Priti Patel on criminalising public sexual harassment

[MidEugh]

Harassing women in street to be a crime under Patel plans

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/3224bccc-e999-11eb-984b-57a44d13e8d6?shareToken=c3bca8195c2893e0ff2670a542100a79

It's a start. The comments so far are shocking though.

[PickAChew]

So she is useful, then.

[UtopiaPlanitia]

Bloody hell, some of the comments (made by men) under that article are horrendous

Some men really are wedded to the idea that wolf-whistling and cat-calling are valid flirting strategies and shouldn’t be removed from mens’ arsenal of seduction techniques

[NiceGerbil]

The comments are grim but surely not surprising.

[xxyzz]

Can't see any comments on that link?

Have they been.removed?

[Whatwouldscullydo]

One if the commenters is right though. There's not the police to deal with it.

All this extra work will result surely in even less in the way of prosecutions.

Or is that the point. To make so much work for themselves that we don't moan nothing gets done.

When rape doesn't usually result in prosecution. When u only get 2 tears for having images of child abuse on your hard drive , and we have seen what happens when these things are treated as good as legal which rape basically is . Things escalate. When there's no real punishment and they get away with it behaviour escalates. This could well speed that process up. Give men the thrill of doing something illegal and getting away with it.

What we need is some real investment in the police and the justice system to remove the barriers to wonen reporting crimes and to getting arrests and jail sentences.

Going this rout in the current state will just result in a bunch of men getting away witg everything and behaviour escalating because they are angry at us reporting them even if nothing happens becuase of it.

I.would love to see street harassment taken more seriously god knows I'm.sick.of it as is every other female on the planet.

But I'm.also sick of things that will serve to do nothing except make the situation worse unless the real issues are dealt with. Feels like they are just throwing us a few scraps.

[midgemagneto]

She is considering it , I don't think it's decided

[Babdoc]

I agree there is nothing like the police manpower available to deal with it, but sometimes that isn’t the point, and there doesn’t need to be.
The simple fact that the legislation exists, that these acts are recognised as criminal, can be a big factor in changing behaviour.
Remember the drink/drive and seatbelt laws.
There weren’t enough police to deal with all that either, just a few high profile targeted campaigns and lots of tv adverts. And they worked.

[Whatwouldscullydo]

Sadly I expect the penalties fir drink driving are probably harsher or more inconvenient for the perpetrator than anything that happens to men who abuse women.

[NumberTheory]

@Babdoc

I agree there is nothing like the police manpower available to deal with it, but sometimes that isn’t the point, and there doesn’t need to be.
The simple fact that the legislation exists, that these acts are recognised as criminal, can be a big factor in changing behaviour.
Remember the drink/drive and seatbelt laws.
There weren’t enough police to deal with all that either, just a few high profile targeted campaigns and lots of tv adverts. And they worked.

Totally agree with this.

Also, it being a crime will make it easier to insist work places and councils take it more seriously.

[CeciledeVolanges]

Sorry, this is Patel. Her moves around immigration show that she has no empathy and doesn't care about human suffering. The Tory government were in place when my friend, Jack Merritt, was killed in a terrorist. His father has gone above and beyond to further Jack's life's work about prisoners, treating them as humans, and what works to stop offences. Get back to me when she's done something that's actually made a difference. And please, not like the DA Act which promised everything and maybe once will produce in a decade, for a new offender who has already inflicted the damage.

[SourAppleChew]

@Whatwouldscullydo

Sadly I expect the penalties fir drink driving are probably harsher or more inconvenient for the perpetrator than anything that happens to men who abuse women.

Well, it would take one hell of an arse slap to do the same damage as being hit by a car!

[Whatwouldscullydo]

You can still get done even if there was no accident though. U like rape which you can admit and still walk out if court a free man

[Whatwouldscullydo]

Unlike

[newnortherner111]

I doubt this will become law.