Aurora Meeting 19th September 2005
at 7pm in Croydon Town Hall
1 Introductions
Representatives were present from Friends of the Firebird, the Terrence Higgins Trust, Croydon Forum and the Croydon Area Gay Society (CAGS).
2 Minutes of the previous meeting
The minutes were read and agreed. It was stated that it was not possible to fully understand minutes that were not produced in greater detail, and that it would take too long for the police administrator to produce such minutes. A solution to this problem would be proposed later in the meeting.
3 Community Safety Unit Update
Seven incidents of hate crime against LGBT people were reported. It was agreed that we prefer a detailed list of incidents rather than a summary.
4 Murder of Jody Dobrowski
i)Police update
The meeting expressed concern about the police's delay in the dissemination of information about this serious attack. Set against this, the attack was in the early hours of Sunday morning (16th October), Mr. Dobrowski's died at 10.30 am. at which point it became a murder investigation. The Post Mortem took place the same afternoon. Moreover it took time to establish details such as the victim's name and sexuality. Mr. Dobrowski's sexuality was at issue partly because this serious attack took place near to a well-known cruising ground, and partly because witnesses heard words that made it clear that this was a homophobic attack.
ii) Aurora's views on raising the police presence
Although the police moved with commendable speed the meeting was concerned that the police did not appeal for witnesses until late on Sunday afternoon. The police have often pointed out that it is essential to speak to witnesses as soon as possible. There had also been an attack on Clapham Common a few weeks earlier about which no information had been released. The police have an open mind about the attack on Mr. Dobrowski including the possibility that it may be connected to previous attacks.
Because there had been no rapid targeting of information from gay people, it was suggested that existing e-lists could be cascaded with a pay-as-you go mobile phone number acquired specifically for the major incident for which information is required. However a very good case was made for a permanent mobile phone number which could be publicized, so that people with information about an attack would have it immediately to hand. Concern was expressed that it was important that such a phone line was manned by someone trained to ask the proper questions i.e. a community member, trained, possibly by the police, in asking questions to get the maximum amount of information from the caller. The Croydon Area Gay Society has already circulated its members with the offer that they could speak to a gay victim of an attack in a cruising ground, as this bridged the known, important, barrier of having to report directly to the police. (The principle is that this sort of contact allows the witness to get used to talking about the incident, get used to the information going to the Police at his sole discretion, and thus become confident to speak directly to the Police very quickly). Reporting is generally so low that such an approach can hardly fail to improve reporting.
We had been advised before the start of the meeting that we would be consulted on the possibility of the police increasing patrols at Croydon cruising grounds. It was felt that efforts should be made to make cruising grounds safer by increasing the police presence without alarming cruisers. The Terrence Higgins Trust's experience in Croydon where a member of THT accompanied a plain-clothes police officer at cruising grounds was described. It was felt that it would be a good idea to implement a similar scheme in Croydon, subject of course to the limitations of police resources.
5 Galop
No report, due to absence of the Galop representative.
6 Various points
It was agreed that time should be allocated for the purpose of reading documents before discussing them. It was also agreed that documents should be published a week or ten days before the meeting to give people time to think about them.
7 Amendments were agreed to Aurora's “Aims and Objectives”
Error in the phrasing removed: “Working together to” should not be repeated in the first paragraph and the first bullet point and this was removed.
i) The references to the Croydon Community Consultative Group were corrected to Committee.
ii) We had omitted the confusion over 'homophobia' deliberately, but were concerned that the word itself not be omitted in case we were to lose a grant or conference invitation. We added “(sometimes called 'homophobia' and 'transphobia')" to the end of the bullet point.
iii) It was decided not to aspire to be a Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership as this is a rather different concept.
8 The Transgender Working Party
Consideration of the updated “Which Loo?” material was deferred to the next meeting as some people had not had the opportunity to read it on the hidden section of the Aurora website. It was noted that the text would have to be agreed by police department DCC4 before it can be published on the open section of the website.
9 The Procedures Working Party
The working party raised the need for a community chair and a community administrator, the latter funded by CAGS. The chair said that the police are happy to continue with providing photocopy, postage etc. It was agreed that consequential changes to the Procedures would be considered at the next meeting.
10 Gay-to-Z on Croydon cruising grounds
A draft letter to Gay-to-Z drawing attention to the out of date information on the cruising link on their website and questioning the advisability of publishing such information where it can be seen by homophobes was produced and will be finalized after everyone has had the opportunity to read it and comment.
11 Anonymous reporting
The possibility of anonymous reporting on the Aurora website was raised, but felt to have little benefit.
12 An LGBT contact in Scotland Yard
The need for an emergency New Scotland Yard contact was raised and we were given the name of Acting DCI Anthony M.Bennett. It was suggested that we write to him for a procedure for use in his absence.
13 Stonewall - gay bullying in schools
Stonewall, who have no experience of working in schools, have launched a campaign to stop homophobia in schools. Although they have spent a lot of money on a “video“ the support they have claimed from many experienced bodies who have worked on this area over many years was not born out by the groups themselves. Stonewall currently had no idea how they were going to assess the value of the work to be presented. There was concern that a simple package rolled out across London to fit into a single slot of the Citizenship timetable and allowing them to tick several boxes: l, g, b, t, persecution, discrimination, bullying, violence, minorities etc. would be attractive to schools and replace the well developed, more extensive schemes currently in place. It would be difficult to get better work back again if it involved using more curriculum time and cost more. It was proposed to write to the Mayor's office, which is backing the project, and to Stonewall to ask how exactly this might affect boroughs like Lambeth and Croydon with well-funded and demonstrably effective schemes, and what their plans are in relation to us. It was decided to contact Sue Sanders of School's Out! and Chrysalis.
14 National Consortium
Our attempts to join the National Consortium of LGBT Organisations have so far been thwarted by problems at the Consortium.
15 The Use of the Internet Working Party
The working party reported that despite a few glitches the development of the website was going well. This work was approved as the problems noted by some of the attendees had been fixed shortly before the meeting. Any further problems should be reported to – webmaster@aurora-croydon.org.uk.
It was reported that Aurora has begun to be registered in free spaces such as the Gay-to-Z calendar of events.
16 Date and Place of Next Meetings
The next meeting will be at 7pm on the 7th December in room G7 of Croydon Town Hall, and the following meeting was provisionally scheduled for the 9th February, also at Croydon Town Hall.
The meeting closed at 9.10pm.