Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry

[ArabellaScott]

bylinetimes.com/2021/03/22/uncomfortable-conversations-need-to-be-had-about-why-murder-of-two-black-sisters-hardly-made-the-news-says-mp/

Article including quotes from Dawn Butler.

Noting that the man accused of killing the sisters is due a trial in June. Please be mindful if commenting that the case is pending.

This was a horribly upsetting crime, but I remember at the time how fast it seemed to slip out of the news.

Hard topics to discuss sensitively, but I thought it might be a relevant article.

I think that racism and classism may have played a part but, undoubtedly, a large part of it was that when Sarah Everard went missing, her friends launched a huge drive locally and on social media to raise her profile (I live very near to where she went missing and there were flyers everywhere within a couple of days and it was all over local messageboards). It was hard for the police to ignore and media began to pick up on the story. In Bibaa and Nicole's case, there was a lot less of a build-up between their going missing and, sadly, their bodies being found the next day.

I also think that the way that Sarah went missing was a factor - it wasn't late at night, she was on a busy road, there was CCTV footage of her, she was "following the rulebook", it was very different to Bibaa and Nicole's murders. I am in no way blaming them for what happened but there will be less sympathy from some quarters as they were alone in a park at night, they'd been drinking (I imagine - they'd been having an evening out with friends), they weren't considered such flawlessly "innocent victims" to some people. It is very, very unfair but that is the call that newspaper editors and TV news desks make.

I don't agree about the 'gallows humour'. Yes, people who are exposed to a lot of horror and death do use this, ambulance crew, A&E, Police etc will make jokes but not like this selfies. Apparently the officers involved were reported by other officers because they were shocked.

It's really telling of what's wrong with the Met that these men weren't immediately dismissed for gross misconduct. The suspect in Sarah's case had allegedly displayed criminal behaviour recently but was still on duty. This just wouldn't be tolerated in other places of work.

Impatiens, thanks, fair point. I just am aware that it's an area I have no experience of and I imagine it must be intensely stressful and traumatising.

You're right Arabella, a lot of people wouldn't want to do their job it must be really hard if you genuinely care about what you're doing. The Tories have a got a lot of blood on their hands because they've cut Policing so much and perhaps a lot of decent people have gone because they couldn't cope.

Dick should have resigned as well, she's another symbol of all that's wrong - refusing to deal with issues and to take responsibility.

Yes, the police cuts have been appalling.

Cut mental health services, all the precarious employment, people on the breadline, cut fire and police services - it's obviously going to have terrible knock-on effects.

I really believed they were trying to make changes throughout the Police after the report into Stephen Lawrence murder and all the racism it exposed but it seems we've gone backwards. It's tragic.

I remember the sister's tragic murder, and heard about it a lot in the media at the time. Maybe because I live in London, but it was definitely well reported on London news, as was the disgusting behaviour of the police sharing images, and a suspect got found fairly quickly. The recent court case of the alleged murderer, not so much. But their awful murders and the story of a lovely birthday spent on a summers day, with friends and family, ending in tragedy, was well reported at the time.

The vast, vast majority of murdered women don't get a vigil. What other of the 100s of murdered women in the last ten years got a vigil? Sarah Everard was pretty and blonde, yes, but also she was missing for many days, she 'trended' on Twitter, becoming a catalyst for women sharing stories of male violence, and her murder came at a time when women are fed-up of being treated like shit legally, with rape convictions at an all time low, DV on the increase due to lockdown, women's refuges closing down or becoming mixed-sex, male rapists in women's prisons. having to fight for women's spaces etc. I am sure she would rather be alive than have a vigil in her name.

There is a problem with racism in the police and justice system. There is a problem with misogyny in the police and justice system as well. This is no surprise.

It took the media in London nearly a week to start reporting on the death of the two sisters.

Dont forget the police did NOT respond to the family they hadn't come home from where they had had the party ie there may have been two of them but they didn't arrive home.

The rang the local police to ask if they could check and they didn't.

In the end in desparation members of the family went back to where they had been and they found the bodies. Can you imagine that? Going back to where you had had a birthday picnic and finding the bodies of relatives you had been celebrating with.

In a way, and what made it almost worst, the papers and local tv news only started reporting it when it was made public that their mother was a "respectable" person - and also, although they were heartbreaking, the release of the night time pictures of the sister dancing with lights.

It was really, really overt that this was racist.

I was aware of the situation earlier on because of messages being shared on facebook and remember thinking why isn't this in the media?

And also, friends and people living nearby to where Sarah went missing, did do a lot of publicity. But the feeling you can do that, and get local reporters insterested, comes from being of a certain race and class. I know from the area where I live that hand made poster of young missing black people do not get picked up by the local media.

For me its the same as why everyone went over the top about Captain Tom. Not saying he wasn't great but all over the country people with interesting back stories, were doing amazing things. But not just the media but us, the population, bought into this stereotype of nice white old man, former soldier, etc., etc. In no time at all it was all White Clives of Dover and so on.

So indicative that we are not an intergrated society on any level.

You're being far too negative @stumbledin, we are an integrated society at a certain level - not deep enough yet but far more than we used to be.

The media attention for Captain Tom was nothing to do with race.

Class plays a huge part in this as well plus moral attitudes, like @everythingcrossed said. I remember when Madeline case was in the news and the family of Ben Needham complained that media payed more attention because her parents were MC professionals.

Police posed with the bodies for selfies.

They got the report when they went missing and even though told it was totally out of character decided it was better to shelve it and wait and see.

The only reason it was in the press at all was because their mum has a role that gave her a voice.

Appalling.

Yes of course racist etc.

This is a matter for the press and news providers. We only hear about the things they think are interesting/ important etc.

Missing white girl syndrome is a thing.

It depresses me that (and I've not read this thread but others) so many posters get defensive instead of listening and thinking.

This is what we always accuse men of doing when it comes to women's issues.

The met put the Lawrence family under surveillance.

I'm not sure how widely known that is.

Saw his name mentioned upthread.

I am very narrow in what news programmes I watch (I didn't used to be, was a total news junkie, but it was very bad for my mental health), so I learned about these two women's horrific deaths from MN. I am entirely unsurprised that their mother described the response as racist and classist. What a nightmare she must be living in - two of your babies taken from you at one go. I hope, that, as an archdeacon, she has a good and close and strong network of support around her.

It depresses me that (and I've not read this thread but others) so many posters get defensive instead of listening and thinking

Very well said!

Well hopefully we can discuss this here sensitively notwithstanding defensiveness and depression. I think we maybe need to acknowledge there is cynicism and hurt and defensiveness and keep asking questions and showing compassion for all the women involved.

This is a matter for the press and news providers. We only hear about the things they think are interesting/ important etc.

Yes, this is partly about police but also about the media. I think huge changes to our media landscape are only beginning to be understood.

But are they just a mirror for society? Don't algorithms check what stories get reaction and that generates more reports etc? I don't know much about how it works but I think it's more complex than just the media choosing which items to publicise and which to ignore?

But are they just a mirror for society?
Maybe, but should they be? (Side note - I don’t think the media is just a mirror - editorial opinion influences the public opinion massively. Otherwise politicians wouldn’t be so keen to get newspaper owners onside)

Tangent with a point, but it reminds me of Jess Philips’ response on Andrew Marr the other week when challenged that people want the police to be focusing on burglaries and other things (statues!) so they don’t have enough time to combat MVAW. Philips’ response (paraphrasing) is well that is the issue isn’t it, that people care more about bins and statues than women, but we should be countering that not just accepting it and delivering it. So - society cares more about white & middle class women than BAME & working class women - that is the fucking problem - and the media is part of that problem, and has the potential to be part of the solution, rather than shrug shoulders and go with a just-following-orders defence.

Yes, for sure. I don't mean that that absolves the media. I expect there is a good amount of interplay between editorial bias and audience response/demand.

we should be countering that not just accepting it and delivering it

Yes, but how does this happen? I think social media is the gigantic elephant in the room here - most people don't go direct to news sites all the time, they are silo'd by social media posts. This is all hugely affected by twitter/facebook/insta etc, who are not regulated and the questions of how to regulate them are enormous. Not even sure how to start or where.

social media sites are owned and run by young men, on the whole? I would guess that women's issues are really low on the list of priorities.

@ImpatiensI

I think a sense of connection/recognition was the difference with Sarah's case - so I suppose you could call that classism or something but it's a very deep thing with humans.

She was first 'missing' so there was interest in that story in the media and always the hope that she might be found ok. Then the hope was smashed so that makes a deeper connection.

A lot of photos of her had been put out while she was missing so that also made me feel more personal and showed a smiling friendly looking person you feel sympathy towards (plenty of psychological studies on this) so that all adds in.

There was a thread on Sarah Everard on AIBU and I responded to a poster who commented on how nice and attractive she looked — clearly concerned that anything might have happened to her as she looked so 'nice' and 'pretty'. I called her out on it.

We need to stand up for all women, not just those who look like us.

I don’t agree at all. This case was all over the news, including overseas (I was in Australia when this happened).

It was in the news once the mum spoke out, who happened to have s role that gives her a voice

And when it came out that the police sat on their arses and then took photos with their bodies and wstsapped them

When they went missing nada
And even with what happened it was nowhere near as covered as the more recent case

Is it accurate to say that it was only the news once their mum spoke out?

I remember this awful story in the press but as I understood it as strong suspect was arrested very quickly. Also, the sisters were not missing for long so there was no "lead up" (sorry, I know that sounds ghastly but I can't think of the right word) as there was in the SE case.

I do wonder about why some cases become major headline news and some don't. Does anyone remember the name of the 16 year old who was missing for 13 days before her body was found in woodland last year? Her uncle had killed her. I don't know why that story was so under reported.

No, Charley, I don't believe that's accurate. Once their bodies were discovered it was very prominent in the news. The coverage of the trial has been very very low key and I'm not clear why because that's unusual.

Their Mother was scathing about how the Police reacted when the women were reported missing, how dismissive they were when they reasliased they were black and lived on a council estate. Even tho it was 'completely out of character' - the same phrase used when Sarah was 'missing'.

There was a thread on Sarah Everard on AIBU and I responded to a poster who commented on how nice and attractive she looked — clearly concerned that anything might have happened to her as she looked so 'nice' and 'pretty'. I called her out on it. We need to stand up for all women, not just those who look like us.

Yes we do and I think most feminists do try to tho like everyone we are battling the media bias and our own psychology as I said in the post you quoted. We all do make assumptions about people, based on just v quick glances or a photo - if they're 'nice' or not. And people we find attractive are almost always seen in these psych studies as being nicer than others.

There's a circular argument about the media - are they giving us what we want or do we want what they're giving us? Is the bias theirs or ours? Also, of course, there's only so much painful stories any one of us can take in. I actually tend to avoid the news a lot of the time for the sake of my own MH.

Just posting this as I realised I hadn't heard anything about the police officers being investigated. It seems significant to me that this report is in a local paper not a national.
www.kilburntimes.co.uk/news/crime/iopc-refers-inappropriate-photos-of-kingbury-murder-to-cps-6579410

As the trial is in June it will be interesting to see how it is handled by the national press.
I do think there is a hierarchy of victims in the press and the few who make it into the spotlight are invariably young white women unless there is something 'unusually newsworthy' about the case.

That's a really good and shocking article @Imnobody4.

IOPC regional director for London, Sal Naseem, said: “As a result of our enquiries so far we have made two fast-time recommendations to the Metropolitan Police Service.

“These seek to ensure that police officers, their supervisors and senior management teams all take responsibility for a culture that is in line with the Police Code of Ethics and where inappropriate behaviour can be openly challenged.

“Last month, we also referred one strand of our investigation to the Crown Prosecution Service as the evidence we have gathered indicates a criminal offence may have been committed."

They always say these things..

I see the actual murder trial starts in June so that's probably why there hasn't been so much reporting on it. The other thing must have been prelimary.