, and I did enjoy the link…
But I don’t think the issuing of a bible (old or new testament)is stopping gays and lesbians joining the police forcr; nor is a bible stopping Blacktown police properly investigating assaults.
I just wish these Christians read the document more carefully, particularly the do unto others bit.
Ben- it’s not the gays that are anti-faith, it’s sadly many of the mainstream faiths in Australia that are anti-gay.
This is not an issue of being anti-religious, it’s about Christians in high office who seem to have forgotten Christ’s commandment to “render unto Caesar”.
In a multicultural society with a separation of church and state it is inappropriate for the Police force and its Commissioner to appear to endorse a particular religion in this way.
There are no plans for a Police Talmud, or a Police Koran or a Police Bhagavag-Gita in the works.
Historically, appointments to the office of Police Commissioner have alternated Mason-Catholic-Mason.
And while Masons tend not to be Catholics, and it is not a requirement to be Christian to join a lodge, most have traditionally been Protestants.
Andrew Scipione is not a Catholic. He is a Baptist (Protestant) and a sometime member of the Hillsong congregation.
So it seems we’re now going Catholic-Protestant-Catholic.
I believe NSW is still waiting for its first Atheist Police Commissioner- as are most other states.
FYI- Ken Maroney is not the first Catholic Police Commissioner of NSW- Colin Delaney was and had something of an obsession with this community- see http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A130681b.htm
Unfortunately, under the current state and federal governments we are being – once more – swept under the carpet and ignored, and crimes committed against us considered immaterial. The vocal voice of fanatical religious groups have got the ear of politicians, and they are wielding significantly more power than they merit.
For too long we, as a community, have been told to sit back and wait while our “leaders” and “representatives” negotiate change – and for too long, such negotiations have achieved little to avoid disenfranchising the conservative elements.
It is time that we employed high-profile members of our community and supporters to argue our case, to raise the profile of discrimination that continues on a daily basis, and to fight for the rights that are ours.
However, this is only something that we can do by working together; rather than by sniping from the sidelines, or retreating into residential comfort zones.
The offer of a bible upon graduation is hardly likely to deter gays and lesbians from joining the police force…why portray our community as anti-faith?
Religion in the NSW Force has a more complex history – Scipione and his predecessor Ken Maroney are the first Catholic Police Commissioners, after a long long line of Mason’s.
Mr Potts, once again you seem to view gay and lesbian people as being offended by prayer or the bible.
This is the least of our worries when it comes to failings of the NSW police force.
In any event, historically the “message” for advancement in the NSW Police force was to be a member of the Masonic Lodge. Ken Maroney and now Andrew Scipione are the first Catholics to become Police Commissioner.