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

Does anyone understand the institutional decision making which leads to police time being spent on stuff like this while actual crimes aren’t investigated? Presumably it’s not a conscious decision that was made to prioritise hurty feels over burglaries. I’d love to understand how this keeps happening.

I would laugh in her face and tell her she was being reported. What an absolute useful idiot. I hope she is suitably brought down 100 pegs to say the least.

I would be like 'But who are you? Who even are you, love? What the hell do you think you're saying to me?'

But she picked her target, didn’t she? I bet it made her feel important. I bet the rainbow lanyard round her neck was hopping with a macabre excitement at the sight of a rape victim crying in her own home.

That’s why they picked her surely? A wee bully goes after those they want to intimidate. I suspect a massive ego/power trip. Unsanctified.

I hope the media does it’s job and warns people that this is where we are in 2022.

Yep. “Please leave my property immediately unless this a criminal matter” (it isn’t).

I swear it's little black boots wouldn't have touched the ground. HOW DARE THEY.

Complete misuse of power. Needs to be sacked and prosecuted.

Sorry, wrong thread.

Reminds me of Bunce.

I can’t see any yet. Possibly the media are trying to find out which police force and get statements from senior bods

@notanoccultexpert

I wouldn’t tell her anything. She has no right to interrogate members of the public about things they think or display that are entirely legal. I’d just say I had no idea what she wanted.

This woman needs sacking. This is insane! I couldn't stop thinking about this last night, and I thought, if that ever happens to me, I'll claim to be a transman. And if she says, no you're not, I'll call her transphobic. And if she asks, why would you have a sticker like that if you were trans, I'd reply that there are moderate religious people who are against extremists - I'm a transman who is against extreme TRAs.

Lol - you can see I was having quite the conversation in my head about this - just could not believe this could happen.

Have any of the new outlets picked this up yet?

@Signalbox

I think they’ve been actively encouraged to operate outside the law. ‘Things people don’t like’ and ‘things that could escalate’ (however legal and unlikely to escalate). Meanwhile there are drug dealers operating with impunity in view of my front windows, and if you call police to report a crime you get a crime reference number if you’re lucky and an offer of victim support counselling if you’re not.

They need someone at the top of the force with zero tolerance for this sort of wasteful overreach, and a determination to deal with actual crime.

I think also that the police in general have moved from being extremely conservative or worse to trying so hard to be inclusive that they have become exclusive IYSWIM. It's the horseshoe theory, isn't it?

@NecessaryScene

It’s like nobody has educated the police in the law. Really disturbing.

You do get the impression that there's a massive lack of training in the actual fundamentals of civics - stuff like the role of the police, or the law, and human rights.

It shouldn't even occur to someone working for the police to behave like this - they should know what their role is.

I would humbly suggest redirecting training hours away from Stonewall type stuff to those civic basics.

This is really blowing up on Twitter, with politicians and journalists now commenting. I really hope the woman involved is supported through any publicity this generates, because she is vulnerable.

Questions that could be asked:

’Am I legally obliged to remove this sticker?’

’Am I legally obliged to tell you who put up this sticker, if I have that information?’

’Am I legally obliged to explain my beliefs to you?’

‘Am I legally obliged to continue this conversation?’

If the answer to any of the above questions is ‘Yes’, move to, ‘What is the legal basis of that obligation?’

Then say you’ll get your own solicitor to verify, and please can police submit that request in a letter, because you’re not.

This is completely nuts. The most important point is that the woman isn't breaking the law, and is perfectly within her rights to have stickers on her own property. It is no business at all of the PCSO.

I'm glad she recorded the conversation because otherwise it would have been hard to believe. The PCSO comes across as a nasty piece of work. And not massively bright.

A PCSO is a community support officer, compared to a PC it's like the difference between a HCA and a nurse.

Call me naieve but any decent PC would not behave aggressively like this because they know the law of the sticker being on her property and they know the recourse it could give them to be caught harassing an individual.

Yes they are Stonewalled to the hilt and many have embraced it. But that's no excuse to bully a member of the public, and it sounded like this lady was a vulnerable member of the public.

Indeed. At a tangent, I started a daft thread about scams yesterday and a couple of posters commented that poor English can be deliberate. The scammers have worked out that those less likely to pick up on poor spelling and grammar are easier pickings.

Stonewall know their audience.

This is so sinister