The sickening alleged killing of two beautiful and much-loved young men on the eve of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has once again focused attention on the NSW Police attitude to the LGBTQ community.The intersection of crime and societal change is a risky conflation but there is little doubt that for many in Sydney, the horrific case has stoked deeply held feelings of distrust and fear within the gay community towards police due to a long history of victimisation.
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Two months and four days later, as Sydney reeled from the alleged murders of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies by police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon with his Glock service pistol, NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb apologised for the historic wrongs.
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we do think police should not march this Saturday given the pain and anger felt by so many following the suspected deaths of Baird and Davies.
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A picture circulating widely over recent days of Lamarre-Condon marching in full uniform in February 2020 has left many deeply uneasy.The police officers who planned to march this year should not be punished for the alleged sins of a colleague, but their presence would cause an additional layer of unnecessary heartache at a time when those who knew and loved Baird and Davies deserve to be together in a safe space.
Maybe i'm over-egging this, but it just seems to me that, absent of my two dot-points, his editorial stands on its feet as is, with legitimacy, however, we are NOT absent of those points, thus i feel he's badly wrong to include them here. The abhorrent historical hate-based violence of cops against #LGBTQI peeps was, afaict, predicated on ideology & prejudice, not coz in each case the offending cop was also gay & also recently exited from a relationship with their victim, as pertains here.