Out in the Mountains

Police Interview

Continued from page 9.

Tim: Yes, and they can go to the chief. I
really believe the chief wants to change
this department.

OITM: What do you see as being the is-
sues of the gay and lesbian Community?
What would you like to know about?

Greg: I think I speak for most officers
when I say that we don’t know how large
a community there is.

Sonny: What are their expectations, and
their fears? We can’t help them unless we
know some of the things that effect them.
If there’s a high number of people that are
afraid to walk out of the house and walk to
their car, we need to address, as a police
department, those issues. That’s where I
am stumped.

OITM: Who are we, and what are our
fears. What else?

Greg: What are your needs? Do you have
particular needs in your community? Ob-
viously we’re addressing that with the do-
mestic abuse issue, that’s being looked at
now and that’s fantastic, but what else is
indigenous to your community?

Dave: I would like to interact more with
the mainstream gay and lesbian Com-
munity. It seems we’re always hearing
from what appears to me to be the radical
segment of the gay and lesbian Com-
munity. Highly vocal stuff like the do-
mestic partners issue, ACT-UP, very vo-
cal, very radical people. I have a couple of
friends that are gay and they’re main-
stream. 'Ihey’re not radical in either ap-
pearance or thought or ideas. It’d be nice
to know some of those people, ‘cause
sometimes we feel really accosted by the
strong radical segments. And I know that’s
not the way a lot of the gay and lesbian
Community thinks. These are the activists.

OITM: You make an interesting issue,
and even though I’m interviewing you I’ll
throw this in. Certainly no one represents
everyone, and at the same time I think
there are a lot of people who are fright-
ened to .do certain things that ACT—UP
does for them, that activists do represent
some people who are mainstream. I’ve not
been a participant in any ACT—UP actions,
and I don’t know of I think of myself as an
activist now, but I consider myself radical
in that I believe in challenging the status
quo and rocking the boat.

Dave: Absolutely. The point I’m making
is that there are a lot of people...I don’t
want to use the word normal because
everything’s normal when it’s in per-
spective...

Greg: You can’t label them as gay by
looking at them, not that you want to as-
sign labels to anybody, but...

Tim: Some of the contacts we’ve had are
made to be more adversarial than needed.
When I first was learning the job and
checking into people loitering [at pick up
places] I would put the spotlight on peo-
ple, and my trainer would say “No, that’s
not necessary, this is what’s going on
down here, you don’t have to be par-
ticularly alarmed about it.” When we go
out at night, and I know it’s intimidating,
we have to check on people. We have to
know what’s going on. There was some
talk at the time that the police were ha-
rassing people. It’s just that we have to be
encountering each other at certain times.
Some demonstrations I’ve seen, not gay
ones, tl1ey’re very adversarial. We’re there
to do a job, not to intimidate. We get has-
sled and it’s alienating to the police to al-
ways feel like we’re targets. I know there
have been abuses by police, and people
say there have been a lot of abuses by po-
lice.

OITM: Taking on the system, does it al-
ways have to be in adversity? How can
there be positive, constructive dis-
agreement?

Tim: At the marijuana rally some of them
did come over and say that they were
there to make a political point rather than
to take us on or slander us or whatever.

OITM: You need to know that we are not
trying to hurt you also.

Tim: Yeah. Part of being a police is that
you get threatened all the time, and
groups especially are intimidating. Frank-
ly, for all the junk on our belts, you can’t
do much when there are 10 or 12 people,
or maybe more. That’s stress.

Dave: The same officer that may not give
the quality service that the gay or lesbian
is expecting in a situation with the police,
whether it’s a domestic violence issue or
an assault, that’s the same cop that treats
everybody like that. It’s usually pretty
consistent that that officer is one of the
slugs and doesn’t care about anything. It’s
not just gays and lesbians, it’ll be blacks,
it’ll be that he or she doesn’t want to take
prints or collect proper evidence, or isn’t
really a good cop. Put it this way. If
you’re not receiving good service chances
are no one is, and the complaint should be
lodged. Don’t feel isolated or that it’s be-
cause you’re gay.

OITM: Are you aware of violence
against lesbians and gays? How do you
see the role of the police in addressing
this?

Tim: I have a bias. I understand where
hate crimes legislation comes from. I’ve
seen so many people hurt in the past5
years. My bias is that any crime of vi-
olence upsets me and should be handled
equally. I know it happens often that you
arrest the guy and he’s out on the street.
The part of hate crimes legislation is that
maybe it forces people to take it more se-
riously. In an ideal world all violent
crimes would be taken seriously. That’s
my bias. I understand why you think it’s
necessary. We talk about domestic abuse
in the gay community; the domestic abuse
in the straight community is appalling.

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