NSW police commissioner officially apologises for police brutality 1978 Mardi Gras (video)

The enraged LGBT vs the cops at Surry Hills police station in 1978

It was a heartfelt and moving speech.

One wonders why it took the New South Wales police 40 years to apoligise to the LGBT community, after decades of public outrage at the beating we copped on that night.

What's more newspapers published the names of those arrested (of which they apologised some time ago for) which saw gays losing their jobs and some suiciding.

I know that the 40 year anniversary of 1978 was a catalyst for ceremony and reflection, but why did it take 40 fucking years to drag an apology out of the NSW police's voice box? Why couldn't they have apologised in 1988, or 1998, or 2008? It's astonishing to me that it's taken these knuckle draggers nearly half a century to come out with an apology that is meaningful.

The commissioner addresses the issue of the deep mistrust to the police by LGBT Sydney-siders that stemmed from that, and a desire to correct that. 

IMO it will take much more than a belated apology 40 years on from the tragedy. OK the NSW police commissioner has apologised...... Let's just see how that works out on the ground.

Oxford St Sydney has long been the victim of extreme policing, bouncers that throw you out of a pub at the drop of a hat, that doesn't happen anywhere else in Sydney that I know of. IMO we LGBT have been targeted by the powers that be who wanted to destroy our community. 

Well they've destroyed Oxford St, but our community will always be here :)