Since our NO COPS AT PRIDE action we have received some responses expressing concern that queer people need police to protect them. We want to take this opportunity to explain why this isn’t actually the case.
LGSMigrants is founded on a history of queer solidarity and an understanding of how our history informs our future. A crucial part of this is remembering and examining the police’s role in both our past and present. It wasn’t that long ago that our families were being torn apart, our pubs and clubs were raided and gay men were arrested for simply having sex.
Some of us in the queer community might not feel that violence from police today, but this important part of our history highlights how who is and isn't on the right side of the law is changeable. The police aren’t neutral. Instead, their role is to enforce the demands of those currently in power.
This is not to say that the police’s violent history is in the past. Whether it’s Sarah Everard, Child Q, Mark Duggan, Charles De Menezes or the victims of Stephen Port, we see daily how police don’t keep us safe. The police cannot protect our communities because, too often, our communities need protection from the police.
This is why LGSMigrants doesn’t just believe in No Cops at Pride - we believe in No Cops At All.
We are abolitionists. This means we believe in a world without police, prisons and borders. A world that prioritises care and accountability over cruelty and punishment. This doesn’t mean we don’t think people are capable of harm, but that we need measures that actually prevent harm.
We know that thinking of a world without police and prisons - a society that feels so far from what we know - is a lot! These are big ideas that might feel overwhelming, but the solution is firmly rooted in reality.
In day to day life we can see that police presence doesn’t keep people safe. The most overpoliced areas are not the ones where people are safest, instead it’s the wealthiest communities where people have the most resources like enough housing, or mental health support.
Not only do the police not prevent harm, but they are part of a system that perpetuates it. All too often the very people who most need safety - those of us at the sharpest end of society - feel that we cannot call the police because we know this would only make the situation worse—or threaten our lives.
One example is a mental-health crisis. Many of us have friends and family impacted by mental-health issues, or are impacted ourselves. Because of that, we understand that care is complicated. If you have a friend or family member going through an episode, would you want the police to respond, who are likely to handle the situation with punishment at the centre? Or would you want someone who understands mental health; someone who has been there; someone who is trained to address the situation safely? Instead of a force that escalates situations, we advocate for a system of support that ensures you or your loved one gets the specialist care they need.
The police are also a key part of the hostile environment - if you’ve come to the UK to seek asylum, and are also experiencing exploitation or abuse, the police can (and do!) refer you to immigration enforcement. Instead of supporting people who have been forced into traumatic and dangerous journeys due to the almost total lack of safe routes to the UK, the police often violently force people onto deportation flights.
We know that well-resourced communities can develop systems of care and accountability to ensure fewer people experience harm, those that do are fully supported, and those that harm are held accountable without experiencing additional harm themselves.
Admitting that cops cannot protect us can be scary! Queer people, and other marginalised groups, experience and need protection from violence. But admitting this also allows us to fight for a safer world of collective liberation and community care, not prisons and punishment. A fundamental part of abolition is working out how to prevent and protect people from harm, which includes harm committed by the state.
Our communities are already organising ways of protecting each other, including protection against the police. Take the recent Peckham immigration raids; while police officers wearing rainbow patches violently assaulted peaceful protestors, people across sexualities, religions and genders came together to ensure people in our communities are kept safe.
We must move our community focus away from policing and towards the proven solutions that tackle the the reasons people get swept up into crime in the first place, like poverty, substance misuse and ill mental health, to ensure everyone in society gets support. Pride is one small part of this.
50 years ago LGBTQ+ people taking over the streets of London didn’t seem possible and in another 50 years we know we’ll be dancing in the streets celebrating a world without police, prisons, detention centers and where everyone can feel safe.
If this sounds like a world you want to help build or you’d like to know more, there are many abolitionist groups organising right now. You could join LGSMigrants, support the work of Abolitionist Futures, No More Exclusions, Bent Bars, SOAS Detainee Support, Sisters Uncut, Remember + Resist or join your local copwatch or anti raids group.
Some abolitionist resources we recommend:
READ:
Brick by Brick by Cradle Community
LISTEN:
A World Without Prisons, VENT Documentaries
ENGAGE:
Abolitionist Futures Resources
PRESS RELEASE
LGBTQ+ activists halt London’s 50th Pride march to protest police presence
Queer activist group, Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants, have halted today’s Pride in London march (Saturday 2 July) to protest the inclusion of police.
The group of 50 LGBTQ+ activists staged a “die in” protest in front of London Metropolitan Police marchers to demand no police presence at future London pride events.
Halting the parade for 23 minutes — representing the 23 people who have died in London Metropolitan Police custody in the last two years - protesters, wearing all black with pink veils, lay on the ground while others chanted instructions for how to intervene in a police stop and search. On either side members of the group held two banners facing spectators that read ‘no pride in cops’ ‘no pride in borders’, while others handed out leaflets which included how to intervene in a stop and search or in an immigration raid. Onlookers joined in the chants of "No pride in cops".
This year’s march marks 50 years since the first Pride event in the UK which protesters point to as an opportunity to return to the fundamental anti-oppression values of Pride.
The call is part of a movement to hold police accountable for violence against LGBTQ people, people of colour and women.
On Thursday 30 June Pride in London responded to calls from LGBTQ+ campaigners to ban police from Pride by telling uniformed police officers to not march. This was following an open letter sent to Pride in London, organised by LGSMigrants, calling for the end of police presence at Pride signed by ACT UP, the Gay Liberation Front, and African Rainbow Family. Despite this police still marched in the parade, wearing matching t shirts with the police logo instead of full uniform.
Sam Björn, spokesperson for Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants, says: “50 years ago LGBTQ+ people came together with a desire to overhaul the status quo and the belief that a better, kinder world is possible.
“We protested today because the police endanger our communities. They detain children of colour, rape women and arrest those of us at the sharpest end of society. Straight or gay, in matching rainbow t shirts or in uniform, that has to change. While we welcome Pride in London’s acknowledgement of police violence no amount of glitter can wash those stories away, and we won't let them.
“50 years ago a Pride that looks like the one we see in London today seemed like an impossible dream. 50 years from now we know that we’ll be dancing in the streets celebrating a world free from police and their violence.”
Notes for Editors
Get in touch for further comment at lgsmigrants@gmail.com or 07875855481.
High resolution images will be available to download here.
Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants are a group of LGBTQ+ people who stand in solidarity with all migrants and refugees. Through fundraising and creative direct action, they fight back against the hostile environment and reject racist narratives that pit queer communities and migrants against one another. Inspired by the 1980s group Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, made famous by the 2014 film ‘Pride’, they build on a proud queer history of solidarity to say: No One Is Illegal
See www.lgsmigrants.com for more information. Twitter: @lgsmigrants Instagram: @lgsmigrants Facebook: www.facebook.com/lgsmigrants