Joel Simpson, Managing Director of the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD), says the act of hate crimes complainants being turned away from police stations and referred to another, is “daunting and breaks your spirit”, noting that it takes a lot of courage for one to report a matter to the police.
In what he categorised as being a “hate crime”, Simpson was attacked and beaten by six men early Sunday morning as he was waiting to purchase food at Bourda Market, hours after being harassed by the same group at the Palm Court nightclub.
After being treated at a city hospital, Simpson told Stabroek News he visited the Brickdam Police Station to report the matter and was referred to the Alberttown Police Station.
He said he went to the Brickdam Police Station for two reasons: firstly, it is located closer to his home and secondly, in his mind, it is the closest police station to Palm Court, where the incident started.
“When I told the officers on duty about what had happened starting at Palm Court and then ending at Bourda market, they said the main crime that I came to report occurred at Bourda Market and there is a jurisdiction…once it’s over Camp Street from their side, I would need to go to Alberttown based on the jurisdiction of where the matter occurred,” Simpson explained.
The incident occurred just over a month after Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan disclosed that ranks of the Guyana Police Force do not have the right to refuse to take reports from complainants regardless of the jurisdiction where the incident occurred.
In the past, there have been instances where persons would turn up at the nearest police station to report a criminal offence but would be sent away after being told by the police that they cannot take the report since the offence was not committed in the station’s jurisdiction.
Ramjattan had said that that in such instances, systems are in place for the reports to be forwarded to the necessary locations despite the distance, noting that a report ought to be taken at the police station where the victim/complainant first turns up.
“The report must be taken so that even though the relevant and the more central police station that has to take it [is not nearby], that will be conveyed to that police station. I think that might just be lethargy and laziness on the part of the policeman who is told about the report,” the minister had said.
He had noted that those who are found guilty of such action will be disciplined departmentally.
Hate crime
Simpson described the attack on him as a hate crime. “There is no doubt in my mind that this was a hate crime,” he stated.
He had previously explained to Stabroek News that he and five friends were hanging out during the day and three of them ended up going to Palm Court around 10 pm on Saturday.
Upon arrival, Simpson said it was not crowded and he and two friends were drinking until around midnight, when the nightclub started to fill with more patrons.
“We were just sitting at the bar having tequila shots, one female and male friend… and we were dancing by the bar and then we felt beer thrown on us. It literally landed on all three of us. We looked around puzzled and shook it off and thought it was a drunken spill,” Simpson, a gay rights activist, had said.
His first thought of it being an accident was quickly dispelled after beer was thrown on them again some two minutes later. “We felt another spill of beer on us and I looked around and saw this group of [six] guys by the bar looking at us menacingly and mockingly and we realised it was them,” he recalled.
After he figured out who had thrown the beers at them, Simpson said he enquired at the bar and requested to speak to the supervisor or manager to make a complaint. He said that he was pointed to a man who was not in uniform.
Upon further enquiries, he learnt that the man was the head of security, and he approached him and related what had happened.
“His response was, ‘We don’t want man wining on man in here’… After he said that, I said ‘You don’t understand but I am reporting that someone assaulted me with beer and the issue at hand is the assault’ and he repeated the statement again. I was shocked and perplexed and so I went back to my friends and told them what happened,” Simpson related.
He added that by this point, two other female friends had joined their group.
After the second incident, Simpson said that he and his friends were discussing whether they should stay at the nightclub or leave, but decided to wait until they had finished their drinks.
Around 1:30 am, he said he and his male friend decided to leave and went to the Strip at the Giftland Mall in Turkeyen and stayed there until 4 am.
After the two parted ways, Simpson decided to pick up breakfast from his regular spot in Bourda Market called ‘Aunty’ before heading home.
When Simpson arrived at Bourda Market, the same group of six men who were harassing him and his friends at Palm Court, were at the snackette. “The guys were there and I was waiting on my turn to order and one of them say, ‘Aye, that’s the guy from PC who disrespect we’. I didn’t pay any mind and Aunty started asking me what I am getting. I started making my order and while ordering, I just felt being cuffed and kicked and I hit the ground,” Simpson recalled.
He fell a couple of feet away from the snackette and the group of men started to kick him about his body. Instinctively, he said, he covered his head and endured the attack before the snackette owner’s son, Dave, tried to intervene and rescue him. A City Constabulary officer who was on the scene also tried to intervene but was slapped by one of the men.
Subsequently, a verbal altercation ensued between the men and other persons around, as Dave and the City Police pulled him away before the six men left in two white cars.
So far, one of the alleged attackers has been identified as Maverick De Abreu, who is on trial for the assault of Soca artiste, Benjai. Stabroek News understands that checks were made at De Abreu’s house, but police have since come up empty-handed.
Hate crimes legislation
Simpson said much more needs to be done to protect members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community, who have been or may be subject to similar experiences in the future.
He said having to go from one police station to another was not an issue for him since he had the support of family members. However, for others, especially members of the LGBT community, Simpson said this might be a reason for them not reporting the matter at all, due to the stigmatisation attached to gender-based violence.
“Many persons who are victims of sensitive violent crimes like gender-based violence, sexual violence and hate crimes don’t always have that support…the police really need to not turn people away. It takes a lot of courage to go to the police station…My contention is that when it comes to violent crime related to gender-based violence etc. it takes a lot of courage for victims to go to the police because those crimes are very much stigmatised,” Simpson noted.
He said that from his years of experience at SASOD, there were numerous cases where persons were afraid to come forward due to the sensitivity of the information they would have to reveal.
“There is so many hate crimes, sexual violence and these kinds of sensitive crimes where people are shame that they are victims of hate crimes, when you have to reveal sensitive information…because of their sexuality or their gender or you know there are many women who are ashamed— professional women and so on who are shame to be victims of gender-based violence. We see many women today who are doctors and other kinds of profession, don’t come forward and go to police stations…not everybody can muster up the courage to go to the police station and when you do, only to be turned away and ask to go to another police station. It’s daunting and its breaks your spirit and not everybody is strong enough and has all the support systems in place,” Simpson further stated.
He is therefore calling on the Government and relevant authorities to implement a hate crimes law, to help stop such attacks from occurring. “…We have no hate crimes legislation and these incidents are revealing that this is an issue. I think we need broad-based hate crime legislation that just doesn’t cover sexual orientation and gender identity alone but race, ethnicity, religion and so on,” Simpson stated.
He said the incident has also raised questions about the lack of protection for human rights defenders in the country.
“…We put ourselves out there in the public and so on at great [risk]. I mean we have been doing it for a number of years and we are only fighting for our own rights personally but we are fighting for the rights of marginalised communities and because people are marginalised, silenced and stigmatised, it is very difficult for them to come forward…The police supposed to do their work in relation to the crime and what happened and helping to seek justice but the added layers of exposure, vulnerability that I will face because I am a known human right defender…There is nothing in place for me or anybody else that this might happen to whose work, whose life’s work is defending other people whose rights are violated,” Simpson explained.
Calls for public apology
Since the attack, Simpson said he was contacted by the management of Palm Court, who apologised to him and offered remorse via telephone.
However, this he said, is not sufficient, since the incident occurred in the public domain and the right approach should be for them to issue a public statement on their social media pages or even through the local media outlets.
“…She said that she is in remorse to actually find out about the incident because they have a policy of non-discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation and so on,” Simpson recalled, referring to the club’s Marketing Manager, who contacted him on Sunday morning.
He further related that on Monday afternoon, Ravi Prashad, the son of the Manager of Palm Court, also called him. “He apologised to me over the phone. I think it is insufficient. They haven’t put out a public apology. He could have said anything to me over the phone but he didn’t say anything more than making those kind of platitudes to me. The apology is not public,” Simpson noted.
He said that Prashad related to him that he supports his decision of taking the matter to the courts and even agrees with his suggestion that the staff need more training.
“…He told me he agree with me following through with the courts and all of that and that he agree with what I posted and tagged Palm Court in. That they need training and all of that and so on. He didn’t make any move to get training for the staff…it was just (an) appeal to me over the phone. There is no public record of it because it all happened in the public domain and it’s now all over the public domain. Even if, I think at the minimum they could have put out a public statement via their social media page or into the press. I think that would have been a good place to start. And while he agreed that they need training, he has [not] made any overtures to have that training implemented,” Simpson said.
As such, he noted that he is not satisfied with the response from the management of Palm Court and believes that the telephone conversations were nothing more than just platitudes to appeal to him.
