Discussion about hate crimes with police officers from Sweden

On June 7th, a Hate Crimes Workshop with police officers from Sweden and Lithuania took place at Pride House.

How do we combat hate crimes? Why is it necessary to report hate crimes directed against LGBT community? How are sensitivity trainings on LGBT issues useful to police officers? Why is it important for officers to speak openly about their sexual orientation and identity within the police forces? Why is it important to share the good practices of combating hate crimes?

The police officers working in The Democracy and Hate Crime group in Stockholm and representatives of Lithuanian Police School answered these and many more questions.

Representatives of Stockholm Police shared their good practices in combating hate crimes, providing support for the victims who suffered from such crimes because of their sexual orientation and/or sexual identity, providing training to Lithuanian police officers and protecting the participants of Pride Parade in Stockholm.

“Pride parade in Stockholm is more like a party than a protest. In 2018, during “EuroPride” in Stockholm, there were 55 000-60 000 participants and around 500 000 spectators. Families dressed their children in rainbow colors and everybody was celebrating equality. 95 % of the spectators are heterosexual. It’s like the carnival in Rio de Janeiro. It’s an unforgettable event.” – says participant of our discussion, inspector of Hate Crimes division within Stockholm police and founder of the Swedish LGBT Police Association, Göran Stanton.

The discussion was organized according to “What is a Hate Crime” project, which was financed by Swedish Institute and supported by Embassy of Sweden in Vilnius, as well as the project of “Call It Hate”, financed by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme of European Union.

Partner of the event: Švedijos ambasada Vilniuje/ Embassy of Sweden in Vilnius.

© Augustas Didžgalvis photos