Public orders: The sex crimes of policing

Abstract

This article reflects on the policing of sexual and gender minorities in New South Wales (NSW) in connection with Justin Ellis’ Policing Legitimacy: Social media, scandal and sexual citizenship. Ellis’ book approaches the scandal precipitated by the social media circulation of bystander footage of police assaulting a young gay man at the 2013 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras as a threshold case of ‘sousveillance’ – ‘watching from below’ – and investigates the disruption this practice can make to instituted relations between police, media and other organisations, and its significance for sexual citizenship.