Sarah Everard

Police Scotland aren't the same people or organisation as the MET police. I thought the MET police were criticised in the summer for being heavy handed against men in the BLM demonstrations.

I understand your point but I think that it sets a very dangerous precedent when police are not allowed to arrest women purely because they're women. Patsy Stevenson was stood screaming in a police officers face, she refused to do anything she was asked and stood screaming right in his face yet her being arrested is portrayed as an innocent woman being victimised by male police for no reason.

 

This thread has gone downhill very quickly, which is a shame as there are valid discussions to be had. But don't worry cos when this is whipped through it will all be irrelevant as no-one will be able to protest.

 

I’m far from suggesting women shouldn’t be arrested.

on this occasion, women with a very clear message ‘we ought to be able to walk the streets without fear of male violence’, should have been dealt with in a way that addressed their concerns. Instead, the police ‘cloth eared’ decided to ignore calls for compromise and led them into a situation where violence became inevitable.

I appreciate the Met police are a different organisation to the Scottish Police, and in a lot of ways that’s the issue.

The Met police have a history of badly handling crowds, and I appreciate this’ll go down as ‘woke’, but when it comes to climate activists (usually younger people) BLM or women, they’re more prone to violence than when handling large groups of white men.

 

I don't think it's actually that they're more prone to violence with 'weaker' groups than with stronger groups (which I assume is what you meant?), I think there's obviously something in why they treat some demonstrations different to others but I think its if they are the target of the protest or group they're heavier.

An EDl protest, as horrible as it is, isnt against the police so they don't see the protesters as the enemy, a BLM or 'ACAB f the police' protest like this weekend the police are the protesters enemy so they're heavier in retaliation. Same with football fans, football fans see police as the enemy and in response police are heavy handed and that's against big strong pissed up knuckle dragging men a lot of the time. I'm not condoning the difference in tactics just giving my view on why there is one. Not saying I'm right but it's just a theory

 

We don’t disagree.

 

The Police don't make the law. That Is for Govt and Courts. All the Police have done Is to uphold the law. Whist it is at their discretion how rigorously they do so, they, on this occasion determined that due to Covid, that in the interests of public safety they would refuse permission for it to take place. At that point It became an illegal gathering. THOSE are the facts that YOU are choosing to ignore. THOSE participating knew full well it was an illegal gathering.

 

I think the problem here is that they seem to pick and choose when to uphold the law and that is plain wrong.....

 

Don't disagree with that but It still doesn't exonerate the hundreds that turned up knowing full well that, rightly or wrongly, permission had been refused and even ignored organisers' advice to hold doorstep vigils instead.

 

You do come across as a very angry man.

You should maybe consider how that affects your view of what’s happened here.

 

An ounce of judgement would have told the Police to stand back and let Saturday's vigil proceed. The intervention generated very predictable bad publicity and appears to have led to further demonstrations which might not otherwise have occurred. It called for discretion. There was none.

 

It simply wasn't a situation to view in isolation. That's why the Police were so badly out of touch on this one.

 

Nice bit of changing the narrative from the cops and government. Women now to blame. At least they aren't murdering them.

 

"I'm sorry I hit you yesterday luv, but you deserved it" - the line of abusive men everywhere.

 

I feel really sorry for her family, her name keeps getting dragged all over the place and at least for the moment they should be able to grieve in peace.

 

I'm as left wing as anyone on here. Free speech supporter. Women's rights supporter. However, just as I applaud the Government's vaccine programme rollout ( in spite of other appalling decisions throughout the pandemic) I also say that it was perfectly reasonable IN CURRENT CIRCUMSTANCES that the vigil attendees should not have turned up. The Met made crap decisions yes and SOME of the policing was heavy handed and the Met leadership needs holding to account. However, the situation was that the vigil organisers were told the event could not go ahead because of pandemic circumstances. That too could of course be criticised and the police can be accused of double standards etc. Nevertheless it was deemed to be illegal whether we like it or not. I've posted earlier on this if anyone cares to look back. It's not a clear cut pro-police/anti police issue here. Some of the police WERE nobs - no doubt in my mind - but as I say, in the current situation, regardless of genuine feelings about women's rights the vigil should have been reorganised for a further date when restrictions are eased unwelcome though that might be. No group is entirely blameless here and some individuals within the police and the public attendees should be ashamed of themselves.

 

How do you work that out? Just because I disagree with some of the nonsense you repeat on a regular basis in the face of rebuttals from lots of other posters?

 

I think we all acknowledge what the use of YOU means.
If, however you don’t, I’m happy to send round a primary school child to explain

 

Arrogant t*sser!!