Woman told by PSCO that her thinking is wrong and she needs to educate herself.

My question here would be: what is going wrong in police and PCSO training that these types of individuals are not being weeded out in the early recruitment stage? Or are they being encouraged to police in this way?

Let's imagine the sticker was hideously offensive and used a racial epithet about an ethnic group. In that case, the PCSO should have attended the address, and 1) told the occupier that there had been a complaint about the sticker, 2) then advised the occupier that it was unlawful under whatever section of whatever act, 3) recommended that the sticker be removed, 4) said that if the sticker was not removed, then X action would be taken.

And that's pretty much it. There should be no scope for argument, for the PCSO to express personal feelings, for debate. If something is unlawful, it is unlawful and all that PCSO must do is inform the individual of that and warn them of possible action taken.

This is not what has happened here. What we have here is a PCSO attending an address where nothing unlawful has occurred, attempting to tell an individual that something they have done is unlawful.

I'd need to think about this some more, but it strikes me that, in doing this, in making these arguments to Bella about this issue, this PCSO has strayed into the realm of a legislator. And we don't make law like that in Britain. We don't interpret law like that in Britain.

There's a bad bleed going on here between the fields of legislation and enforcement. And it needs stopping.

Wokingham, though. 😂

I’ve followed this on Twitter and seen that the woman had two different police officers come a few days earlier and say to her that someone (that she thinks from speaking to her neighbours was a pcso) had reported her stick as offensive. Are we to assume this latest pcso was the same one, returning to speak to her when she saw the sticker wasn’t taken down?

I heard on the news that police are only attending something like a quarter of house burglaries , how does any police force have the time for this??

i think the most upsetting part of this is it’s obvious from the voice recording that this woman was really upset but the pcso kept going.

the “do some reading”/ “educate yourself” is so bloody frustrating. Most people I know who are GC are because they DID the reading!m

Well, yes, but councillors carry more clout than a general member of the public. So it is symptomatic of a dangerous ideological capture that one of them feels justified in dismissing this obvious harassment of a woman in her own home.

I hope this PCSO is struck off but I’m betting she will be getting lots of pats on the back from other TRA’s who will kick up a major fuss if she’s fired*

If it weren’t for the woman at the centre of all this I’d be inclined to say “Good.” Let there be a massive shitstorm, let everyone see what TRAs stand for. This seems like something the candidates for Prime Minister should be talking about. The police need fixing.

But not sure this woman is up for being the focal point of a massive shitstorm. I still hope that PCSO is publicly fired though. This has to stop.

What’s it got to do with a Lib Dem councillor in Wokingham anyway? The council don’t run the Police. Councillors are not legal experts. Some of them I’ve met are ignorant as fuck.

This is about the Police and the law.

I believe you can apply in England with only two references - in Scotland it requires the blessing of a priest, a doctor's note and a letter from a sociology lecturer.

A woman who needs help from a support group because of "things that happened" discovered that she cannot find that from an exclusively female group.

She has expressed her frustration and likely despair at the situation in the most anodyne way possible, by putting a sticker on her front door calling attention not to transpeople but to the ideology that erases women. And it does - so no amount of bullying rhetoric changes that.

Then she gets a visit from the police in front of her young children and is told to change her thinking.

A politician from a major UK political party says that's ok - bit insensitive.

It never f***g happens!!!

I am so livid, I don't know quite what to do right now. This needs publicising properly and investigations taking place. Any decent person, who does not outright condemn this situation in no uncertain terms is corrupt and complicit in the bullying of vulnerable women in their homes. I'm looking at you Starmer.

What a load of bullshit. That poor woman and what brave children for sticking up for their mum.

I hope this PCSO is struck off but I’m betting she will be getting lots of pats on the back from other TRA’s who will kick up a major fuss if she’s fired

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Outrageous!

LibDem, Prim, no surprises about that reaction.

The PCSO's behaviour far exceeded 'insensitive' and she should be brought to book.

The PCSO needs educating.

‘I am sorry for the fact that this person has had horrible things happen to them, but that does not mean the PCSO needs to be dismissed. A bit insensitive at most.
Being the victim of traumatic events is not a licence to do what you want or be offensive.'

Article 10 of the ECHR is a licence to be offensive.

a licence to do what you want

Is that a thing we need now? Who do we apply to? Does it need to be renewed annually?

Lib Dem councillor in Wokingham Borough has just tweeted this:

'I am sorry for the fact that this person has had horrible things happen to them, but that does not mean the PCSO needs to be dismissed.
A bit insensitive at most.
Being the victim of traumatic events is not a licence to do what you want or be offensive.'

This is what we should really be worried about. It's not one rogue PCSO, it's the people in positions of (relative) power and responsibility that support this action.

That's what I'd like to know. What has given this woman the idea that she is allowed to knock on someone's door and talk Stonewall bollocks to them?

It's the Genderhovah's Witnesses, ffs.

If they did discipline or fire the PCSO I wonder if they would have an employment case legally speaking. If the force is pushing Stonewall training and a staff member follows that training enthusiastically where does the responsibility lie?

There are two possibilities:

This PCSO has her own personal agenda and is acting outwith the law and her appointed role.

The PCSO is acting within instructions, guidelines given to her by management.

For the sake of the police, the first possibility would be far less damaging, but I suspect she is only on the lookout for offense on certain political subjects as she's been trained to do so.

Who has 'educated' her? This is actually a far more important question than one daft PCSO going off-script.

Is there any line more infuriatingly condescending than ‘educate yourself’?

It would be very tempting to reply: "No, you educate yourself" and then refer them to books by Helen Joyce and Kathleen Stock. Not sure I'd have the wit to do that in in the heat of the moment, though.

I am so very sorry. I hope you've been able to heal and access support elsewhere.

And in front of her daughters, too.

It is so similar sounding to the punishment dished out to Boudicca by the Roman invaders, as told by Tacitus. It was designed to humiliate Boudicca and her daughters, and act as a warning to them and her tribe to capitulate to the new culture. Submit to your overlords or be punished, was the message.

Is there any line more infuriatingly condescending than ‘educate yourself’? Quite apart from the abuse of position and illogical arguments, it is enraging to hear this woman being directed to read and change her mind by someone who sounds like they don’t do an awful lot of reading or thinking.

I’d love to know just how much material this PCSO has read on this subject, and the variety of sources it came from. I’m going to take a wild guess and say their ‘education’ consists of a course or two, and now, with the supreme confidence of the ignorant once they have a nugget or two of information, are so sure in what they’re regurgitating they feel enabled to dogmatically hector law-abiding members of the public.

As with so many things, it points to the need for the promotion of critical thinking in society.

Nah, just a captured drone. Hook, line and sinker in the regime. A very dangerous individual due to incapacity for critical thinking.

No, I don’t believe the PCSO is trans (or there’s no suggestion that she is). She sounds female on the recordings but could be a transman.

Assumed the pcso is a transwoman? Or am I missing something

Wow, I'm following this story with interest. As awful as it was, could b a good thing, forcing the police to look at their diversity training.