OUT TO PICKET POLICE STATION
Tshwane-based LGBT rights group, OUT, will be picketing the Brooklyn police station to address hate crimes in Tshwane and to protest against the recent raids on Camp David.
The group will also present a memorandum of demands to the police. The event is set for this Sunday 10 December, at 10h30 to 11h45, outside the Brooklyn police station
Fikile Vilakazi, Advocacy Officer at OUT, says that the protest “is part of the 16 days of activism program aimed at challenging violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Tshwane. This will also be in line with observing the International Human Rights Day.”
The memorandum demands that the Brooklyn police provide a service that does not discriminate on the basis of “gender, gender presentation and sexual orientation”.
It further says that it must: provide care and support to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence; provide sensitization and skills training for police on sexual orientation matters; and strengthen its visibility and policing in hate crimes hot spots within its jurisdiction.
In regard to the recent raids on nude gay bar Camp David – which led the owners to accuse the authorities of harassment – the memorandum says that the Brooklyn police must “focus its scarce resources where LGBT people are at real threat of violent crimes and not where no violent threat exist both to self and others.”
Vilakazi says that participation by the community in the picket “will be highly appreciated”.
Once again!!!!!!!!!!. Once again it comes down to the COMMUNITY to participate! When are the POLICE OFFICERS going to start to participate? When last did you go into a police station… Mostly they are sitting, or sleeping, or chatting away. Only after nearly becoming part of the furniture, well counter, do they realise that something is there that was not there when they came on shift. Raising the question in my mind – why must we wait so long for a response car when we have an emergency?
My thanks do go out to the men and the women in the POLICE who do give there best to serve and protect. As much as i do not want to generalise… I just can not help it – and all thanks to those bad apples. The same with trusting them…
OUT… How can we get similar actions happening at the Roodepoort Police Station where the fall from arrogance onto iq levels are terminal behind the grand walls…?