To be angry at the frenzy caused by others last night

[BarometerTV]

I think it was utterly disrespectful. We are in lockdown and it was not the right time for a protest. I agree with a quiet, respectful, socially distanced space to grieve - which is what appeared to happen during the day.

Feeling sorry for the police is spectacularly missing the point.

SmidgenofaPigeon Brilliant post.

I left before the police presence became evident but yes I had been there. I struggle to see how any of the women gathered would have incited that level of force from the police. There was no undercurrent from where I was standing. I was shocked as to what escalated and I feel the Met police need to come up with a good reason why they reacted in the ways they did.

And yes the event could have gone ahead with the measures suggested in place. Many stewards were prepared to give up their time voluntarily, with staggered times etc. To just flat out say no was short sighted to say the least.

Yes it’s lockdown, no that doesn’t mean we all need to put up and shut up. The risks of catching covid outside are and have always been vanishingly small.

OP it could've also been 'beautiful' at night too.

the organisation RTS tried repeatedly to negotiate with the Met, to no avail. It went to the High Court, who said a vigil could take place. RTS had lots of marshals arranged to help at the Vigil. Still the Met said no.

Funny though that the Rangers fans marched with a police escort, all herded together. And the Police allowed that and almost encouraged it, lining the streets with the fans (Scottish police admittedly) yet this... women gathering to hold a vigil for another woman murdered by one of their own, and there are heavy handed tactics.

It was not the right time for a protest - her family had found out literally only a few days prior.

I feel sorry for the police quite frankly.

Do you feel sorry for the police in Myanmar who are gunning people down in the streets and cheering each other on as they do so? They're "just following orders" too.

Personally, I consider them all to be responsible for their own actions. And that includes in the case of the Met Police their choice to defend the indefensible and doubling down to try and bully women into submission.

If they had the humility to say "we are sorry, we made a mistake" it would go a long way to calming people's anger and distrust. But they have chosen not to do that.

You heard of policing by consent?

Vigil not protest

Vigil yes, protest no. And I would suspect that the police had a hard time dispersing protesters v people who were attending as a vigil.

I'm just saddened that the woman running the operation that resulted in an innocent man being executed subsequently got promoted and people are now calling for her to lose her job because of people getting arrested at a protest/vigil.

Why did she get the job in the first place?

There was wrong on both sides.

The vigil should not have happened. These things are never entirely peaceful, and anyone going to one knows that there will be some troublemakers. Quite aside from that This woman’s murder has been turned into a publicity event on the part of those who were there last night.

On the other side the police were entirely wrong in the way they handled it, and there needs to be an enquiry.

It was not the right time for a protest - her family had found out literally only a few days prior

It was a vigil. Not a protest. Well... not until the police got heavy handed.

OP
compare and contrast it to last weekend.
Did the police take on those (male) Rangers supporters last weekend celebrating? I think not.
Why didn’t they just leave the (women) last night just ‘to be’.

I would suspect that some people were there to protest, and that was wrong.

I'm pretty disgusted by the actions of the police this week. As a policeman's daughter I've seen my fair share of unnecessary criticism in difficult situations but on this one even my dad (now retired) is gutted at the damage this will do when it comes to the public being able to trust the police.

And to add to it all, anyone who works in diplomatic protection has a high level of security clearance and should not have been working whilst being investigated for a serious offence.

How many of these people actually knew the woman whose name they are taking in vain.

Name taken in vain, do you think violence against women is limited to one woman only?

This was entirely predictable, and entirely preventable. The police should have worked with the organisers to secure the vigil rather than against them which then meant that it was able to run out of control.

The Met police have handled this appallingly at every turn and I haven't an ounce of sympathy for them.

He vigil was cancelled in a statement at 717am on Saturday. Why did people still go on Saturday night ffs? How is that helping her family, helping making our streets safer? Shame on the people that attended and then wouldn’t leave.

@BarometerTV

I know nothing more or less than any of you, so don’t attack me for giving an opinion. I feel sorry for the police quite frankly. I think the vast majority are decent people doing an incredibly difficult job - and then vilified by the public. I have no idea whether the amount of force used last night was disproportionate - as I’m not purely relying on media reports and I wasn’t there. But events during the day looked respectful.

Some of the video footage was awful. One woman just standing there then being forcibly shoved in the back. Patsy Stevenson being forced to the floor with her arms behind her back by two officers (Previous footage showed no need for that)

So yes, it was disproportionate.

And can people stop referring to the crime and the suspect as if they have been found guilty. They haven’t, and making the kinds of statements which have been made on this thread are considered to be contempt of court and are illegal.

And a don’t think turning into a country that hates our police is going to help anyone.

The Met police have really fucked up now. They've treated white women the way they do black men - this won't end well for them.

@HeartsAndClubs I agree with that too! No one truly knows what happened.

@BarometerTV your beginning to get it, when the murder of a black man by acting US police officers rightly sparks outrage and protests the met let massive protests go ahead and take the knee.
Now look at last night, when a woman is allegedly kidnapped and murdered by an acting met police officer and rightly sparks outrage the police ban all vigils and protests and then use at best excessive force at worst outright violence to try to silence the women who are peacefully saying enough is enough.
Why do you think that this happened?

[Edited by MNHQ at poster's request]

I think purporting to speak for a family you don't know in order to try and silence people upset about that family's loss is pretty repugnant.

None of us knows how we would really feel in their shoes because we have not been in their shoes and we are not them. I expect each of us would react differently and probably not how we are imagining.

@BarometerTV

I would suspect that some people were there to protest, and that was wrong.

Yes. And they were not women, not there to mourn the death of a woman.

Yet they were left unhindered...