Roses mark silent stand on violence
FORTY Cairns residents were supported yesterday by the presence of eight police officers at a rally to raise awareness of domestic violence.
Supporters of the Red Rose Foundation initiative held red roses and stood in silence for 30 minutes on the Esplanade from midday.
The rally was sparked by the death of Bentley Park woman China Crawford, whose body was found in her home on April 5.
Cairns Regional Domestic Violence Service chief executive Amanda Lee-Ross helped organise the event.
“Given China’s funeral was on later in the day we expected most of her family and friends would be preparing for that,” she said.
“We have been doing Red Rose rallies in Cairns for the past three years.
“There have been seven in the past year alone, which is far too many.”
The Red Rose rallies were originally a way of lobbying the State Government for a review into family homicides.
However, since the Not Now, Not Ever report into domestic violence, events have been held after deaths suspected to be caused by domestic violence.
Acting chief superintendent Rolf Straatemeier said he and his colleagues hoped to sup- port the community in whatever way they could.
“I think it’s important, where we can, to show the community that domestic violence does happen and to let people know we’re not prepared to tolerate it in our society,” he said.
“We wanted to let our community know if anyone is the victim of domestic violence they can come forward and we will do something about it and we will support them.”
Acting chief superintendent Straatemeier described yesterday’s rally as a “great turnout” and praised the handful of men who turned out in support.
“We need all the support we can get to stop domestic violence,” he said.