Police Arrest Polish DJ Avtomat During Warsaw LGBTQIA+ Protests

by | Aug 10, 2020 | Culture, Stories | 0 comments

Polish electronic musician Avtomat participated in a Saturday, August 8th, 2020 demonstration in Warsaw to speak out against the arrest of LGBTQIA+ activist Margot Szutowicz – only to find himself in police custody.

Szutowicz, a member of advocate group Stop Bzdurom (Polish for “bullshit,”), was arrested for hanging a rainbow flag on a statue of Jesus outside Warsaw’s Holy Cross Church on July 29th. Her detainment highlighted the how homophobic attitudes had permeated through the legal framework of the country; her lawyers told Reuters that she could spend up to two years in jail for “outraging in public an object of religious worship.”

In an email to Resident AdvisorPaulina Żaczek of Granko Agency described how Saturday’s “protesters’ group, after protesting peacefully for quite a long time, was, without warning, attacked by the police, the officers picking random protesters (all of them were peaceful) from the crowd, as well as arresting people from around that had colorful elements of clothing,” Avtomat (real name Kajetan Łukomski) was among them but has since been released.

Avtomat and Activism

Saturday was by no means the first time Łukomski has challenged his country’s status quo. He’s a member of Oramics, a Polish collective launched in 2017 to “support other struggling communities and also music and artists from our region (eastern and central Europe).”

Łukomski contributed a song titled “Ignorance Ha” for Total Solidarity, a 113-track benefit compilation Oramics released in partnership with New York Haunted in 2019. Incorporated into the single was a quote from Polish MP Krystyna Pawłowicz deemed homophobic by many.

Donate or learn more about Stop Bzdurom on their official website.

Image credit: Michal Murawski

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