Silence from police over the unsolved firebombing at Auckland's Flesh nightclub has venue operators in the city fearing for their patrons' safety. Centurian operations manager Liam says safety is always a concern, but the Flesh incident has highlighted potential dangers, and raised awareness of similar attacks against gay venues overseas – some of which have resulted in fatalities. “We have security systems in place already for that very purpose,” he says. “We have four cameras running, and all the tapes are kept up to ten days, so we can provide police with information should something happen.” Lateshift owner Jay Bennie says they're very concerned, and he has asked staff to keep alert. “If the life-threatening firebombing of Flesh has any root in homophobia, however that was generated, all other venues and gay-connected businesses anywhere in the country could become targets,” he says. “We hope the police and fire authorities will move very quickly to make public what they know so we can take steps to protect our businesses, staff and patrons if necessary.” Flesh manager Nicholas says while police looked after them very well on the night of the fire, there has been no contact since, and getting information has been exceedingly difficult. "The police are patrolling our street now roughly once every two hours, whereas before we never saw them," he says. "It does make you feel more secure, but anyone could do anything in two hours if they were sitting watching the building. Obviously whoever did it was watching."
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Friday, 14th January 2005 - 12:00pm