Bonkers, absolute madness.

[Workingman]

Yesterday evening hundreds, maybe thousands, of strangers came from far and wide to hold a vigil for another stranger they had never heard of till this week. Why? To honour the stranger they never knew? No! They were there to reclaim the streets.

Four women were arrested and now the world and his dog are up in arms.

Excuse me, but there is nothing to reclaim. Sarah Everard made the biggest mistake of her life by choosing to walk almost three miles home through the dark streets of London instead of getting a taxi. She did it at the same time as an unhinged individual was looking for prey: a target. Their meeting and what followed was not pre-meditated or arranged it was coincidental - an unforeseen circumstance. It was not he norm.

The vigil, indeed all of the fear, has been media driven. All women are angels and they are all at risk every minute of every day wherever they are or whatever they are doing. From what, whom? Men of course! All men are evil and out to get them - never, ever, trust a man.

Let me put a few numbers up.

In the UK, exc NI, the ten year average for murders is 645 - 445 men, 200 women. About two per day from a population of 67 million. If you are a man you are twice as likely to be murdered than a woman.

Most of us are not likely to be murdered going for a walk!

In the same period assaults, everything from catcalling, slaps, fist fights and ABH and GBH, run at 6,100 every day - 3,700 men, 2,400 women. It is about 1 incident in every two districts every 24 hours.

Most of us are not likely to be beaten up going for a walk!

I am not in any way trying to minimise what happened to Sarah, but we do need to get some perspective. It is true that some areas and times are more dangerous than others, and for those we need to take extra care; of course we do, obviously.

However, it is time for the media, the influencers and the feminists to turn down the wick and stop ramping up women's fears.

[cromwell]

On the other hand.

The Metropolitan Police have ended up arresting women and dragging them off when they were paying their respects at a vigil for a murdered woman.
Where the man accused of the murder is a policeman.

It is an absolute PR disaster and one that could have very easily been avoided.

Cressida Dick is head of the Met. The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is in charge of policing in London. I wonder how these two will react?
I wonder who will end up taking responsibility for this mess? Neither of those two, I'm guessing.

[TheOstrich]

The trouble is, the current "laws" regarding Covid and gatherings are so woolly, the police do not know how to interpret them. Different forces have looked at the situation in different ways. We know about the Met, but it should also perhaps be noted that Nottinghamshire Police said the regulations are so open to different interpretation that they would make a judgement call, let a vigil in Nottingham city centre go ahead with just a light police presence (which it did, apparently, without problem).

Another trouble is that this Sarah Everard protest has become yet another bandwagon for the disaffected to jump on. The afternoon went off peacefully (whether Kate should have turned up sans mask and said what she did is, however open to debate). But then in the evening the protest mob arrived and deliberately flouted the law.

I would have more time for "Reclaim the Streets" if I could see them mounting protests every time a black teenager is knifed on the streets of north London. These kids are not just a one-off, they are now relegated to merely a statistic ("83rd youth killed in the capital this year" .....)

I am no fan of Dick. She should have been sacked after the Jean Paul de Menezes killing. She wasn't, the Met got away with unlawful killing. She should have been strung up by her ankles (along with at least two high-profile senior male colleagues) after the Operation Midland fiasco. Again, she wasn't, the police have done everything they could to obfuscated the case throughout. The only saving grace about this latest affair that I can see is that at least a woman is in charge of the Met, not a man. Imagine the outrage otherwise .....

[medsec222]

I do think the police were heavy handed during the vigil. It was a foregone conclusion that people would turn up so they should have been prepared for that. Most people seemed to have paid their respects and then left. However, there are always troublemakers and presumably they turned out in force.

However, on a general note, right from the beginning I was uneasy about four nations imposing their own rules during lockdown. We have a Prime Minister of the UK who acts for us all and he should have over-ridden the other three first ministers and regulated for the whole of the UK. There have been far too many differences in the rules nd regulations for each country so I am not surprised the police get it wrong regrettably. Likewise the public. I could get my hair cut if I lived in Wales but sadly living in the North West I will have to wait until April

[Workingman]

Another trouble is that this Sarah Everard protest has become yet another bandwagon for the disaffected to jump on.

Absolutely this!!!

The gathering was not a vigil in memory of a loved one, a family member, a friend. For the overwhelming majority Sarah was a total stranger and they were on a protest, a campaign. The main tactic used in this media driven frenzy to "Reclaim the Streets" is to demonise men - all men, always - and Sarah's murder has given them a vehicle to drive the agenda,

There is nothing to reclaim, the streets today are no worse than they have been since streets were invented.

[miasmum]

Absolutely and if I were Sarah's friend, I would be screaming from the rooftops don't you dare involve my friend in this. She is my friend, our friend, her family's much loved one, she is, never has been and never will be anything to do with you and your rent a mob crowd so stick your chanting and your placards where the sun don't shine and sod off

[Workingman]

And I would be telling the media the same thing.

How hurtful must it be for her family and friends constantly seeing her beautiful face smiling out at them from every news broadcast and article, even those that are only part of the wider story such as this "vigil" and the staking out and arrest of the man responsible.

Don't we have "invasion of privacy" rules any more?

[miasmum]

No because we are too busy having 'rights' and freedom of speech

[cromwell]

It looks like I was wrong here.
I've been reading on other sites where there are a lot of feminists posting, and finding out about TERFs and TRAs (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists - women who say we are women and we don't agree with the Trans agenda, and Trans Rights Activists who are exactly what they sound like).
According to them the organisations Reclaim These Streets are "incredibly shady" and give money to "inclusive" ie Trans organisations. And that Sisters Uncut who also turned up at the Everard vigil are a group of Trans women who have not had surgery, ie men who still have all their bits.

Also according to them these groups went to the vigil to use it as a protest, and lo and behold, things kicked off.
So if a feminist group says it isn't all down to the police then I'm wrong. Some people went there to cause trouble, which at an event to remember a murdered woman is pretty despicable.

[cromwell]

It was a bit depressing on the radio today. Politicians talking about better street lighting and more cameras. Ms Everard was most likely abducted off a main road; bright lights and cameras were already there.

You know what might actually work? A policeman on the beat. A visible police presence. A copper standing there who a woman can approach and say "Excuse me officer, but that man has been following me for ages and I'm frightened". That would have been a lot more use to Sarah Everard and many others.

But politicians en masse just don't want to hear that.