Dogs on the nose
ANDREW M. POTTS
New Mardi Gras (NMG) has clocked close to 200 complaints over the “over-the-top” police presence at Sleaze this year.
In an email circular NMG co-chairs Nick Parker and Steph Sands said they would seek urgent meetings with police and politicians to ensure “more proportionate policing” at future events.
“Many of you are angry, not only as attendees of our parties, but also as Australian citizens who feel their rights are being eroded,” it stated.
“You raised particular concerns about the police conducting searches in very public areas, conducting searches without a reasonable level of suspicion and violating the privacy of the medical area. Such behaviour does not accord with the protocols agreed between New Mardi Gras and Police NSW.”
Partygoers were made to run a gauntlet of sniffer dogs and heavy rain to enter the party. Dogs were taken into the venue and on to the dancefloor.
According to witnesses, police strip searched some people in public areas while others were taken to a shed.
Surry Hills LAC’s Supt Donna Adney said she did not believe public searches occurred. But one person searched in the shed told Sydney Star Observer he was asked to remove his clothes in a public area and was only taken to the shed when he refused.
Supt Adney said the individual was not subjected to a body cavity search.
People were also strip searched in a disabled toilet, a police van, and in another shed on site.
Parker said he followed a team of seven officers and a dog for 45 minutes.
“I saw a number of people questioned and detained and led away for searches [but] did not see the dog sit down once,” he said. “In most cases the police that were following people reached out to patrons to question them before the dog gave any indication that seemed to be consistent with a detection.”
Police confirmed 33 people were searched on the night, with 17 charged with drug possession.
“Over-zealous policing has the potential to undermine one of the key events in the NSW calendar,” the NMG email stated. “Because of this we intend to initiate a number of initiatives to seek more proportionate policing in the future, while reaffirming our zero tolerance to intoxication, substance use or other illegal activities.”
THE FULL MESSAGE FROM NMG TO MEMBERS
Message from Nick and Steph
Thank you to the many of you who took part in the Sleaze Ball survey. Well over seven hundred completed it and overall we were delighted with the results.
Your responses clearly identified areas that we have to work on, but the headline figures are very encouraging with 43% saying they thought the party was very good and 41% saying it was good.
Respondents had the opportunity to write in further comments about the party and we received several hundred of these. Approximately half related to the police presence at the party.
This comes as no surprise. Both on the night and in the days that followed the party a major focus of the feedback we received was about the policing of the event, the presence of sniffer dogs on the dance floors and what many of you felt were quite arbitrary searches of our patrons.
Over and over you told us that you felt the police presence was an “invasion of privacy”, “intimidating”, “intrusive” and “over the top”. Your comments make clear that many of you are angry, not only as attendees of our parties, but also as Australian citizens who feel their rights are being eroded and as taxpayers who feel they are witnessing a misallocation of police resources.
You raised particular concerns about the Police conducting searches in very public areas, conducting searches without a reasonable level of suspicion and violating the privacy of the medical area. Such behaviour does not accord with the protocols agreed between New Mardi Gras and Police NSW.
More broadly it is clear that the Police’s increased presence both outside and inside the party is having a major impact on our audience’s enjoyment of this and other events. We make every effort at our parties to create a fantasy world, a place for people to relax and have fun. To have sombre-faced officers in reflective clothing roaming around the dance floor with sniffer dogs clearly makes our task much more difficult.
This is a major issue for New Mardi Gras. Sleaze Ball – like Mardi Gras Party and the Mardi Gras harbour party – are fundraising events for the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras. Any impact on ticket sales to these events has a very direct impact on our ability to sustain the Parade, the Mardi Gras Season and organisation as a whole.
Over-zealous policing has the potential to undermine one of the key events in the NSW calendar and one that brings in an estimated $30 million new dollars into the state through overseas and interstate visitation each and every year.
Because of this we intend to initiate a number of initiatives to seek more proportionate policing in the future, whilst reaffirming our zero tolerance to intoxication, substance use or other illegal activities.
We will be raising our concerns in a number of quarters, with our senior police contacts, with the Office of the Lord Mayor, with Events NSW and the Premiers Department representatives we liaise with as a NSW Hallmark event. We will also ask our members and patrons to share their views and experiences with those bodies and their members of parliament.
We have already commenced discussions with community health, legal and rights bodies and we will work with them closely to form a united community front on this issue and instigate additional programs to assure the highest levels of safety and protection for our community at our events.
We will establish a program to ensure our rights are well understood and respected, and we will endeavour to provide volunteers with legal expertise at our events to ensure that members and guests are fully aware of their rights if confronted with intimidating or over-zealous handling by police.
We will also raise the bigger question about the cost and benefit of operations like this. Was the commitment of taxpayer dollars to enforcement at Sleaze Ball worth the 18 minor personal possession offences reportedly recorded?
The Police themselves came out last week to say that Sleaze Ball “was probably the highlight of the night, where behaviour was concerned.” We will be asking the Police to match this behaviour with less intrusive police operations based on the presumption of innocence of our patrons and a respect for our rights and for published protocols.
Finally, if you would like to volunteer your legal or other skills to assist in this rights protection initiative, or wish to share your experience of policing at our parties or elsewhere around the world please email us at[email protected].
Steph and Nick, on behalf of the NMG Board
ok Mardi Gras what is it…Harm minimalisation policy =
drug rovers , medical tent, no drug
detection dogs
or… zero tolerance =
which would mean
no drug rovers, no medical tent
drug detection dogs
you can’t have it both ways!!!
seems to me like the police have started a comment-making campaign. poor sensitive souls
Dave, Could you please contact me. Perhaps Andrew Potter could forward you my email address. I would love to catch up and chat about this stuff over a coffee. I was one of the people searched and invaded at Slease. I really appreceated your support and letters.
cheers
Diana
Community Journalism is here people, All of us have cellphones with camperas. The police need to be photographed or better yet recorded when they stop you. It is your legal right to record everything if you are stopped. Especially if your going to be searched. Fight back with publicity. If you see anyone being stopped at a party and searched help out by filming the incident then post it it online. They can stop one person filming not 5 or ten. Record all incidents in clubs and bars and post them online. If the cops are being fair they will not mind being filmed, they should encourage it. Don’t be a victims, be transparent.
The Western Australian government has introduced legislation which would enable police officers to stop and search any citizen without the need to rely on a reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing.
http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/10/23/of-pimps-prostitutes-dealers-and-freedom-guest-post-by-rewi-lyall/
I wonder how long before Rees will adopt this in NSW as part of a Laura Norder campaign leading up to the next election?
I wonder what happened to freedoms in Australia and why did we let it get to this point?
Thanks Merlot for the exclusive list of what is and isnt a G + L Issue. I see beyond and including these issues to include the right to take drugs, without harm to others. It is called self determination.
Nan, many Sleaze patrons would have taken their drugs before entering the party, harm maximisation at its hardest. Those arrested in the main entered after the rain, when we dribbled in in twos and threes and there were more police and sniffer dogs than there were patrons entering the party.
Alex, there is a differnce between RBT and sniffer dogs. RBT tests the level of alcohol in a drivers system, and correlates this to the persons capacity to drive. They also test to detect any illegal drugs in the system, but this is in no way related to the persons capacity to drive, the merest evidence is apparently enough. There is no testing for prescription drugs in a drivers system and how that relates to the persons capacity to drive. The correlation to sniffer dogs at Sleaze would be that RBT sniffed out whether you had a bottle of alcohol in the car (eg an E in your pocket). Sniffer dogs do not test what is in your system as RBT does, and they do not relate this to your capacity to dance at the event. RBT and sniffer dogs are in no way similar.
I would not support drink driving or drug driving. I would condone drug dancing however, which threatens no one.
Merlot.Once again you MISS the point.And you need to get out more and see things.NO drugs and when you want to take them etc is not a G+L issue.But the huge police presence etc at a G+L event which is out of proportion to that of other straight events is a G+L issue.When Oxford street is not safe and people have been bashed/abused for being G+L.Yes this is a G+L issuse.It would be far more useful to have resources going into other areas than wasting money on ‘dance party dogs’and the like. And yes if it takes NMG to take some sort of stand would be nice instead of pathetic agreement with whatever the NSW police say.Cancelling MG is certainly one of them.
Peter, you insist somehow G+L events are being singled out.
But sniffer dogs have been equally active at straight events – that is fact.
So please, stop repeating the “gay people are victims” complaint.
And your call to actually cancel the entire Mardi Gras in protest is ridiculous!
G+L issues are things like adoption rights, marriage rights, universal anti-discrimination laws.
Demanding the right to take drugs whenever and wherever we want is not a gay and lesbian issue.
how many people actually go to sleaze and do not take drugs??? there seem to be a few judging by the comments on here, but they could not possibly be in the majority.
would there even be a sleaze ball without drug-taking-revelers?? seriously, NMG know that, i know that and y’all know that.
i recall seeing 2 officers on the night, on the edge of the dance floor in the horden, who were “standing guard” over patrons trying to have fun despite the presence of these guards … most of these patrons were all wide eyed and clenched jaws. i commented to my friend that i bet these cops were looking at these people around them and thinking “how the hell did all this lot get their effing drugs in??!!”
there are no parties without drugs.
take the drugs away, you take the patrons away. take the patrons away, you have no party.
that is the reality.
the massive police presence was a real downer.
A police and government education program on the dangers of drug use in and affecting our GLBT community would probably be more effective than sniffer dogs at GLBT events in the long run. I have noticed over the years that drug use seems to be getting worse and worse.
Just wondering if we have a figure on how many people were “subjected to” a Random Breath Test on the way home, and how many were charged with drink driving.
I know of 2 people who were arrested and/or charged that weekend (neither were at Sleaze).One for possession and another for drink driving.
Both ran the risk of hurting themselves and others. Both will have to attend a local court.
I have symapthy for both of them, however there have been countless advertisements and news stories advising against both.
Tradition dictates that the gay press and countless readers must jump on the anti sniffer dog bandwagon.
I doubt we’ll ever see the same in regards to Random Breath Tests.
To me they are both the same, both are just some of the law enforcement tools the police use for catching people breaking the law.
The only real difference is that alcohol is legal, as is driving, the problems start when you combine the two.
I’m never outraged when i get pulled over for a breath test, nor am I too concerned when the sniffer dogs walk around my table at one of the suburban pubs I go to in Sutherland, Revesby or Bankstown (it’s not just gay venues). Mainly because I don’t break the law.
I reckon if you truly want to campaign against sniffer dogs, then it stands to reason you must also campaign against random breath testing.
Of course the latter is a nonsense. RBT’s have become a vital part of road safety. Over time I hope we’ll start to see sniffer dogs in the same light.
regarding the quote from Dave “Drug taking is a choice, being gay isn’t” i would say while homo desire is not a choice, acting ON that homosexual desire certainly IS a choice.
Whether desiring drugs may or not be a choice, acting on the desire is.
In this way the similarities are there between the two experiences, similarities between us once being homo illegal and acting on our desires is the same for drug illegal and acting on our desires. This is the explanation of the comparison that many are making
I think this covers it
NSW police
Rose,Dave etc the problem is that the police are NOT doing their job.Just try and get a policeman to come around if you have had a burglary.Maybe it will take a day or two if you’re lucky.But they are quite happy to have huge resouces,dogs etc trying to find a few pills at a dance party.What a joke.
And yes it has everything to do with being gay.The past year and more G+L parties have been targetted with ridiculous numbers of police and sniffer dogs.I don’t see anyone being bashed nearly to death,assualted,abused verbally,harassed at a G+L dance party.Have you?
Yet we have a police station within metres of Oxford street and guess what all these things occur there.Not to mention elsewhere in the state.Yes we are queens Rose but we are not stupid.This is excately the type of behaviour I am talking about.You don’t offer anything to this argument except stupid abuse which is what the NSW are guilty of too.
Everyone keeps confusing being gay and taking drugs. They aren’t the same thing. What is happening here is that a section of the gay community participate in a large event that is being inappropriately targeted by the police. It’s not the whole gay community that is being targeted so people should stop equating the whole gay community with drug use. The question is whether those parts of the gay community interested in these types of events are willing to allow them to be destroyed by police intimidation and harrassment. If you are not one of these people you should stop passing judgement about what is appropriate for these events and those who attend them.
There was not this kind of policing ten years ago and the legal context of drugs has remained the same. This tells us that something else has changed in NSW and that this form of policing is not an automatic extension of the prohibition of drugs. Decisions being made within the police are directing these actions. Those concerned should be writing to the Police Minister, the Premier and their state politicians objecting to this as these are the best people to be pressuring the police to adopt more appopriate practices. You should let them know that you intend to express your disapproval at the next election by voting for a party like the Greens who have a sensible drug policy. Many Labor parliamentarians are friendly (or need to be friendly) towards their gay and lesbian constituents.
NMG certainly needs to be standing up for its events and its members. The fact the state government has given NMG funding indicates it regards NMG events as important for the NSW economy. There is a clear argument that can be put forward in favour of protecting these events from declining. NMG also should stand up to the police in their pre-party negotiations.
Ultimately, NMG must resolve the huge contradiction in its claimed zero tolerance policy. If you have a medical tent (with staff familiar with drug-related presentations), sharps bins and volunteer drug rovers all present within the party, then you clearly don’t have a zero tolerance approach, putting aside the fact you are putting on an event that starts at 10pm and finishes at 8am which almost no one could physically endure without drugs. If the zero tolerance policy was for real NMG would logically have to search everyone attending the party in order to fulfil this policy, or indeed not even stage these events which are well known for and even necessitate drug use because of their scheduling.
What do you expect? You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that drugs will be taken at these events whether straight or gay.
To suggest the police are targetting and dealing with the ILLEGAL issue just because it is a gay event is naive in the least and highly counter-productive in the extreme if we expect to be treated equally with others in society.
Drug taking is a choice, being gay isn’t. References to being gay when it was illegal being comparable is just stupid. Grow up and deal with it.
Rose..you sound charming…are you a police officer yourself ?….you would be a good nazi storm trooper!!!!!!
I remember 10 or more years ago Police making a statement after Sleaze or the Mardi Gras Party saying how impressed tey were by the lack of violence and bad behaviour at our events and they attributed it to the fact people were on ecstacy and not alcohol…….we have gone backwards and this is a very slippery slope.
I attended the party. I’m from the United States. I don’t take drugs, and had none on me, so that wasn’t the issue. The issue is that the dogs were all over the place. No reasonable suspicion. No nothing. I have to say that I was scared and it really ruined my evening.
Then I saw the dogs in Kings Cross a few days later. And then at a train station. It was very uncomfortable.
It’s a beautiful country, but I won’t be coming back.
Many of us hated Bush for what he did to civil liberties here (among other things). I suggest you watch your backs.
thanks rose for your insightful and insulting addition to the discussion
25 years ago when we were all illegal and we were being arrested for homosexuality your post would have said ‘stupid poofs, homosexuality is illegal and cops are doing their jobs’.
and could you address the nsw police covering up all ID at sleaze, publicly searching, strip searching, threatening and possible performing cavity searches on those not carrying any drugs, and the debate that rages over whether sniffer dogs are a search without probable cause, a basic tenet of our laws and the low success rate of arrrest versus $ invested while other non-victimless crimes rage in nsw?
maybe something from you about cops NOT doing their jobs ?. or perhaps NMG not advising patrons of their zero tolerance policy and the silence since sleaze in any way specific to their arrested members? i challenge YOU to request a copy from MG of their stated zero tolerance policy and the agreed policing protocols with police because they wont respond at this point. Perhaps you could get me information from MG about police confiscating sleaze tickets which is against the law. or about MG facilitating the arrest of its own members with a supposedly monitored (unmonitored) strip search shed inside the party.
i look forward to your response to what people should be doing worldwide where homosexuality is illegal…in arresting these people would your defence of police be that “homosexuality is illegal and cops are just doing their jobs”?
i look forward to your detailed response Rose, of more substance than insults and lots of CAPITAL LETTERS
and Merlot, thanks for the info on Splendour. If Slpendours website can have this information, why cant the NMG site and why doesnt it? Please contact NMG and ask and get back to us all with the information. I bet you will be met with some deafening silnce
STUPID queens. Drugs are ILLEGAL and the cops are doing their jobs!!!!!
Merlot,John et al don’t try and get away from the fact that there were a ridiculous amount of dogs and police present at a number of G+L events in the past year.If you haven’t been to a party in the last while and are just armchair letter writers I suggest you get out a bit more.It certainly sounds as if it is the case.
As I have said before what an easy target for NSW police.Get your numbers up.See if the doggy can find the tablet.
Too bad of it turns out to be your HIV medication.Hope you have got your doctor’s note saying that you should be taking it.Or at least hope you are carrying the whole bottle with your name on it (see NMG/ACON et al policy advice for parties)
WHAT A TOTAL JOKE!! WHAT A COMPLETE INVASION OF PRIVACY!!
NO indeed they should not be in the medical area,NO indeed they should not be publicly strip searching people.
YES NMG can say what they want and don’t want.If it means the police don’t march in the parade,if it means NMG take a stand(for once) and dare I say it cancel MG so be it.
This total invasion of people’s privacy has just gone too far.
…and it would also be nice if SSO actually reported fairly on the response they got from the police. Maybe then you’d all have a less biased view on things. Perhaps if you knew that of the other 16 people who were searched without finding drugs on them, 11 of them freely admitted they’d either smoked a joint, or been with someone who had, just before they went to the party, it might make a little more sense that the dog indicated on them? No. I didn’t think they’d publish that. I doubt they’ll let this through either.
Editor’s Note: Thanks for the information Mac. We weren’t aware of the 11 people freely admitting to smoking the joint. Appreciate your’re telling us what must surely be information from inside NSW Police. Cheers.
You pack of whining bitches. You make me sick, making comments about “Nazi Germany”… you wouldn’t have the slightest idea what it’s like to live in a world like that. Get over yourselves. The law says that “recreational” drugs are illegal, and the cops do what they can, with the limited resources available to them, to minimise the harm done by every one of you dicks who drop at every party we have. That’s just the way it is! If you don’t like it, get out from behind your keyboard and make a change, and stop whining every time someone else gets your back up about it, five days later. And to the person who says they were “cavity searched”? You’re a flat out LIAR, and I DARE you to bring your story to the Ombudsman. No? Can’t trust “the man”? How convenient. You embarrass me as a member of the GLBTI community. Harden up, or shut the hell up.
Tina, its great that you are using statistics from two decades ago, but unformately drug ‘deaths’ arent the only misery drugs inflict on people. Go along to NA or even AA to hear peoples regrets for their drug induced actions.
Straight festivals such as Big Day Out, Splendour in the Grass and Vibes all had drug sniffer dogs present – and the website for Splendour includes explicit warnings about dogs and the confiscation of tickets.
Them doggies are kept busy. And while they certainly shouldn’t be in the medical area, and police should not be publicly strip searching people, NMG ain’t gonna be able to bargain on the presence or numbers of dogs.
Tina….well said !! the police resources out at the showgrounds for Sleaze should have been directed to the feral mobs creating havoc on Oxford st fueled by the legal drug alcohol!
Imspartacus, are you seriously suggesting the drug policies of Mexico and Peru are a good model for Australia??
Methinks they have more to do with drug growers and utterly corrupt police forces than good social policy.
And in the other countries you mention – Venezuala, Uruguay and Portugal – none of these are nation’s known for pioneering drug rehabilitation and treatment centres.
At its heart, does our community really need more drugs and alcohol?
John, 98% of drug deaths in Australia are due to alcohol/tobacco. In 1980 (the year of the Justice E. S. Williams Royal Commission on Drugs) the Federal Department of Health figures on death due to drugs were:
Narcotics 90, barbiturates 280, alcohol 3600, alcohol related 1829, road alcohol 3478, (total alcohol 8907), tobacco 16,200. Similar figures have occurred every year since.
Even in the drug ravaged U.S.A. in 1985 the deaths due to alcohol/tobacco were 400,000 relative to only 3562 due to ALL the illegal drugs COMBINED.
If you want to talk crime, non-fatal incidents, and costs to our health care system, the statistics are out there and very similar to those above.
Yes Tina, Drug takers only hurt themselves. Keep telling yourself that. And while you are at it, don’t become a doctor, nurse or drug counsellor you might get abit of a rude shock.