Met apologise for 'sexist, derogatory' language when searching woman

[ArabellaScott]

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/24/met-apologises-to-academic-for-sexist-derogatory-language

'The Metropolitan police have apologised and paid compensation to an academic for “sexist, derogatory and unacceptable language” used by officers about her when she was strip-searched.'

'Duff was arrested on 5 May 2013 on suspicion of obstructing and assaulting police after trying to hand a legal advice card to a 15-year-old caught in a stop-and-search sweep in Hackney – allegations she was later cleared of in court. '

Is anyone going to do something about the police, at all?

Given the recent abduction and murder of Sarah Everard, I'm inclined to agree.

In fact that is exactly what my local police commissioner said. Women should be streetwise and know exactly when they can and can’t be arrested. As that is the best way to stop us from being kidnapped and murdered by police officers.

For some inexplicable reason he has now resigned….

@MrBlobbyLivesNextDoor

The question being why was she arrested in the first place. The police don't have the right to demand peoples details without reasonable grounds. Seems the me the so called grounds were made up after she refused to give her details.

If a summary offence (assault police and/or obstruction) is being alleged to have happened by the officer it can be done via a summons to court. Therefore, the person is not arrested and just receives a court date through the post - similar to a speeding ticket.

If they refuse their details, then a summons can not be served - so the arrest becomes necessary so the person can be put before the next available court or their details can be established.

@MrBlobbyLivesNextDoor

She was arrested for assault & obstructing a police officer

An assault that didn't happen. See point about made up grounds.

You don't know it didn't happen I don't know if it happened or not either neither does anyone on here

But the officer who was there has arrested her for that offence. So, therefore they seem to believe an assault & obstruction offence is made out.

The evidence of which is tested by the CPS and a court trial is arranged.

The officer can not see what the trial result is going to be at the point of arrest - they can merely present the evidence to court which will be in the future.

So you can't technically arrest an innocent person of that offence before the trial has taken place.

Unless you or another witness was there can come on here and say "as an independent person - I was there and saw the incident clearly and no assault or obstruction took place"

@TooBigForMyBoots

do not condone the abuse, the stepping outside the law and offensive comments made to her.

Now we're getting somewhere. So you accept that Dr Duff was subjected to abuse by police officers who stepped outside the law and behaved in an offensive manner @Felix125.

Yes

I have said this quite a few times on here - I think most of my posts have it on - which people seem to be ignoring or not listening to me.

The language used and the comments made were wrong and if the process which i described on page 6/7 for searching was stepped outside of and she was assaulted for no reason other than to effect the search - then it was wrong.

Is that in any way ambiguous

As people on here seem to still think that I am defending the indefensible

@Mumoftwoinprimary

Ok - so you believe that a strip search was necessary and done solely for her welfare and the safety of the police officers that dealt with her?

And done as respectfully as is possible in the circumstances?

It was just after this that their behaviour became disgusting, inappropriate and mysogynistic?

The only thing is - why did she keep fighting for nearly a decade to get the information? She can’t have heard what they said about her - she only knows what was done in the cell. Where they were apparently completely appropriate. And yet somehow she guessed that there would be CCTV that showed them being completely inappropriate.

How did she do that?

Not sure

Has something come to light recently that suggest offers were abusive and made inappropriate comments after the search?

Has an officer like me, who wants professionalism in the force, come across it and flagged it up?

Did they have to process another part of the complaint first before they looked at this aspect of it?

Complaints sometimes drag out - sometimes its the solicitors acting for the injured party that drag it out. Every letter & inquiry they do they will get paid for. It might just be cynical me, but DV jobs i have been to where solicitors send letters back and forth between parties for years are not uncommon - and it costs the people involved a fortune.

@ArabellaScott

CPS have deemed that there was sufficient evidence to run a court case with it.

CPS are clearly compromised, too.

We all know the word of one police officer is believed over the word of a civilian. This is why police have to be held to the most rigorous standards.

Not true now

Its now word on word - just like everyone else.

I have had loads of cases at court found not guilty where its just my word against the theirs. D&D, assaults on me, public order incidents etc etc

Courts now insist on other evidence to support it. They assume BWV is always available of the incident - and if not, its not guilty.

Or CCTV - which might have been pointing another direction - or too far away to see the incident.

Sometimes the BWV batteries are flat, or its been knocked so its not recording whats in front of you or obscured by top coat etc etc

But the officer who was there has arrested her for that offence. So, therefore they seem to believe an assault & obstruction offence is made out.

Or, alternatively, there is the teeny tiny possibility they confected the whole story, arrested her for no good reason, and subjected her to abuse to 'teach her a lesson'.

You don't know it didn't happen
I don't know if it happened or not either
neither does anyone on here

So you're accusing her even though a court has cleared her? Moving in to dodgy territory here dude. She was cleared. You need to accept that and move on.

Or, alternatively, there is the teeny tiny possibility they confected the whole story, arrested her for no good reason, and subjected her to abuse to 'teach her a lesson'.

Surely the police wouldn't break the law, would they 😲

Banging her head repeatedly on the floor while commenting on her body hair comprise reasonable force ‘for her safety’

What a joke… surely you don’t actually expect anyone to believe that?

Surely you don’t believe that?

This is one incident where the woman had the privileges required to see a case through unfortunately there are many more like it where the defendant is not so lucky

blacklivesmatter.uk/deaths-in-custody/

@ArabellaScott

But the officer who was there has arrested her for that offence. So, therefore they seem to believe an assault & obstruction offence is made out.

Or, alternatively, there is the teeny tiny possibility they confected the whole story, arrested her for no good reason, and subjected her to abuse to 'teach her a lesson'.

So why have CPS & the court continued with it?

Or is the person arrested not telling us the full story?

Who knows - no of us were there

@MrBlobbyLivesNextDoor

You don't know it didn't happen I don't know if it happened or not either neither does anyone on here

So you're accusing her even though a court has cleared her? Moving in to dodgy territory here dude. She was cleared. You need to accept that and move on.

I'm not accusing her - how can you make that out from the quote?

I have moved on - she was cleared at court. It doesn't change the fact that she was arrested for that offence originally and went through custody

The officer making the arrest cannot fast-forward time to see what the court result would be before deciding on if the arrest is required.

@SomePosters

Banging her head repeatedly on the floor while commenting on her body hair comprise reasonable force ‘for her safety’

What a joke… surely you don’t actually expect anyone to believe that?

Surely you don’t believe that?

This is one incident where the woman had the privileges required to see a case through unfortunately there are many more like it where the defendant is not so lucky

See a couple of posts above.

"...I have said this quite a few times on here - I think most of my posts have it on - which people seem to be ignoring or not listening to me.

The language used and the comments made were wrong and if the process which i described on page 6/7 for searching was stepped outside of and she was assaulted for no reason other than to effect the search - then it was wrong.

Is that in any way ambiguous..."

What i am basically trying to say is that is the language used and the comments made were wrong and if the process which i described on page 6/7 for searching was stepped outside of and she was assaulted for no reason other than to effect the search - then it was wrong.

Any person who comes through custody can make a complaint about the way they were treated.

Has something come to light recently that suggest offers were abusive and made inappropriate comments after the search?
🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Only CCTV (with sound) of the officers making disgusting, inappropriate comments, some of a sexual nature, about Dr Duff, following her search. @Felix125, did you not bother finding out anything about this case before posting?

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10453691/Cambridge-graduate-recalls-clothes-cut-officers-intervening-stop-search.html

A bit more info here (sorry it’s DM) The IPCC found no reason was recorded for the strip search. Funny that.

What happened to her is appalling. There are some really unpleasant power hungry characters attacked to the police force. I've seen it first hand. They clearly have big cultural issues that need addressing.

@TooBigForMyBoots

Has something come to light recently that suggest offers were abusive and made inappropriate comments after the search? 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Only CCTV (with sound) of the officers making disgusting, inappropriate comments, some of a sexual nature, about Dr Duff, following her search. @Felix125, did you not bother finding out anything about this case before posting?

Yes, so has that fact come to light - not the actual footage.

What I mean by that is - the footage would have been stored on some database somewhere and left dormant. So, recently something has come forward that has made them review that footage which is where the comments have come to light.

*Yes, so has that fact come to light - not the actual footage.

What I mean by that is - the footage would have been stored on some database somewhere and left dormant. So, recently something has come forward that has made them review that footage which is where the comments have come to light.*

Oh - you mean have some of the officers involved be accused of or witnessed committing other acts of abuse? I guess that is quite likely.

I had assumed that it was just that her lawyers had been requesting the CCTV for the last 8 years and they finally ran out of reasons not to give it them.

But you are right - evidence of other acts of abuse by one or more of the perpetrators could have been a catalyst. That’s really sad.

Felix125

You're behaviour on this thread is scaring me, I used to believe there were a few bad apples but most police were decent people. You are making me think that belief is wrong. You are trying to justify the unjustifiable.

Lets face it the police arrested this woman on "suspicion of obstruction and assault" but you don't need any evidence to do that and I suspect it's the sort of case that is just rubber stamped by cps rather than actually being checked over. Read that again "Suspicion"

Have some consideration for the fact that you trying to defend the arrest is not increasing the public trust in the police

What I mean by that is - the footage would have been stored on some database somewhere and left dormant. So, recently something has come forward that has made them review that footage which is where the comments have come to light.

It came to light because Dr. Duff didn't give up and eventually the police were forced to make the CCTV footage available years after it was requested.

So you didn't bother to discover the facts of this case before posting about it @Felix125. Thank you, the insight into the police mindset that you provided has been very valuable.

It's been very eye opening reading Felix125's responses on this thread. Horrified by the thought that people like him have the legal right to do strip searches. I think the law needs to be changed on this. It is such an extreme and degrading act, surely it should only happen in situations where there is a real and substantial reason to think someone is likely to be concealing a weapon? There are plenty of other ways to safeguard someone in custody. Even if someone is being uncooperative, a pat-down would suffice in the vast majority of instances.

Felix, where is your response to the trauma and degradation this woman was put through? You don't have one really, do you? You wouldn't be posting all over a thread where women are discussing their experiences if so, minimising and blaming.

The officers who searched this lady were female officers...that's how deep this type of behaviour goes in the police! Female officers assaulting female prisoners and laughing about it; egged on by the custody sergeant

@Passtherioja

The officers who searched this lady were female officers...that's how deep this type of behaviour goes in the police! Female officers assaulting female prisoners and laughing about it; egged on by the custody sergeant

The internal misogyny runs deep. Very upsetting.

Felix125 You're behaviour on this thread is scaring me, I used to believe there were a few bad apples but most police were decent people. You are making me think that belief is wrong. You are trying to justify the unjustifiable.

You should be scared @BaronessEllarawrosaurus.

It's been very eye opening reading Felix125's responses on this thread.

Yes it has @Aspiringmatriarch. I would urge every woman on here to reread Officer Felix's posts on this thread.