Carolyn Farrow taken to police station

When actual threats of rape and other violence are made towards women under posters actual names/readily identifiable, women are told by police there's nothing wrong with it/ they shouldn't spend time online/ must have done something to warrant it. But if somebody else complains about a post made by an account with no evidence of who it belongs to they just have to point their magical finger at somebody for the police to be running to arrest them. Odd that.

I read the Twitter thread this morning. Utterly horrifying.

This is terrifying.

Investigate what? They said they had no evidence and they barged into a woman's house, took all her equipment including IT, all her passwords, arrested her, held her, threatened to section her, searched her for drugs - for a meme?

According to Caroline's tweet, the police officer told her that she had allegedly "written some insulting messages on the internet."

The word "insulting" potentially covers a very wide range of content. But I don't think there are any laws against being insulting.

Campaigning against enforcing people to pretend gender is factual rather than a social belief isn't against trans.
It's equivalent to saying campaiging against forcing everyone to pretend to believe in and follow the rules of a certain religion eg Catholicism is against catholics.
People wanting freedom to have their own beliefs and rights isn't against a certain group. To the contrary its supporting freedom of belief rather than enforcing pretence of belief to avoid persecution.

Even worse than that Bloodyhellken....offence was taken to posts online and the offended person just decided a person they don't like posted them with no evidence. And the police acted on them pointing the finger.
Like when you are kids and tell on your sibling for something they didn't do just cos you want to get them in trouble, but unlike the police, your parents usually have the cop on to see straight through it.

Has she been arrested by the same force that Suella Bravaman (sp?) got the apology off the other week?

So let me get this right, someone has posted something online that someone else has taken umbrage to. There were no threats of physical violence involved and no attempt to start any violence/terrorist activities. It is merely someone posting an opinion that someone else disagreed with and they have been arrested and have had their devices seized?

I'm struggling to comprehend why the police are wasting their time over an online disagreement. Aren't they supposed to be short staffed and paying more attention to proper crime ?

This is very sinister and I really hope Carolyn's story gets the press it deserves. I agree with a PP it is misogyny and it is appalling.

Surely the police have to investigate though? The allegation could have been made ages ago. Maybe they’re only getting round to it now.

I’m not sure what a gender critical campaigner is but I’m interpreting it as if you are campaigning against trans then under the hate laws quoted above surely it would count as being hostile towards a protected group?

No. You are not the only one at all.

Is there anything we can do to offer our support?

No, you're not.

People are seem to think that the police are naively allowing themselves to be used.

No. They are perpetrators and abusers.

Caro has given enough info in her tweets to enable anyone to go to the forum in question and read up on the sustained harassment aimed at her by the persistent person and his GP friend, who was suspended from GPing due to his behaviour.

Make several coffees if you are genuinely interested in doing the research.

Useless police. Worse, actually: very useful to bad actors.

Presumably Caroline is a regular poster, who is against TWAW? And somebody, a trans rights activist? is targeting her and has reported her to the police?

I'm hoping to answer this without revealing any information I shouldn't.

Caroline is a gender-critical campaigner. Politically she tends to the right, and she is married to a Catholic priest (a vicar who converted after marriage). They have five children, one of whom has autism. Over the years she has been targeted by trans activists many times - this is not the first time she has been interviewed by the police for comments she has allegedly made on social media. She has also in the past received threats.

This time the person who reported her appears to have decided that a handful of pseudonymous accounts on Mumsnet and Kiwi Farms are actually Caroline, though there appears to be no evidence for this. These pseudonymous accounts posted material that is allegedly offensive/hateful/anti-trans, though again the exact posts haven't been identified publicly.

I hope all that is OK - it's just to give some background for people who aren't familiar with the history.

I hope Suella Braverman steps in. She's already made the police apologise for wasting time on genderism.

All that Stonewall training has been a waste of our money in ways we'll never be able to calculate.

In England the police don't need any prior authority or a warrant to enter and s32 search your house if you are to be arrested and present at the address..

Sounds like misogyny. Classic, old style misogyny. Lock her away in an asylum, she's disagreeing with men.

I see a barrister has also been subject to poor treatment by the police (all linked) and has been awarded damages from the Met. There’s a thread from a few days ago on Twitter.

The policeman threatened to section her.

Am I the only one who thinks this sounds like targeted harassment by the police at this point?

Surely it can only be a matter of time before vexatiousness and wasting police time means that this comes to an end?

As seen across multiple current issues being discussed on this board, there are boundaries and limits and checks and gatekeeping everywhere for some. And others who can do whatever they choose without the faintest boundary anywhere in sight.

This political lobby have successfully created a two tier society. The servers and the served. And the police have been very helpful and very stupid in enabling it.

Would our bloody government like to get a bloody grip please?

The police are wasting their own damn time. Bad actors are always going to exploit the system, it’s on the cops to be less exploitable.

At the least, someone needs to develop a human rights and free speech training and make it compulsory for all the police forces that have been Stonewalled. (Actual human rights, not the human rights extended universe.)

I’d like to see punitive measures directed at cops that enable this shit but large scale retraining would at least be a start.

Absolutely this. SP I know was also challenging the police for keeping blacklists of people who had never been tried or convicted of any criminal offence.

A country with lists of personae-non-grata, and where people are now reaching a state of fearing a knock on the door. Have we really arrived in such a place?

I'm genuinely horrified.

I think that this has been coming down the pipeline for a while, hence CF posting in particular places under her own name and keeping receipts of her own activities and certain other posters’ activities on those specific places.

Surely it can only be a matter of time before vexatiousness and wasting police time means that this comes to an end?