That the Met's suggestion of 'flagging down a bus' if feeling unsafe with a lone officer is an absolute joke

[hereforfun]

Apologies if there's already been a thread on this topic as I haven't seen one.

The Met police have also suggested that women should shout out to a passer by, run away and knock on doors or call 999 if they feel unsafe about being in the presence of a lone officer. The same applies if someone was to doubt the genuinity of a police officer.

I live and have grown up in South London where most bus drivers are known for being unhelpful/unfriendly. A lot of bus drivers will even drive past you without stopping the bus when you've signaled the bus to stop.
I couldn't even imagine being in an uncomfortable situation with the police and a bus driver stopping to see what's going on or offer their help. Also, if a bus driver was to stop after being flagged down, what is it exactly that they're meant to do?

As for running away and going to knock on doors asking for help I can only imagine this is some sort of joke? Many (not all, but many) police officers tend to use excessive force in situations where it's uncalled for. I would never in a million years think to run away even if I am seeking help, because many police officers would use that as a reason to use excessive force.

Lastly, I think it's ridiculous how the advice given focuses on ways women can keep themselves safe in situations as opposed to the Met coming up with ways to keep women safe.
Just a little rant about something that's been on my mind for a few days, what are your thoughts?

It's the most stupid 'advice' from a professional body that I've heard in more than a decade.

But given the heinous victim blaming the police have always indulged in (especially the Met) I can't say I'm surprised.

I really hoped things might improve with a woman in charge. More fool me.

The first thing that my husband, who has experience of working with officers from the Met, said was "when will feeling unsafe become interpreted as resisting arrest?" At which point yeah, women are screwed again.

It’s rather telling of just how detached from reality they are.

It's the same old story. Telling women to have back up plans/be aware/make changes to their routines rather than telling men not a rape and murder us.

I can imagine a senario at some point: woman is scared of lone officer, runs for help to the nearest house, where there happens to live a man who assaults her. Cue police and press blaming the wman who should have trusted the police officer and should have known better than to ask strange men for help....

As for the bus drivers, they have a job to do, expecting them to step in because some of the police force is corrupt is ridiculous, and completely unfair. They stop the bus and then what? Wait with the woman until another officer arrives, and risk being sacked for not doing their job? Risk getting into trouble with the police themselves for helping someone 'resist arrest'

This whole thing is just fucked up

Trying to get my head around the police expecting bus drivers to step in and protect women from being raped and murdered.. by the police. And publishing this suggestion? Just what the fuck.

Has anyone EVER successfully flagged down a bus?

Flag down a bus! has anyone ever tried this in London? they'd run you over!

And why should the bus drivers but themselves at risk anyway.

Aside from all the multiple ways expressed here that this advice is misogynistic and shows how little the police care, I also think:

Sarah Everard presumably didn’t feel unsafe at the point of her false arrest – he had a warrant card, handcuffs, the language around Covid laws to sound legitimate. She obviously trusted what was happening.

And the police will have known for a long time before the sentencing hearing exactly what WC did – yet “flag down a bus” is what they come up with? With months of potential preparation, fully aware it would be headline news, they care so little for women’s safety, they didn’t bother coming up with anything other than “dunno, buses”. It’s the equivalent of scribbling your homework in the back of the lesson minutes before handing it in. They hold our lives in contempt. (Not that this is surprising, given how they treat Black lives.)

They probably think women could provocatively waggle a stockinged leg at the bus driver like in the comedies of the 1970s. Twats.

I’m in south east London and there is absolutely no way a bus would stop randomly on the street if you tried to flag them down!! There is zero chance of that happening, it won’t happen, In fact they bus drove straight past me the other day even though I actually was at the bus stop 🙄 that advice clearly comes from someone that’s never used the bus. Even when people are running for the bus it just drives off, even if it sees them, the driver will just assume you want the bus and missed it! As for knock on random doors I’m afraid if someone knocked on my door at night I wouldn’t answer and if they claimed it was because someone was after them I wouldn’t let them in as I would worry it was a scam. I would offer to call the police from behind the door but surely that should be the suggestion to call the police? Not knock on random doors or flag down buses

There's also the proposal of an app where a vulnerable woman walking home can 'check in' when she gets home safely and which will alert people if she doesn't.

Not sure why the proposals are all putting the onus on women to challenge police officers, flag buses and download apps instead of making men change their behaviour. Oh no, wait....

@burritofan that is so true. There a thing doing the rounds on facebook at the moment that points out that all the advice assumes a woman being arrested will instantly be able to recognise a man as a rapist whilst that mans colleagues can work closely with him for years but can not be expected to recognise this!

They need to change the law so that they require two officers for arrests, like in Scotland. It won’t mean something like this can never happen but it will be a lot less likely. I can’t see any other possible solutions (and clearly neither can they if flagging down a bus is the solution offered).

What buses? We hardly have any!

This would be funny if it weren't so offensively preposterous.

London: good luck with that, the bus driver would run you over if you weren't arrested at a bus stop. You might get lucky with a black cab, but only if you're on the right side of the river when they're on their way home.

Rest of the country: you wave for a bus, be prepared as this may take up to an hour if you just missed one. The predator police officer, who is obviously your bigger problem will wait patiently by your side until the next one comes. You could take it in turns waving I suppose.

Could the 'reasoning' behind this be that the buses have CCTV, so when they're looking for evidence after she's been hurt/raped/murdered, they can say 'Well, there's footage of her trying to get the bus driver to stop and they didn't, so it's the fault of the bus driver, really?'

Or, as already suggested upthread, it'll be used to gain evidence that she 'resisted' arrest - and the poor policeman had no choice but to twat her about?

I don't know how many people here have ever played Rugby or other contact sports, but a relatively fit bloke tackling you full force fucking hurts. I suppose it gives the officers a bit more fun, though, as it means they can get the thrill of the chase more often with an almost guaranteed result at the end of it, what with women being slower, smaller and weaker...

@noblegiraffe I would bet a lot of money that App is designed by a man.

Flag a bus down ? We don’t see any round here for hours at a time.

Go to a police station ? They closed them down around here.

Laughable.

It's like you are psychic, TSSDNCOP

"In a letter to the Home Secretary, chief executive Philip Jansen said technology should be used to tackle male violence. Mr Jansen came up with the idea while 'despairing' at Miss Everard's abduction, rape and killing by Wayne Couzens, a Metropolitan Police officer jailed for life last week."

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10074059/Priti-Patel-plans-888-number-worried-women.html

Well I suppose this was a response to the sara everard situation - and as Baroness Casey said on radio 4 that this is a societal issue and expecting the police to fix it is wrong. Most likely because they can't.
I guess teh meT were attempting to come up with some sort if ideas - none of which really work if the man is stronger than you. The suggestions which weren't likely to help much prove that whingeing and complaining about the police is providing a nice get out clause for the Gov - oh those useless cops, can't stop men killing women every other day.
The police can arrest the killers but if the judiciary give pathetic sentences or dont' even try to prosecute due to lack of evidence then a million police won't fix the problem.

I think by hide bounding the police into pratting around helping would be arrestees make phone calls, check their collar number etc etc it will just make making arrests much harder.
If there's a gang whilst assisting one member to make a call to wherever to check the credentials of the several police officers the others could run off.

This isn't the police's fault. But hey let's not get men to change their mysogynistic ways - just blame the cops.

They’re an embarrassment and rather than actually accept fault and open up channels of discussion with women to find out what makes them feel safe they’d rather suggest laughably stupid alternatives that re enforce the way society still looks at women as second class citizens.

Are they planning on paying the bus drivers more for all the woman rescuing they’ll be doing?

They’re an embarrassment and rather than actually accept fault and open up channels of discussion with women to find out what makes them feel safe they’d rather suggest laughably stupid alternatives that re enforce the way society still looks at women as second class citizens.

What are your ideas for making women safe? @Sametoo

This isn't the police's fault. But hey let's not get men to change their mysogynistic ways - just blame the cops.

What about the misogynistic cops, one of whom murdered Sarah Everard which is what has led to this discussion?

Why not sack the ones from the Whatsapp group that Couzens was in? And the ones who supported him in court knowing he'd raped and murdered a woman?

We should at least expect the police to fix the police issue. You can't restore trust in the police by expecting women on the street to spot the dodgy ones.

I don't know how many people here have ever played Rugby or other contact sports, but a relatively fit bloke tackling you full force fucking hurts. I suppose it gives the officers a bit more fun, though, as it means they can get the thrill of the chase more often with an almost guaranteed result at the end of it, what with women being slower, smaller and weaker

Ah but next week's advice will counter for this with the suggestion that all women carry a brick slung about each hip so that when the rioting officer rugby tackles them, he gets more sickening violence than he bargained for...