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Original poster

Women must resist arrest by any male police officer and demand the presence of a policewoman

266 replies

Turquoise11 · 30/09/2021 10:11

I've never posted on mumsnet before but I'm compelled to after reading reports of the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard.

Any woman who finds herself in a situation where she faces arrest by a male police officer must resist and obstruct that arrest at all costs. She must not face charges for doing either, since it is potentially dangerous for a woman to be taken away by a male police officer. We can no longer trust the police.

Rather, a woman must be able to demand that a policewoman be present before any arrest takes place. We can no longer assume that there is any rigour in the recruitment process involving male police officers.

Do you think I am being fair? After what happened to Sarah Everard, I think that resisting arrest and insisting a woman be present is essential to women's safety. See below for some recent cases involving the police.

Detective Inspector Neil Corbel was charged with 19 counts of voyeurism in the Greater London, Manchester and Brighton areas.

Wayne Couzens.

Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis taking unofficial pictures of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman after they were stabbed to death.

I’m sure there are more incidents where male police officers hold women in contempt and would harm them if they could.

OP posts:
PronounssheRa · 30/09/2021 10:50

You know what, this morning I really don't care if it's workable or not.

I with you

twitter.com/BylineTimes/status/1439896331384930308

More Than Half of Met Police Officers Found Guilty Of Sexual Misconduct Kept their Jobs

minatrina · 30/09/2021 10:50

@BelleOfTheProvince

Unmarked cars are used for a purpose though. For example, those in the missing children/teens/runaways gig use unmarked cars more often because otherwise they are spotted and avoided(this is a big deal, there's a whole department that deals with this) Ditto traffic police. Unmarked cars are vital to spot those committing offences.
Certainly, but I've read multiple people today saying that an unmarked car shouldn't pull you over or make an arrest unless there is at least one uniformed officer in the car. Does anyone know if there's any truth to this?
TheElementsSong · 30/09/2021 10:49

@Floisme

You know what, this morning I really don't care if it's workable or not.

I am sick to fucking death of women being expected to put themselves at risk because the alternatives 'aren't workable'.

THIS 👆🏼
MarshmallowSwede · 30/09/2021 10:48

Perfectly reasonable!

Women can’t even trust police officers to not rape and murder, so asking for a woman to be present is totally fair.

Unfortunately there are not a lot of police women, but this could be a great drive to recruit more.

Women have every right to be concerned and afraid. We also have every right that the police install some form of safeguarding so that this does not happen again.

DaisiesandButtercups · 30/09/2021 10:47

Yes Turquoise11 you are right, this has to be the way forward. There are fewer women police officers but then again there are fewer women committing the kind of crimes which might require being handcuffed and immediately carted off.

Whatthechicken · 30/09/2021 10:46

That video was disgusting, and I think there’s loads of this about. Although once upon a time I worked for the police and there are some wonderful officers out there, (also some awful bullying, sexist officers too). The best officers seemed to be from armed response (they have to be critical thinkers and calm before reacting though) and neighbourhood bobbies (less of them around these days unfortunately).

MatildaIThink · 30/09/2021 10:45

@Turquoise11

I've never posted on mumsnet before but I'm compelled to after reading reports of the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard.

Any woman who finds herself in a situation where she faces arrest by a male police officer must resist and obstruct that arrest at all costs. She must not face charges for doing either, since it is potentially dangerous for a woman to be taken away by a male police officer. We can no longer trust the police.

Rather, a woman must be able to demand that a policewoman be present before any arrest takes place. We can no longer assume that there is any rigour in the recruitment process involving male police officers.

Do you think I am being fair? After what happened to Sarah Everard, I think that resisting arrest and insisting a woman be present is essential to women's safety. See below for some recent cases involving the police.

Detective Inspector Neil Corbel was charged with 19 counts of voyeurism in the Greater London, Manchester and Brighton areas.

Wayne Couzens.

Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis taking unofficial pictures of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman after they were stabbed to death.

I’m sure there are more incidents where male police officers hold women in contempt and would harm them if they could.

I am sorry, but this is insane. Yes there are a very low number of incidents involving police officers, yes I think there needs to be more psychological testing and supervision of police officers, but no, it would be absolutely insane for everyone woman to be able to resist arrest with no consequences.

You don't instigate a policy completely disproportional to the situation.

BelleOfTheProvince · 30/09/2021 10:45

Unmarked cars are used for a purpose though.
For example, those in the missing children/teens/runaways gig use unmarked cars more often because otherwise they are spotted and avoided(this is a big deal, there's a whole department that deals with this)
Ditto traffic police. Unmarked cars are vital to spot those committing offences.

Floisme · 30/09/2021 10:39

You know what, this morning I really don't care if it's workable or not.

I am sick to fucking death of women being expected to put themselves at risk because the alternatives 'aren't workable'.

AndNothingButTheTruth · 30/09/2021 10:37

I was talking to my DP about this last night. I've seen the other thread saying women need to demand a female officer on the scene before submitting to arrest. I wonder if it's as simple as a marked police car.

Couzens was in a plain car, which some police officers do drive on duty although generally not uniformed officers. I think if it was me, I now wouldn't trust the officer unless he was in a marked car. One, it is further proof that they are actually an officer (I wouldn't know the difference between a real warrant card and a fake one) and two, it would prove that the officer is actually on duty. I wonder if it would be deemed reasonable for a woman to resist arrest now unless the officer was in a marked car?

Obviously we need massive changes in wider society etc before women can even start to think they are not permanently at risk, but if we can't even trust the uniformed men who are supposed to be there to protect us then what the hell are we supposed to do?

Original poster
Turquoise11 · 30/09/2021 10:36

Excellent suggestions by BelleOfTheProvince. The recruiting of women is essential as would be the vast improvement in the vetting process.

I realise the presence of a policewoman may not be possible currently. Perhaps a woman facing arrest should be allowed to call a relative or friend to accompany her before being escorted away by a lone policeman.

OP posts:
Jijithecat · 30/09/2021 10:26

Where do you propose all these female officers come from? They're under represented in police forces generally.

Sparklfairy · 30/09/2021 10:26

[quote Jaysmith71]www.msn.com/en-gb/news/national/police-office-who-kicked-15-year-old-girl-to-the-ground-investigated/vi-AAOXKeF?ocid=winp1taskbar[/quote]
Wtf did I just watch!? What planet is that guy on? Does he think he's in the Karate Kid or something? How on earth can that be ok?

He was clearly taller and stronger than her, he could easily have restrained her.

BelleOfTheProvince · 30/09/2021 10:23

I hope this case results in changes. The changes I would like to see are:
No single patrols. This would require more money. However, my best friend who is a police officer would welcome this as it puts less pressure on a single officer.

A better vetting process. I've provided a written statement for an officer applying. It's not that different to applying for a shop vacancy. Should be much more rigorous. My husband's Psycho exbest friend got in, despite pretty much everyone in their village knowing he was violent, a pathological liar and a sex pest.

Rigourous yearly psychological tests and appropriate action taken from the results.

Recruiting drives targeting women.

Flexibility in the roles to retain women.

The misogyny addressed in the structure, which often causes women officers to side step into non beat roles.

All this requires money, time and a complete overhaul. Sadly it might never happen.

Thurlow · 30/09/2021 10:21

I understand why people are saying this. There have been repeated and gross failings within the police as regards their vetting and their internal complaints policies and it needs reviewing now. No one is going to deny this.

However the quick fix is not to say no woman can be arrested by a solo male police officer. There are not enough police officers to work in pairs, there are not enough female police officers to attend all crimes involving lone females.

It’s not a workable solution.

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