Murder sparks beat concern
The murder of a man whose body was found in Centennial Park on Saturday has prompted warnings for beat users.
The body of 37-year-old Anthony Cawsey of Redfern was found by joggers early on Saturday morning close to Busby Pond.
Maroubra Police were initially investigating the possibility the death was a sex-based crime, and raised concerns about gay beats operating in the park. They have since extended their inquiry and the Homicide Squad has been brought in to investigate.
After speaking to friends of the man, Sydney Star Observer has been led to believe that Cawsey was neither gay nor likely to have been seeking sex in the park, but in fact worked near the area where he was found and may have been taking a short cut home.
The case has prompted ACON to issue a warning to beat users, however, to be mindful of their safety.
“Staying alert is the best defence against violence. We would advise people to trust their instincts — if something doesn’t feel right then leave,” ACON CEO Stevie Clayton said.
“We would encourage anyone from our community with any information related to this incident to please contact police by calling Crime Stoppers. Beat users can be confident that any information reported to police via Crimestoppers can be anonymous.”
The NSW Beats Interagency recently launched a website, www.beats.net.au, to provide information on sexual and personal safety for users: tell someone where you are going, don’t do drugs beforehand, and if threatened, run away and try to attract help by shouting. If you see anyone else having problems, take note of the aggressor and call police.
info: Phone Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or Maroubra Police on 9349 9299.
Jason, the Sydney Morning Herald carried a similar story as SO on Friday/Saturday, so at least some of the “mainstream” press showed some responsibility.
After reading the “mainstream newspapers” after the orginal reporting of a supposed gay bashing by a supposed beat user there seems to be no follow up to the story. Im guessing the very responsible “mainstream newspapers” have realised there mistake so they have choosen to just sweep it under the carpet. If I did not visit this website then I would probably continue to assume the victim was gay and bashed while cruising for sex. Just goes to show you how responsible the media outlets really are.
Kevin Rudd supports gay hate groups such as The Australian Christian Lobby = Gay Bashing.
The maths is simple.
The effect of homophobia and my defensive reaction to homophobia is something that I have not considered until I read this report and the comments posted about it.
This report has prompted me to examine the attitudes I hold about victims of crime.
When I heard the report of the crime in the media I suspected it might have been the murder of a gay man by homophobic people at a gay beat.
Should I be relieved to hear that the victim was not a gay man.
No I should not.
I should feel as much pity for Anthony as I would have for a gay man.
Why? because I do not want homophobes to dehumanise me and make me like them.
I do feel sorry for Anthony.
I hope the police catch Anthony’s murderers.
If the SSO is supposedly Sydney’s “premier” gay and lesbian paper – you have to question why this story took a whole four days to appear on the website!
Instead we got fluff pieces about the gay games and UN.
Editor’s Note: Actually Rob, I can answer that. Rather than just regurgitating the speculation of the mainstream press, we did our research and spoke to people who knew the man. It was only because of this attention to detail we were able to ascertain the victim was not a beat user and was most likely taking a shortcut through the park to his nearby home. If you’d prefer us to regurgitate Police Media press releases, then you are reading the wrong paper.
“Maroubra Police were initially investigating the possibility the death was a sex-based crime…They have since extended their inquiry and the Homicide Squad has been brought in to investigate.”
Does this mean if it had been a sex-based the Homicide Squad wouldn’t have gotten involved? Surely a murder is a murder?