Pride in Protest, Blak Caucus, Latoya Aroha Rule, NSW Greens and the NSW Council for Civil Liberties gathered today at Taylor Square to speak to the press about last night’s disinvitation of the NSW Police from the Mardi Gras parade following the murder of a gay couple by a senior police constable. This comes amidst news that the bodies of Luke Davies and Jesse Baird were found in “surf bags” near a property in Bungonia, with their families informed soon after.
Charlie Murphy from Pride in Protest opened today’s conference linking the constable’s violence to a broader “culture of extreme violence within the NSW Police Force”, and that it is not “an act in isolation.” Murphy went on to say that “the NSW Police are complicit in the deaths of Luke Davies and Jesse Baird”, citing Lamarre’s involvement in police violence against Kris Bradshaw, and that First Nations and Queer justice are interlinked.
Murphy welcomed the Board’s decision and attributed the “cops marching in Mardi Gras” to “salt in open wounds”, especially after years of campaigning.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb’s apology for the failings of the police was deemed “hollow and worthless”, especially as recommendations for police conduct are “ignored while acts of violence continue.”
The following demands were recited:
- The immediate disarming, defunding and dismantling of the police
- Banning of police usage of firearms and pepper spray
- Weapons funding to be reinvested in services such as public housing, affordable healthcare, free legal help and shelters
- The implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody
Murphy said it was “almost impossible to describe the feeling in the community” other than “overwhelming grief and anger”, and that Pride in Protest supports the decision made by the board last night. Murphy concluded that “it would be a massive betrayal and an insult to the community if that decision was reversed in any way”, and that the disinvitation is the “bare minimum in terms of addressing police oppression.”
Latoya Aroha Rule, a queer First Nations and Māori researcher, campaigner, and sibling of Wayne Fella Morrison who was killed in custody in 2016, noted that instead of celebrating “we stand here grieving and pleading for justice.” Rule said that “there has never been true solidarity between police and queer communities”, even when officers identify as LGBTQIA+. She then called for the resignation of all LGBTQIA+ police officers, before reaffirming the intersectionality of the struggle against police oppression.
Rule reiterated the need for an independent inquiry into the Australian Federal Police and NSW Police as well as “independent oversight of police powers”, a call “as old as this colony itself.”
Greens Councillor Liz Atkins, congratulated the Mardi Gras board for this decision, and spoke to the “history of violence and discrimination of the queer community”, while Amanda Morgan from Blak Caucus, stated that when actions and threats “go unaddressed, people are harmed”, and that this was also an act of “intimate partner violence” which can occur “during or after a relationship.”
Josh Pallas of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties spoke to “the issue around policing in the queer community and other communities” which have “pervaded this state since this state existed.” He called for a renewed conversation about disarming police, and that there should be less police access to guns:“we need an independent investigation into weapons policy; into police use of force and weapons…must be independent from the police and it must be independent from the NSW Government.”
The Pride in Protest collective responded to Karen Webb’s use of a Taylor Swift lyric in response to those criticising her leadership, saying, “Taylor Swift lyrics don’t save lives” and that Webb’s press statements are “just a PR tactic to distract from the NSW Police Force’s documented ‘shameful homophobia, transphobia and prejudice’ (Sacker inquiry).”
The collective also called for the police to look to the “recommendations of Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTIQ hate crimes, and the NSW Law Enforcement Conduct Commission’s Review of NSW Police Force responses to domestic and family violence incidents.”
Amendment: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the fourth demand was a “Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody”. That has since been rectified.
