#shameonyouwarwick

[smcbride]

Warwick Police haven't prosecuted anyone for these vile rape threats and Warwick uni are now letting (some of?) the perpetrators back in to study at the same university alongside those they discussed threatening to rape.

Would you be happy sending your child here?

Warwick students suspended over rape threats allowed to return earlyly*_

People are getting confused between Twitter and private chat. If they had said any of this on Twitter the police would have been involved and they likely would have been expelled.

People are getting confused between Twitter and private chat. If they had said any of this on Twitter the police would have been involved and they likely would have been expelled.

Yes, that's true about the private chat vs Twitter thing. But then again, private meetings to discuss the protection of their rights against the trans agenda have been called 'hate speech' etc and Humberside police have been onto someone to 'check his thinking' after he retweeted something gender critical.

I think if this hadn't been about women, the results might have been different.

I could cry at the absolutely vile and violent language those men used.

Is this what my Dd has to face?

It wasn’t some badly timed and worded poor taste joke. It is sustained hate speech against women and ethnic minorities.

Hate speech is a crime.

shame on you Warwick uni

I will shouting about this from the roof tops in my GCSE classes and spreading the word. Warwick has no regard for women.

Prior park college is one of the grandest private schools in my city - a catholic school they will be hating this. Parents will therefore be pretty wealthy. Looks like the character development part of the education they provide is pretty woeful if they are turning gruesome specimens like this out onto the world.

The boys (and I use that word because they clearly have the maturity of a flea and no doubt are ungrateful little privileged sh#ts) comments were awful.

I am sure behind the scenes at the Uni there has been lots of discussion and thought behind the decision made. I don’t know all the facts, unless anyone on here can enlighten me. I know what was said though in the FB group.

Not all have been allowed the return. Do any of you know the victims of the comments and their views on the University’s actions? I’m interested to know what the women’s views are? I’m sure the Uni have consulted them (unless anyone knows they weren’t)

I don’t know the exact comments the students who have been allowed the return made (or whether they did not make comments but were part of the FB group that did) I know the worst offending have been got rid of.

I’m sure the Uni have deliberated over this in detail though. They have procedures and due diligence to follow.

Firstly I should say that I abhor the comments made by these students and agree that they should have been expelled permanently. It looks like Warwick have bent under pressure from the threat of legal action.

It does raise some questions for me though;
Is it acceptable for someone who attends a university (for instance) to hold private opinions that most people would find disturbing and disgusting?

At what point should the institution (or police) intervene and take action against that individual?

The trouble with social media is that users often behave as if they are having a private conversation with like minded individuals when in fact they should behave as if everything is in the public domain.

For instance, I have heard of people being sacked from work for offensive comments posted on Facebook. If they had said the same thing in a pub would / should they have been sacked?

We are in a new world.

I'm not clear on the law over hate speech versus freedom of speech and private conversations on the internet. But I think there needs to be a more robust approach to group chats. If one person in that group makes it public then it should be out of the realm of private chat and open to prosecution. Therefore, people would need to be far more careful about what they write down in the first place. The internet is a great thing but it has also given people a forum where they can just vomit up the most dreadful things. Then they find like minded individuals and the egg each other on. Then this spills out into the real world. More robust laws, prosecutions and sentences would deter that. Problem I suppose is funding and finding an appetite to go down that route. The courts would probably be full.

Where is the Warwick SU in all this?

According to the Tab article, Ben Clements worked for the Students Union at the time the chat came out.

thetab.com/uk/warwick/2018/05/09/named-and-pictured-the-warwick-boys-who-made-rape-jokes-in-their-group-chat-28615

WTAF with the whole “private chat” defence? They got caught out! Their private chat didn’t remain private! You can’t argue “well no one else was meant to know about the threats” as a way of justifying leniency.

“I was only telling my mate Guy privately about my plans to blow up the Houses of Parliament, you weren’t meant to hear it, ergo, you can’t get me for anything!”

Fuck off with that. You’re basically arguing that because one of them is fucking stupid and was unable to keep it a secret/stop it from being leaked, we should all just forget about it. If only they’d been more tech aware misogynists hey? Instead of stupid misogynists.

I read on here the other day a good example for an analogy: the sentence for murder and attempted murder is the same, because you shouldn’t go to prison for less just because you’re actually shit at murdering. It’s the same here: they made rape threats that were meant to be private but they were too fucking stupid to keep it private. Consequences should be the same.

And two things I find abhorrent on this thread. Firstly, the belief that the future of the men is equally or more important than the women and second, the idea that because shit things happen to women, they have to be strong to rise above it. The only reason women have to be strong and rise above it is because they know fuck all will happen to the perpetrators. If we lived in a society where men like this were treated as they should, women wouldn’t need to “toughen up”.

Well yes, someone in the group made it public, so it's not actually private. It's not like the state we're monitoring it.

Are you allowed to incite violence 'in private' in this way anyway?

*were

Interesting that they are Corbyn supporters and from the students union.

Warwick is misogynistic and he top repress anyone who isn't misogynistic by the behavior they condone.

I wonder if they are also responsible for this.

thetab.com/uk/warwick/2018/12/16/warwick-su-defends-the-removal-ppl-socs-facebook-poll-asking-whether-or-not-gender-is-binary-32909

They appealed, I don’t think it’s the uni caving in (thingss don’t work like that in the real world it’s not some mass conspiracy against women) ) the appeals process would be diligent and carried out carefully with legal advice. I know the comments made were awful - in a private chat discussion but the perpetrators of that are known on campus now.

Whatever anyone says about the perpetrators you’re going to be made to feel your some kind of sympathiser, particularly if you don’t have a huge problem with the Unis dealing of this case. I work with people who have suffered abuse so I understand the impact these comments can have.

Again to all those shaking the Uni do you have the views of the women who were commented on? I’m sure the Uni consulted them?

Whether or not trauma makes us stronger is entirely beside the point. These little shits need to be shown this behaviour is never acceptable. They need to know that yes, their futures are in jeopardy because of this and they are the ones who need to watch their step.

As to the university, I'm going to write to them to explain my son won;t be applying specifically because of this. We contribute towards their education - we have financial power over the choice. I hope a lot of other mothers do the same. Show the university that women don;t dismiss and tolerate and diminish hate speech against other women. It only stops if people make a fuss.

Yes Pumpkin I shared a link on this thread with an open letter from one of the women. Another is on twitter talking about it. They weren't even kept up to date about the appeal apparently. They are very upset and angry.

Pumpkin - here is the view of one of the female students:

theboar.org/2019/01/warwick-group-chat-open-letter/

@Ariadne it's not about you and how you dealt with things. This thread is discussing the way an institution has deliberately let down the students that have a duty to protect.
Yes, nothing actually happened yet these threats were against named individuals. They had already found their victims.
The university needs to demonstrate that actions have consequences.

As a side note, I am actually writing an essay about how educational establishments behave when faced with allegations of sexual assault. If anyone would like to privately message me about their experiences anonymously I would be happy to provide verification of my course and university.

I’m sure the Uni consulted them?

Are you asking or stating? I have no idea for sure but I would wager a large amount of money that the women involved were either not asked, or their opinions were ignored. I cannot for one second believe the women involved said “sure! We would gladly see them back sooner!”

All this talk of prosecution and thought crime is deflection any way.

There is a world of sanctions between doing nothing and prosecuting and it's pretty depressing to see the number of people minimising what's happening - Not just in this case, but when it comes to threats and abuse from (usually) privileged white men towards women and minority groups.

X post, well that clears up the “maybe this is what the women wanted?” theory.

So appalled, but sadly not surprised, by this.

As a child in 1960s England, I was also subject, like MrsOliver, to daily racism
from pupils ganging up on me and from one teacher who kept smacking me just because I was the first non-white child there.

I don't wish other kids to suffer racism just because I survived it
It didn't build resilience, just misery

Again to all those shaking the Uni do you have the views of the women who were commented on? I’m sure the Uni consulted them?

They weren't "consulted" at all. They were informed of the decision after the fact. Apparently a university official has apologised that they weren't told sooner because she was on holiday. One of the women has written a very powerful open letter to the University clearly expressing her distress as a result of the decision.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47060367

Someone on the Warwick University Twitter thread has published a list of Warwick University's corporate partners. Wonder how those corporate partners will feel about being associated with a University that condones rape and genital mutilation threats, anti semitic and racist language. Wonder also if those corporate partners would be keen to employ these men and how the women in those organisations would feel about working alongside them.

For reference the corporate partners are: ES Global Law, Edf Energy, Emirates, Arup Group, Yorkshire Bank, Mid Counties Co-op and Bank of America.