PRIDE in Utah

Posted By Eric Ethington (Author) on October 29, 2010

Santa Ana, CA – When the staff of Equality California arrived at their office this morning, they found a noose tied to their front door. They immediately called the police, but instead of help, were told “sometimes you just have to live with being a victim.” WTF?

My understanding is that threats made against LGBT people are a crime in California. And in the wake of so many high-profile suicides, hopefully the officer who refused to even come out is going to be receiving some reprimands. Here’s the summary of the phone call between EQCA and the officer:

“There was nothing they could do, of course, there was no suspect and no crime had been committed. The officer said ‘what it is, is a string on a door.’ My vision got blurry, I was embarrased and felt stupid for making the call. I took a deep breath and said ‘Do you see any correlation between the fact that this is a gay office and there was a noose left on our door in the wake of all of these teen suicides?’ The officer said, ‘Sometimes you just have to live with being a victim,’ and proceeded to mention that his car had been broken into before.” That didn’t exactly sit well with Distel. “As if that’s the same. As if having your stereo stolen is anything like the message ‘You should kill yourself.’ As if random theft is anything like an act meant to convey hate and stir up fear in the heart of a minority group.”

Categories: National/International
Tags: call, eqca, equality california, Gay, lgbt, noose, officer, police