Early last Thursday morning in Ballarat, a 60 year old man was attacked by four assailants, who dragged him from his parked car, sexually assaulted him, bashed him, pissed on him, then forced him into his own car before stealing it. He was released after an hour, after further abuse. His burnt-out car was found several hours later.
Why have I heard nothing about this in the mainstream media, with the exception of the Ballarat Courier? Can you imagine the hue and cry if this happened here in Melbourne to a 60 year old woman, or if the victim was an elderly man who was assaulted in a home invasion?
There's a simple answer. It's because he was asking for it, because he was cruising for sex at a beat in a Ballarat park shortly after midnight.
I can't begin to say how pissed off it makes me that the mainstream media have ignored this assault, which the Ballarat police have described as "savage and disgusting".
What's even worse is that only a month or two ago, the commercial TV networks were whipping up a moral panic about beats and public cruising in parks, at beaches and in toilets. Well, they've got what they wanted: a pack of thugs taking the high moral ground. The journalists responsible for those stories now have this man's blood on their hands as a result of their sensationalistic reporting.
4 comments:
Hi Richard,
I agree that the media (and police, etc) are selective in how they cover/respond to crimes against gays.
Would you consider writing a letter to the Age making your point?
blithespirit
That is such a good point man, moral high ground bullshit from the attackers and the fucking papers.
I agree why you think it was not covered and I am disgusted.
I might just do that, Blythe.
In Geelong there was a big expose on beats in Geelong, a few of which were along the river that runs through parts of our city.
A few weeks later a man was simply jogging along the river (as many non-homosexuals do) and was bashed and mugged and the only place I heard about it was in a local rag, too.
I can't remember if the guy was gay or not, but he was only jogging!
Haven't read anything since about the purportrators being caught.
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