“Their response to activist pressure would be to take the low road by preventing their fellow community members from observing their identities and honoring the shared legacy of the Stonewall Riots,” Detective Brian Downey said in a Friday statement that preceded the one from NYC Pride.
He said that it was”demoralizing” that the event’s organizers didn’t refer to this league by title in its announcement,”speaking to us just as’Law Enforcement Exhibitors.’ The tag is not only offensive but dehumanizing for our members.”
An NYPD spokesperson agreed it was”disheartening.”
“The idea of officers being excluded is disheartening and runs counter to our shared values of inclusion and tolerance,” Detective Sophia Mason said. “That said, we’ll still be present to guarantee traffic safety and decent order in this enormous, complex event.”
FireFLAG President and FDNY Battalion Chief Michele Fitzsimmons slammed the decision as”misguided” and called for its reversal, according to the New York Daily News.
Organizers of the annual event said the ban would continue through 2025 because they need”safer distances” for LGBTQ individuals and people of colour that feel threatened by authorities.
“The sense of security that law enforcement is meant to provide can rather be threatening, and at times dangerous, to those in our community who are often targeted with surplus force or without rationale,” the team said in a statement.
Downey informed the New York Post it had been a”poorly made” decision,”and also the implementation was even poorer.”
He said while he knows some distrust of authorities by the area, his team has been around”building bridges”
GOAL, a fraternal organization, was made in 1982 and every year approximately 200 of its own members and their families participate in the march, Dan Dimant, a spokesman for NYC Pride told Fox News.
The Pride festival will be mostly on line this June because of the pandemic but will have some in-person components.
