Gay Pride in Slovakia is Ruined By Skinheads
GAY PRIDE
Festivities have started in recent weeks around the world. I think many of us forget how good we have it. Big cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, have pride celebrations where thousands and even millions of us come out to celebrate the day and have no real danger or hate to deal with.
Police cancelled Slovakia’s first-ever gay pride parade after a gang of around 80 neo-Nazis threw stones, eggs and smoke bombs into the crowd of LGBT marchers.
“Instead of the parade of pride, Slovakia has experienced a day of shame,” reported local media. The organizers of the march in Bratislava city centre blame the police for not having enough officers out in force to protect the 1,000-plus participants of the event.
More than 70 hateful skin heads threw stones, smoke bombs, and eggs at the crowd. Eight skinhead protestors were arrested.
Organizers are pointing the finger at police, who they say had been informed of the event far in advance, yet had still sent an insufficient number of officers to keep order. One organizer says that the police “were clearly unprepared to face such a situation, despite our warnings.”
The Slovak Spectator is reporting that others are also blaming the police in their failure to protect the participants:
“Instead of the parade of pride, Slovakia has experienced a day of shame,” wrote Sme’s deputy editor-in-chief Lukáš Fila in his commentary suggesting that the attack by the neo-Nazis against the participants shows a failure by the state. Fila states that if the state was unable to secure order at an event which had been announced months in advance and about which all media had been reporting and to which foreign diplomats had confirmed their presence, then in what other areas are the police incapable of securing public order?”
The grim scene in Slovakia comes just a week after a gay pride parade was similarly marred by violence in the Eastern European country of Belarus. Riot police abruptly ended the colourful parade after eggs were thrown into the marching throng.
