GenQ

Surry Hills police are to be investigated over their inaction on homophobic violence, with the GenQ Street Angels set to take to the streets after being told they weren't needed. This has come after the horrific attack on Craig Gee and his partner Shane Brennen and their lack of response and support.

During October and November of 2007, GenerationQ CEO Andrew Stopps met with the police including Surry Hills Police a number of times.

"The police acknowledged that their customer service was seriously lacking. The areas they assured me they would be improving immediately were their dealings with attacks on the GLBT community, following up events within 24 hours with victims and making sure that gay hate crimes were correctly reported. I am saddened and surprised that this obviously hasn't occurred" said Stopps.

GenQ's Street Angels had been scheduled to hit the streets in November and did not, until now Stopps has remained silent on the reasons why. "I had been given assurances by the police that not only would there be an increase in numbers of patrolling police on Friday and Saturday night, but also the support and follow up of victims was a high priority. I felt confident that we had done our job in putting pressure on the police and local government to get things improved and we had succeeded." said Stopps exclusively,

Until I can see for myself that people are safe on Oxford Street, then I am not listening to the word of other organizations anymore.

"We had also met with ACON and had been informed that the Street Safe Shop Front would be dealing with victims and supporting them as they came to the shop. They explained to us that they had trained volunteers who would look after victims and take statements until police arrived. We were told there was not a place for us in the shop front. After consultation with the Angels I decided that all the bases had been covered. We would be doubling up what was already organized. We were told that we were not needed. In hindsight I believe this was not the case. Clearly nothing has been done, the police and the shop front both let down Craig Gee and Shane Brennen on that night. I wonder how this would have turned out had we gone ahead anyway with the Angels?"

Stopps is now seriously considering going ahead independently with the Street Angels. "Until I can see for myself that people are safe on Oxford Street, then I am not listening to the word of other organizations anymore. I will be discussing this with the Angels this week and you may see them on the streets as early as next weekend."

GenQ has discovered there has been a number of serious flaws that have let down Oxford Street. A safety and security strategy for the area was developed two years ago but never implemented. According to ACON, police have refused to take reports from them claiming that the they (the police) were worried it would blow out their KPI's if the number of reports was too high. A KPI is a Key Peformance Indicators help an organization define and measure progress toward organizational goals. If reports show that there are alot of incidents on Oxford Street, police would need to be pulled from other areas to make up the numbers.

“Despite these efforts, the violence continues to escalate and the police response is not keeping pace with it. Like the rest of our community, we feel that enough is enough. That’s why we’re now taking the matter to the Ombudsman so we can get an independent assessment of the problem and finally put an end to the inaction and buck passing.” said ACON CEO,Stevie Clayton.

VoiceOut founder Ben Veenkamp in conjunction with the Sydney Star Observer and GenQ will be holding a Vigil for Peace to help bring attention to this very serious problem. It will be held on January 26 from 4pm at Harmony Park, just behind Surry Hills Police Station. Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore has been invited to attend.

"This is to be a peaceful vigil and gathering of our community to show the police and government that we are not going to stand for this anymore." said organizer Veenkamp, "We are not going to march up the street with banners shouting, as has been proposed in the past, I want this to be a peaceful and strong statement of how we are feeling."

"GenQ are proud and happy to be involved with this vigil, it actually will be the first of a number of events we have planned for Sydney to help bring about a change in the community. We also have a very special event being organized for March that will hopefully bring national attention to this problem and provide one solution for it as well." commented Andrew Stopps. "I would like to encourage anyone gay, straight, whoever you are, to come down to Harmony Park and show our concern about this by our sheer numbers. It's time to say we aren't being treated like this anymore."

Anyone who knows the men in the picture, who are wanted by police for questioning about the attacks please contact NSW Police Switchboard on 9281 0000.

Tags: anti-gay, gay rights, homophobic