Dear Len,
Hope you enjoyed the Rugby World Cup opening on Friday night. Things got a little hairy, what with the train system shitting itself, overcrowding, and people treating the inner city like their own personal rubbish dump.
I’ve tried not to recall images of the former Iraqi Information Minister when I heard you’d said that Auckland was “a victim of our own success”.
I’d like to take a few minutes to tell you about another victim from Friday night.
His name is Paul Heard, co-owner of Urge, a small gay men’s bar on K Road that likes to help out its community. Paul and his partner Alan have, through events at the bar, helped raise close to $20,000 for various charities over the last few years, not just for the gays, but for organizations like the Prostate Cancer Foundation and Diabetes New Zealand as well.
Paul was working the door on Friday night when three drunk men pulled up in a jeep outside the bar and proceeded to keep on drinking. He ignored them until they got out of the car and started urinating up against the store front – yes, that’s right, they were literally pissing on his business.
He approached them and said if they wanted to take a leak, perhaps they could go and use the empty car park around the corner. His request was greeted by simian grunting, and then when he turned his back, one of them cracked him across the back of the head, knocking him to the ground where he blacked out for a few seconds.
Dazed and confused, Paul next remembers other staff, including his partner, coming out onto the street to stop the situation escalating. He had the werewithal to take photos of the culprits, their car and their licence plate with his camera phone before he was struck across the head again by these thugs.
Four policemen turned up, at which point our three heroes backed off about a hundred metres and feigned innocence.
The police quickly decided that the issue was one of rival groups having a go at each other, and adopted the role of peacemaker, merely hanging about to ensure that no further violence occurred.
Paul attempted to explain to one of the policemen what had happened, while our trio of rugby boofheads stood at a safe distance yelling out “fucking faggots” and “it’s Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve”. The police attending did nothing.
Paul said he wished to press charges for assault, and cited the photos on his phone as evidence of who his attackers were. The policeman said it was too busy to do the whole time-consuming arresting thing, it was really just Paul’s word against the drunk apes, and to cap it off – he wasn’t hurt, so probably best to leave it.
At this point, Paul was bleeding from his head.
I’ll give the police credit for one thing though, Len – they confiscated the rest of the alcohol in the men’s car, so at least they couldn’t continue their behaviour elsewhere. But then, despite the carpet of empty beer cans on the road surrounding their car, they let the men drive off without even bothering to breath test them.
That’s the sort of thing that wouldn’t go down too well on Target – you know the show where they use hidden cameras to catch tradesmen sniffing women’s panties when they’re supposed to be doing their job?
These policemen were sniffing panties.
I can already hear people tutting and saying that services were overstretched that night, and these policemen were making the best of a bad situation.
But if they had time to stand and observe homophobic taunts, then turn a blind eye to a gaybashing and – most likely – drunken driving, don’t you think they also might have had time to, I don’t know, do something about it?
It’s akin to standing and watching your children getting eaten by a tiger and not intervening, because you’re waiting on the call to say your wife is being eaten as well. The logic doesn’t really hold, does it?
Our community isn’t perfect, but it’s a pretty close-knit one. And generally, when there’s trouble going on right in front of our faces, we’ll step in and sort it out. I think most New Zealanders are like that…except when The Rugby is on.
Somehow, we’re all expected to sacrifice things because The Rugby is on. It must take priority, because of the wonderful benefits its presence will shower on our country.
Well, when it comes to gay men being viciously assaulted or abused on K Road, the rugby has been on for the past year.
When it comes to being pushed in front of cars, punched in the face, or merely being spat on and called a “fucking faggot”, our community has quite a few stories to tell.
But nothing seems to have been done to make Auckland’s well-known gay strip a safer place for us to be. There always seem to be other priorities.
I’m writing to you because when you were elected last year, you said your door was always open, and you were willing to listen to us.
You also said you were a staunch liberal Catholic, but “very aware and sensitive to people making their own choices about their life” and being “totally respectful of that”.
I would hope your respect for choices – which being gay isn’t, by the way – wouldn’t extend to tolerating the choice to get drunk and bash gay men on K Road, or the choice to join the police force and selectively enforce the law.
Before you ask, the matter is being taken further – Paul is going to attempt again today to lay a complaint with the police. Maybe this time someone will listen.
But I think you need to listen as well, because there’s elements of the city you’re presiding over right now that are pretty damn ugly.
There’s a lot of visitors in town, and we wouldn’t want them thinking Auckland is anything other than a happy-go-lucky town of grinning quaintness and hospitality.
After all, they’ve seen John Key on Letterman, and they’re probably already annoyed that he’s broken his promise of not picking them up from the airport. Think of the stern letters you’ll be getting if one of them ends up in a bleeding heap on the pavement as well.
I invite you to come spend next Saturday night on K Road, unaccompanied, and see how safe you feel. If things get a little scary, come down to Urge for a drink. The guys there will look after you – just don’t go outside on the street until it’s daylight. We can’t guarantee your safety.
But then again, it’s not our job to, is it?
Best regards,
Christopher Banks
PS. Do you think if the police won’t listen that we could maybe just turn K Road into a giant corporate box? Not even officials can get into those, so I think we’d be pretty safe then.
UPDATE: Despite a later complaint to police, and the presentation of photographic evidence, including the licence plate of the alleged offenders, no arrests were made.
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This sounds like an awful ordeal! I’m feel so sorry for you Paul. I also feels pretty powerless over here, but my thoughts are with you, if that means anything. Hugs.
As for the policing that needs to be sorted out pronto.
A happy ending to this story – I had a phone call from the Mayor’s chief of staff saying that homophobia and violence will not be tolerated in our city. Paul has also been called, and some first steps are being taken toward sorting out the K Road issue.
Thanks to everyone who shared this post around today and took it seriously – very impressed and appreciative to the Mayor’s office for responding so promptly.
Awesome news mate!
The use or uselessness of police almost anywhere is very much a roulette of either we’ll help you, or we’re too busy to do so. The reasons behind this are generally varied but it’s very shitty when it’s because they don’t see the issue as that concerning to them. My dad was bashed by a druken idiot a few years back at my brothers party and when it concerns an injury to the headm you don’t need to be bleeding to be in serious danger after being struck. It’s fucking appaling that they didn’t react after the three assailents continued to shout obsenities while tending to the other witnesses. Assault is assult and I hope that your mate got the details of the officers as well, they need to know that all cases are serious, I don’t care if they get reprimanded for such pathetic police work, it would be nothing more than they deserved. I sincerely hope Paul is okay.
In my dreams, I would embrace this as now giving every gay man the right to thrust a knife through the ribs of such drunks when faced with such a situation, because it clearly presents a legitimate fear of life-threatening violence and therefore a clear right to self-defence on a similar scale. My dream continues with the drunk jailed as well as hospitalised, if not despatched to the next life, while the victim of his abuse is acquitted of any and all charges, and everyone realises that this shit is intolerable no matter who it is directed at.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, where an eye for an eye eventually makes the whole world blind, and where getting angry at such people, or getting even with them, never did anyone any good, I’d recommend getting smarter and getting decent security cameras overlooking the area outside your bar. At least you can then take the police’s discretion (read “bias”) out of the equation.
I have photos of the perpetrators & their vehicle. And really, WHY should we have to gear our selves up to that level for a bunch of Thugs????
This is what happens when you announce — at national level — “this is what we are ALL behind”, “what we ALL think”, “we’re a stadium of 4 million” etc etc … When you proclaim that the national state of being is to be into the rugby, then you’re creating a perception that anyone who isn’t is so far out of step with “what we ALL think” then some people are going feel they have a licence — and *backing* of a nation — to ridicule, abuse and assault those that are not with the programme. And it seems, here, a bit like they did have that backing.
This is an awful incident, but I don’t see how it’s Len Brown’s fault or responsibility. He doesn’t control the police, and it’s police actions that are in question. And assuming that he has “tolerated” an assault merely because it has happened in Auckland doesn’t make any sense at all.
It’s not even clear how directly this is linked to the rugby. As you note yourself, there was a similar incident in the same location last summer.
The fault here is clearly with the police officers on the scene — and it’s not the first report I’ve heard of them deciding that an obvious assault was a scrap between two groups and taking no action. The two other incidents I’m thinking of both involved brown-skinned victims.
The perpetrators in question were in town for the festivities. Antigay violence on K Road has been ignored by authorities for over a year now – if the man in charge of the city can’t do something to keep people safe, then who can?
Christopher, I’m glad to hear you’ve got a result on this incident.
But like people generalising against gays, let’s not generalise againt people who support the rubgy.
This is no either/or situation for me. I’m clear…
I’m 100% behind partying up and celebrating rugby. But I’m also 100% AGAINST thugs (rugby fiends, westies, brownies, gen-yers, or any other label you want to promote here) getting away with assault on ANYONE, whether you’re gay or not.
And I believe responsibility starts with individuals who have locus of control in the moment (best time to reinforce learning is at the time of breach) and in this instance, they were the policeman there at the time.
This responsbility should be underpinned by the legal and cultural system (community intolerance incl. government, city and institutional policies of action and follow up).
My wish is that everyone can enjoy this time of festivity in Auckland, whether you give a toss around rugby or not.
Go well!
I’ve reviewed what I wrote above, and at no time did I say that everyone who supports rugby is a thug.
However, I think it is worth acknowledging that drunken rugby fans causing trouble is a well-known phenomena and one which is not isolated to a few random incidents. For non-violent rugby supporters, I ask the question: what are you doing to criticize and change this culture?
Compliant with link to this blog post sent to Auckland City Council.
To be fair, Len Brown does not employ these police and they are not answerable to him. But I do agree that the behaviour of these police was absolutely disgusting. Perhaps if Paul had got the police officers license plates and their identities. And the point is there are probably more police just like them out there which does not make the Gay community feel any safer does it.
No, but he is responsible for making our city a safe place to live in. I’ve decided to write to him, as previous efforts by others with lower level politicians has failed to solve this problem.
If this is an indication of what the RWC has brought to town, then something has to be done now.
The point I was making was that if there had no police at all then he could have agitated for more police but the fact was that the police were there were not too different from the thugs they were meant to be policing.
And these police were representative of a police culture that is nationwide and not just in Auckland. Certainly, Len Brown can approach the Police Commisioner and advocate for a better quality of policing and suggesting that Paul be compensated and apologised to for the treatment he received and I suggest that he do so.
But he could not be expected to have foreknowledge that these police would act in the way they did unless they were earlier incidents of police misconduct.
The idea of this post was to make someone in authority take notice of (a) a disgusting incident of violence and (b) an ongoing issue in K Road, as well as make the wider public aware that homophobic violence still occurs in our city. It worked.
Christopher that is absolutely appalling to read. While I am sure it has been done, I highly recommend the owners of Urge continue to document their injuries. In Australia I would take the issue to the police commission as police refusing to press assault charges is not acceptable.
I hope your mates are ok today.
George