The police should not warn peaceful marchers to comply with the law!
18/06/2011
Submitted by
Budapest Pride
The Rainbow Mission Foundation has read with shock the statement of the spokesperson for the Budapest Police Headquarters, in which Katalin Fanni Horváth warns that the behavior of the participants in the March must not damage public morals or public decency. If such behavior is noted at the event by the police, they will demand that the organizers immediately put a stop to the illegal behavior, and if the order is not complied with, the police will take legal steps to preserve order.”
We believe the Budapest Police Headquarters is acting in a discriminatory way, since for years it has only been in connection with the Gay Dignity March, and only the peacefully marching lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, that they have warned about compliance with this law. They do this despite the fact that no proceedings have ever been instituted against any participants of the March because of behavior damaging to public morality or public decency, the participants have up to now, and will in the future continue to exercise their rights to assembly in compliance with existing law.
The statement of the police thus not only reinforces the misconceptions of Hungarian society about the March, but actively contributes to the survival of prejudice against LGBT people.
We find it surprising that the Budapest Police Headquarters has not warned the planned counter-demonstrations about the importance of complying with the law, nor stressed that the intimidation, harassment, and abuse of the marchers is a violation of the right to freedom of assembly, and constitutes violence against members of the community.
We call upon the police, to treat any attacks upon the participants of the demonstration as hate-crimes under the current Criminal Code, and to initiate proceedings on the charge of violence against members of the community. We also draw the attention of the police to the amendment of the Criminal Code which took effect in May of 2011, according to which not only abuse and coercion, but also any kind of incitement of disorder against any segment of the population – including against the LGBT community – and any kind of manifestly provocative anti-community behavior, is treated as violence against members of the community whether it involves actual acts of violence or not.
We believe the Budapest Police Headquarters is acting in a discriminatory way, since for years it has only been in connection with the Gay Dignity March, and only the peacefully marching lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, that they have warned about compliance with this law. They do this despite the fact that no proceedings have ever been instituted against any participants of the March because of behavior damaging to public morality or public decency, the participants have up to now, and will in the future continue to exercise their rights to assembly in compliance with existing law.
The statement of the police thus not only reinforces the misconceptions of Hungarian society about the March, but actively contributes to the survival of prejudice against LGBT people.
We find it surprising that the Budapest Police Headquarters has not warned the planned counter-demonstrations about the importance of complying with the law, nor stressed that the intimidation, harassment, and abuse of the marchers is a violation of the right to freedom of assembly, and constitutes violence against members of the community.
We call upon the police, to treat any attacks upon the participants of the demonstration as hate-crimes under the current Criminal Code, and to initiate proceedings on the charge of violence against members of the community. We also draw the attention of the police to the amendment of the Criminal Code which took effect in May of 2011, according to which not only abuse and coercion, but also any kind of incitement of disorder against any segment of the population – including against the LGBT community – and any kind of manifestly provocative anti-community behavior, is treated as violence against members of the community whether it involves actual acts of violence or not.
