Report all hate crimes, victims urged
| Report all hate crimes, victims urged |
| Written by Peter Hackney |
| Wednesday, 03 February 2010 15:34 |
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The campaign, which consists of advertisements in the queer and mainstream press, as well as posters in gay venues and high-visibility locations such as bus shelters, urges all victims of gay hate crimes to report them, no matter how small the incidents may be. The campaign features images of community members, and NSWPF GLBT Corporate Spokesperson, Superintendent Donna Adney. “Being a victim of crime simply because of something someone perceives about you – in this case your sexuality – is absolutely unacceptable,” she said. Adney said a number of reporting options were open to victims, but stressed that dialling 000 should be used in the first instance in emergencies, if the crime was still in progress, or if the offender was still nearby. Otherwise, she said, crime could be reported in person to any police station or via the Police Assistance Line on 131 444. She added that any victims who were unsure what action to take should contact their local police station for support. The AVP also provided excellent support services to assist victims, she said, and gave victims another option for reporting crime or obtaining advice should they feel uncomfortable approaching police for any reason. AVP Coordinator Nancy de Castro praised the new reporting campaign and said it was a sign of the NSWPF’s commitment to the community, which was strong despite occasional community complaints pertaining to policing. “The GLBTI community hears a lot about the negative experiences the community has with police but there are also many positive stories where police have been proactive, respectful, caring and supportive,” de Castro told SX. “Having Supt Adney featured on a poster is one way of showing the strength of [the] police commitment.” For more information on the campaign, call (02) 9206 2116 or visit www.acon.org.au/anti-violence.
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written by Andrew Brougham , February 03, 2010 This kind of spin is grandstanding without substance. A couple of years ago I called AVP in regard to an incident. AVP apparently had no functional purpose other than to advise me to ask at my local police station for the GLBT liason officer on duty, which I would have done anyway. I nevertheless left details with AVP. I was then told at my local police station (in the CBD) that they had never heard of a GLBT liason officer. I had also taken great care to produce bagged, uncontaminated written homophobic hate mail containing vivid, violent death threats, which had been sent repeatedly: the officer who finally deemed to take down my details laughed off my questioning why she would not put on latex gloves to inspect the evidence. She went ahead and contaminated it with her own DNA, before my eyes, rendering it forensically useless. Six months later I received a follow up visit from a detective who informed me that no investigation had been pursued as the written death threat evidence was contaminated and therefore useless and that the force was unable to prioritise police resources to this type of crime. ACON ought to be focussing more on preventing HIV, which is what it is mostly funded for. report abuse
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ACON’s Anti-Violence Project (AVP) and the NSW Police Force (NSWPF) have joined forces for a new campaign encouraging GLBTI community members to report homophobic crime to police.
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