Research, ideas, and leadership for a more secure, peaceful world

Past Event
Seminar

An Epidemic of Gay Hate Crime, a Police Cover-up, and a Public Reckoning

RSVP Required Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students

Steve Johnson is an HSP fellow and a leader in Internet technology and governance. However, he has another passion that touches on homeland security issues of police protection, equity, and misconduct. His gay brother, Scott Johnson, was killed in Sydney, Australia in 1988. The police declared it a suicide. After a 30-year struggle to prompt a police investigation, a third inquest declared Scott’s death a gay hate homicide. Then ensued the successful apprehension and conviction of Scott’s killer and a Parliamentary Commission looking into the police handling of 100 deaths of gay men, confirming an epidemic of gay hate crime the New South Wales police did too little about. In December 2023, The Commission of Inquiry published its recommendations, a strong indictment of the police’s resistance to investigate hate crimes, and an outline for reform. This will be a unique discussion about how Steve turned his personal tragedy into policy change in safety and security. 

This event is open to all Harvard students, fellows, faculty, and staff. Refreshments will be served. 

Date: Time: - Location: Littauer Building - Fainsod Room, 324
Steve Johnson

Speaker Bio

Related Book

A Thousand Miles From Care: The Hunt for My Brother’s Killer – A Thirty-Year Quest for Justice

Forthcoming from Harper Collins Publishers, July 4, 2024 

A gripping and heartbreaking story, A THOUSAND MILES FROM CARE tells the 30 year quest Steve Johnson undertook to uncover the truth about his brilliant brother’s brutal murder in Manly.

At the entrance of Sydney Harbor, the cliffs rise fourteen stories above the Pacific, like a gigantic skirt made of sandstone. North Head, one of the most memorable cliffs, is a gorgeous place to watch the sunrise. But it’s an unforgiving place to lose your footing. When Steve Johnson’s younger brother Scott went over the edge in 1988, he hit an outcrop on the way down and exploded on the rocks below.

A THOUSAND MILES FROM CARE draws upon the mountain of exclusive materials Steve amassed over his 32-year quest, including sealed court transcripts, police records, interviews with suspects, inquest reports, correspondence with gang members, private investigations, and much else. It utilizes unique details, interview transcripts and insights based on Johnson’s close relationship with authorities and high-ranking New South Wales officials developed over more than three decades.

This profoundly impactful book traces the steps Steve Johnson and his family and friends took to solve an alleged suicide turned murder, navigating an openly hostile police force and a maze of dead ends, unreliable informants, skinhead gangs, a faked confession, police-connected drug rings, and setbacks at every turn. All of it ends with an extraordinary turnaround by police who, with an operation worthy of Mission Impossible, apprehended a suspect, 32 years after Scott’s death.

 

A Thousand Miles from Care book cover