2nd Met Police officer has been charged with rape

[Rinoachicken]

He worked in the same dept as WC.

It’s being very widely reported, except by the BBC.

AIBU to be sickened and wonder WHY the BBC are not reporting this?

Link: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/03/metropolitan-police-officer-charged-rape-hertfordshire?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

And how on earth are people proposing to eliminate all rapists/evil people on our world?! People saying ‘what are you doing to change it’ what do you all suggest?! There is always going to be some (very very small minorities) who get through to jobs they shouldn’t be in cause they slip through the net.. in ANY job.
The MET police bashing is sickening, this is not the doing of the police as a whole.
I would love to see how people would cope without our police and without the thousands of met officers that put their lives on the line for our safety day in day out.
What happened to Sarah Everard is inexplicably awful..this should be the focus. Turning it into a police bashing campaign is abhorrent

@BellaElla99

No one has taken it seriously when black people have been saying it for years, when black people have voiced fear for their safety. There are always excuses. ‘But the police are good at their job.’ ‘But it’s only a small minority’ ‘Our police aren’t like police in America’. Now, everyone is scared of the police and want to take it seriously? And they say racism doesn’t exist in the UK. What a joke.

Indeed - and in the aim of ensuring women are centred in this discussion, we can be quite sure minority and marginalised women have been sexually abused by police with no national media coverage to accompany it.

@mustlovegin

One of the most horrible dads at the school gates was a police officer. He was openly racist

Let's face it, many (perhaps most?) of the white men who become police officers do so for the power trip. Power over minorities, power over young people, power over women. It's all coming out in the wash now

These are police bashing, racist, irrational stereotyping comments. Probably coming from the 'defund the police' activists.

A thread pops up every day on this and it's irritating. If a specific officer commits an offence, they should be judged and charged as appropriate. I understand people may be angry. But tarring all the force who do so much every day to protect the public with the same brush is unfair and counterproductive. Do you think women will be safer without police on the streets? It's ridiculous.

Jobs that give power and status attract abusers. The police is one such field. So it must take all steps possible to ensure those who get into their ranks are caught, punished, and removed with extreme prejudice.

There was some data from the States that showed police officers have a higher rate of domestic violence than the normal population.

Same way we don’t abolish schools but have grown aware that paedophiles try to find their way into roles with access to children.

Can we just go back to judging individual for their actions rather labelling anyone who falls under the same category than the guilty party?

No, because that’s not how institutional and systemic prejudice works.

Of course, we judge Wayne Couzens by his individual acts of kidnap, rape, murder and burning of a body. And he has been judged and condemned. But that doesn’t negate the fact that this individual case is a part of our existing rape culture.

They’re not mutually exclusive, nor do they need to be.

@vivainsomnia

Men are not the victims Why oh why everything has to be about generalisations? All women, all men, all police officers.

Can we just go back to judging individual for their actions rather labelling anyone who falls under the same category than the guilty party?

This is not about defending men, it's about defending anyone regardless of their characteristics until proven guilty. That's all, nothing more.

Sorry if it doesn't fit within the agenda of the many posters here.

Can we just go back to judging individual for their actions rather labelling anyone who falls under the same category than the guilty party?

Well, obviously not when these men have one massive thing in common - they’re all part of a profession with a huge amount of power over the general public.

There are things that the police can do to change its culture.

Some people have already brought up more more regular vetting. Do police have their work devices monitored?

There are lots of anomalies like officers accused of domestic violence not being suspended pending investigation which could be closed. Lots of statistics pointing towards officers accused of domestic violence not being prosecuted and investigated.

It is known that sexual predators often start with "minor" acts like flashing before their behaviour escalates. Investigating these incidents early can help avoid future rapes and assaults.

I understand why people don't want to report colleagues. Is the process a problem ? Needs to be easier to report in a way that doesn't result in colleagues thinking that they can't trust you.

I would like to see misogyny being exposed and called out by society every time it occurs. It continues because it has a safe home. None is challenged on their views or ‘jokes’ or ‘banter’, at best everyone just looks the other way. And so the attitudes towards women and girls continue.

It should be a hate crime, in line with crimes against other protected characteristics; race, sexual orientation, religion, disability. Sex is a protected characteristic - so why is it not a hate crime?

Because if it was, there is not room in all the prisons in country for the amount of men that would be found guilty. Half the House of Commons would be guilty.

Men are reluctant to have an honest look in the mirror and ask themselves - have I joined in to be one of the guys, laughed along, objectified a woman based on what she was wearing or her appearance, told a woman to ‘smile’.

And if I haven’t done those things, have I challenged others who have? Or have I turned the other way?

Women are reluctant to ask these same questions of their husbands, brothers, fathers, sons.

So nothing will change

Turning it into a police bashing campaign is abhorrent

The police should be changing and evolving each time this sort of case appeared.

Shipman ended in changes happening quickly which demonstrates that acknowledgement that there were major loopholes that allowed this to happen and needed to be changed. What changes have been implemented by a police management ?

There was a ruling on the Spy Cop case last week too. What acknowledgment and changes will be police implement so it doesn't happen again ? Or will this be conveniently swept under the carpet as the focus is on Couzens ?

@mustlovegin

One of the most horrible dads at the school gates was a police officer. He was openly racist

Let's face it, many (perhaps most?) of the white men who become police officers do so for the power trip. Power over minorities, power over young people, power over women. It's all coming out in the wash now

These are police bashing, racist, irrational stereotyping comments. Probably coming from the 'defund the police' activists.

A thread pops up every day on this and it's irritating. If a specific officer commits an offence, they should be judged and charged as appropriate. I understand people may be angry. But tarring all the force who do so much every day to protect the public with the same brush is unfair and counterproductive. Do you think women will be safer without police on the streets? It's ridiculous.

Did you think the same when the MacPherson report found institutional racism within the Met? Was he a police bashing, defund the police activist?

What about the cops who took photos of the two murdered sisters in the London Park?

@Northernlurker

So the alleged offence happened last year and the arrest is happening now? Gosh I wonder what happened this week that has caused some craven misogynists to think 'oh crap better do something because of the angry women'

That struck me too, the poor woman has been living with this for 13 months while PC Knob walks around free as a bird no doubt laughing at pictures of another PC Knob sharing photos of himself on his stag do dressed as Savile.

Something is very rotten, and it is very close to the surface.

No, because that’s not how institutional and systemic prejudice works

Just highlighting this again for the stubbornly dim.

When Dr Harold Shipman killed hundreds of patients, did the media and public go out and vilify the whole medical profession !!! NO so why do it to the police !!

@AuntMargo

When Dr Harold Shipman killed hundreds of patients, did the media and public go out and vilify the whole medical profession !!! NO so why do it to the police !!

Because the medical profession instigated a sea change on procedure to prevent it from happening again. They didn't fill the airwaves with not all doctors are like that.

I live in an area where there are a lot of police living. The things I’ve heard that have happened like DV, the things smoothed over by their work colleagues, is terrible.
But I don’t assume all police are like that.

@AuntMargo

Perhaps because the medical profession did not attempt to minimise the seriousness by trying to claim he ‘wasn’t a GP’ or that he was just one bad apple, but instead took immediate steps to put in place measures to prevent the opportunity for a repeat?

This is not about WC it is about all the others as well, as well as all those who knew and did nothing. It means it’s not just the actions of one rogue man but is indicative of a much larger cultural problem within the police force.

@AuntMargo

When Dr Harold Shipman killed hundreds of patients, did the media and public go out and vilify the whole medical profession !!! NO so why do it to the police !!

Honestly, how can you not know about the healthcare reforms after Harold Shipman? How can that have passed you by?

No, because that’s not how institutional and systemic prejudice works
It doesn't also work by using exemples of people who have not yet been convicted of the crime used to support the cause, which is what the theme of this thread is about.

@AlternativePerspective

Ok so call the police! I’m sure it will go over very well the Met police arresting a pregnant foreigner for voicing her opinion about a rapist police officer!

I’ll wait. In fact I would absolutely love to go tk the media about it as well and tell everyone how women are being silenced from talking about our concerns about rapist police officers by “concerned “ busy bodies who are so so worried that some poor man is being spoken about in a less than favorable way on Mumsnet!!!!!!!

Maybe I’ll get to be on TV and get some interviews in the papers!

I.can’t. Wait.

@AuntMargo

When Dr Harold Shipman killed hundreds of patients, did the media and public go out and vilify the whole medical profession !!! NO so why do it to the police !!

Actually the Shipman case - one man - changed medical procedures for WB er. The amount of safeguarding, protections and policy changes put in place (not just for GPs but more acute and clinical staff too) was phenomenal.

So if we can make reforms because of one man in the medical community, why not do the same for the police?

*forever

No, because that’s not how institutional and systemic prejudice works

No matter how many times people keep repeating the 'systemic' and 'institutional' mantra. It doesn't make it true. Offences need to be judged in court on an individual basis.

If I encounter a problem I want to be able to call the police. Of course nobody should let their guard down in current times, but in principle I will trust a police officer much more than I would any random man or woman whatever their ethnicity or background

So the apologists on this thread - are you police officers or is it your husbands?

Because I have some questions

YerAWizardHarry
There are around 33,000 met police officers. 0.01%. My son has already been bullied out of a school for having police officer parents ffs
So you must be fucking raging these men walk amongst you. What are you doing about it?

@Pumperthepumper why is it their responsibility to do anything about it? Did @YerAWizardHarry say that they had seen bad behaviour and ignored it ? It is the responsibility of the organisation and the individual to not be a rapey shit. You can't put blame on an innocent person, especially when their son is getting it in the neck.

So if we can make reforms because of one man in the medical community, why not do the same for the police?

If reforms are required, they need to be made. But police bashing needs to stop