As a part of Hate Crime training with the EPS, officers of the same sex hold hands and walk down Whyte Ave to see, feel and observe what it’s like to be LGBTQ in Edmonton.

You may have seen this, or even heard the story before, but we only just found out about this and thought it was worth sharing!

 

Through the years multiple training groups in the Edmonton Police service have done this form of training.

Stephen Camp, a temporary acting staff sergeant with the Edmonton Police, came up with the idea.

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“What we occasionally hear, sometimes frequently hear, is look at the police service, it’s primarily men and white, right?” he said. “It’s actually a very valid point. In Canada and the U.S. a lot of white males would never know what discrimination is at all. So how do you make them feel that?”

“[The recruits] mentioned [they felt] that a few people were staring them down in an aggressive [way]… they would look at them as though it was unacceptable behavior. And there were a couple of guys that muttered something, something like ‘effing gays’ or something like that, but they couldn’t quite hear what they said.”

“There was a combination of feeling anger, wanting to retaliate, and the vulnerability, feeling insecure about their safety, all the things that research shows that victims of hate crimes feel.”

 

The exercise is no longer an official part of EPS training, but depending on whats going on in the city and what the EPS is working on, the exercise could still be used with new recruits.

 

*Quotes from Global News Edmonton* If you want to read more on this story, here is a link to globals post: globalnews.ca

 

-The Pepper & Dylan Show