"Hundreds defy ban to attend Clapham vigil"

Met Police statement. Defending last night's events. It shows the problem is throughout the organisation. Institutionalised sexism and misogyny.

twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1370909861224013828?s=19

Genuinely saddened that people think this type of protest is acceptable in a pandemic. It’s a complete slap in the face for the nhs and anyone else who cares a job about the tens of thousands of people dying from COVID.

I feel sick and so so sad. Someone high up in the met has calculated this approach, in hope that women won’t fight back. My heart aches. I hope them/they get the fucking sack.

Racist, mysoginists, violent, killers, perverts. Misunderstanding and mistaken. Getting it wrong yet again

Good old Met

Yes quite, that's one pertinent thing about yesterday.

Also, met police were found to be sharing images of their bodies last year.

How is putting women in Clapham at risk of covid keeping women safe? Also, in the past the Met police saved my life when I was a victim of male violence.

Every single twat from sisters uncut should have been removed, they are vile and used Sarah's murdered for an opportunity to demonstrate their violence. They should not have been there. Men should not have been there. The press should have stayed on the edge and not inserted themselves onto the band stand. The idiot with the drums should never have been able to get near. What happened was a disgrace. Anti lockdown chants, acab chants had nothing to do with the awful murder. The day time was the only respectful part. Whilst many there tried to avoid the flowers plenty others didn't care and trampled them to get at the police. Sarahs poor family who will forever have that shit show attached to her name. The terf sign was an absolute disgrace.

I stumbled across a large anti mask protest during last lockdown and the police stood around the edges doing NOTHING. These people had no masks, were shouting, screaming, harassing passers-by, they had speakers on the steps and the police didn't do a thing. This has been handled outrageously, huge disparity between the two.

It's rather telling that women can't protest in peace about male violence without men getting violent - TRAs, police etc.

I would like to see images of the peaceful small gatherings across the country.

I like that Kate payed her respects.

During the day light hours the Clapham Common vigil seemed respectful and quiet.

That bloody drum though! How could anyone quietly pay their respects with endless bang bang bang and all the annoying chanting. It does seem that the vigil was hyjacked, becoming a demonstration. It could have been avoided if the police had parked themselves at a respectful distance and helpfully offered assistance in a kind supportive manner.

I dislike the politicising - ACAB, socialist groups, the awful notice on the lamppost about terfs being transphobes, the random men wading in, the police handling. It was meant to be a vigil for sarah, her death resonates with many women.

Khan has demanded an explanation from the Met.

It should be said that Priti Patel is partly to blame as she is the one who refused to support a protest exemption.

My grandfather was Antifa; fought and very nearly died for his country in WW2, as i'm sure many of our relatives did. He was left half-starved after 10 months in a Japanese POW camp and had to be put in extreme R and R in a hospital for 2 months until he was fit and well enough to come back home. He was proudly Antifa* and was as 'mainstream' part of society as you could ever get. Makes me queasy to read people say the Anti-fash are anarchists and 'not mainstream society'. Whoever says as much should be glad people went abroad and served as Antifa, so they could then sit on a message board decades later bleating about commies.

*they called them The Allies back then.

twitter.com/thedogman_918/status/1370854870866137090?s=21

This is what I mean about making it about them, some of the replies are enlightening.

I am very supportive of the police in general but this is tone deaf.

twitter.com/metpoliceuk/status/1370902610539057153?s=21

I think this will make it worse, also lots of tweets from individual officers that are making it about them tonight. Not tonight, it wasn’t the time.

They are supposedly policing by public consent

There is no consent for what we saw tonight.

To be clear: The Mayor has no involvement in this.

Ddraighich: 'I also want to know whether the Mayor of London had any involvement tonight. The Commissioner answers to Khan.'

No. He doesn't.

The Mayor is not able to intervene in operational matters.

Antifa = anti fascist. That's the default, surely?
@MmeLaraque no, Antifa are a collection of anarchist and communist revolutionaries. They are not mainstream society.

This

b) The Clapham protest ended up basically being led by by Sisters Uncut, who are the extremist TRAs who assaulted Maria Machlachlan. They put up some sign about "trfs", and made speeches that a journalist on twitter said that in their opinion constituted contempt of court and could endanger the trial. Also, being Sisters Uncut, they had angry lairy blokes with them creating an aggressive atmosphere (which still does not in any way excuse the police reaction)*

I saw an interview with Patsy Stevenson, the woman pictured being arrested. Her first words were how this is about "ALL women, transwomen and cs women..."*

and made speeches that a journalist on twitter said that in their opinion constituted contempt of court and could endanger the trial.

This is so concerning. Still, at least they had a good day out.

So overall I don't feel that either side are covered in glory. I think it is pretty shite that Sisters Uncut tried to hijack this for a TRA agenda.

Yes. It's shameful.