Women endangered by police for coronation

[bd67thSaysReinstateLangCleg]

Buried in the middle of Grauniad article about the Republic arrests, the police arrested workers issuing rape alarms as part of a project called "Night Stars". Night Stars is run by Westminster Council with Home Office funding to help keep safe the women who work at night in places like Soho.

Adam Hug, the Labour leader of Westminster city council, said he was “urgently pushing the police for proper answers” after three council volunteers were arrested at about 2am on Saturday in Soho and later released on bail after they were found in possession of rape alarms. Police said “military colleagues” had believed such devices could be used to disrupt parading horses, posing “significant risk to the safety of the public and the riders”.

The council, however, said the devices were for the Night Stars volunteers to give out to vulnerable women and they were funded by a Home Office grant.

Can we talk about how women's safety has been undermined by the same Metropolitan Police force that employed the rapist-murderer of Sarah Everard (no, I will not write his name) so that a rich powerful man can have a crown put on his head?

The police received specific intelligence that activists were planning on setting off the rape alarms to startle the horses, disrupt the procession and potentially cause injuries. They didn't do this on a whim, or because they're 'evil'.

Source: news.met.police.uk/news/update-three-people-arrested-in-soho-ahead-of-coronation-466381

@TheInterceptor At 2 in the morning??

And the police mistook council-backed volunteers out in the middle of the night for protesters? Pull the other one, it's got bells on.

It's reckless endangerment of women, it doesn't have to be intentional to be reckless and dangerous.

Funny how much "specific intelligence" they keep getting. But don't have to produce that "specific evidence". There is no transparency- they are becoming more and more unaccountable. There had been a lot of very "specific intelligence" about the conduct of hundreds of officers, but they acted on none of that. So they only act on, or notice, "specific evidence" when it is me or you, going about our lives and having committed no crime. That is bordering a little too close to a police state.

I don’t believe them because it just isn’t plausible. This is a night safety team handing out rape alarms to women at 2AM. If “activists” were planning to set off rape alarms the next day, they would just buy a load of them and go into London on the day. They wouldn’t hang around London in the middle of the night waiting for a team of night safety workers to hand an few out.

Setting off a rape alarm isn’t likely to faze an Army or police horse so badly that the rider or public are endangered. They are trained to endure all kinds of loud noise including gunfire, cannons, fireworks, explosions, noisy riots, car horns, and sirens. They sometimes spook at random things as horses do, but the riders get them under control quickly.

It’s another example of overzealous policing imo. They didn’t need to arrest anyone. If they were genuinely concerned that the alarms could have been misused, they could have told the volunteers to suspend their work until the next night. They’re getting more and more enthusiastic about arresting people if they can vaguely connect them to some imagined “activism” or “protest”. Meanwhile MNers frequently report calling the police for very serious reasons and not being taken seriously. The police are increasingly looking not at all like public servants, and more like the Government’s private army.

Funny how much "specific intelligence" they keep getting. But don't have to produce that "specific evidence". There is no transparency- they are becoming more and more unaccountable. There had been a lot of very "specific intelligence" about the conduct of hundreds of officers, but they acted on none of that. So they only act on, or notice, "specific evidence" when it is me or you, going about our lives and having committed no crime. That is bordering a little too close to a police state.

This. A rape alarm could be used to disrupt the coronation. It could also be used to disrupt a rape. I know which one of those I'd prefer police to give a shit about. Aren't they supposed to protect the public, and aren't women the public? More and more it seems they protect themselves and rich and powerful men. The King being the head of that particular boil.

I assume the people handing out the alarms told the police who they were. In which case a very very small amount of common sense and IDK police work might have seen the women going about their business.

If it wasn't part of a fairly obvious total lack of action on rape, it could be seen as acceptable. But in every single way the police are showing they don't care about rape, a crime which most women recognise as about as serious as it comes. As well as having a high recidivism rate.

It’s disgusting. There’s a few charities/projects that do this regularly in certain areas with high numbers of vulnerable women.

Who care about vulnerable women though when there’s a wealthy elite family to protect? 🤬

And the police mistook council-backed volunteers out in the middle of the night for protesters? Pull the other one, it's got bells on.

It’s certainly plausible given it was only hours before the start of the Coronation and people had already been camping out for days beforehand. My question is why didn’t these volunteers have some sort of council issued ID badge? Most places issue employee ID badges to their volunteers. So why couldn’t these volunteers prove they were working for the council? Why didn’t the council tell the police they had volunteers out that night along the Coronation route handing out rape alarms?

And my other question is was anyone actually endangered by this? Because you can’t really say that was the case unless a rape happened that would have been prevented if the arrests had not occurred.

If they were genuinely concerned that the alarms could have been misused, they could have told the volunteers to suspend their work until the next night.

They didn't even have to tell the night safety workers to stop work. They could have asked the night safety workers not to give out alarms for that one night but allowed them to carry on doing the other valuable work, like handing out flip-flops, giving people water, waiting with people for taxis and making sure that the taxi has a proper licence, binning glass bottles before they get broken or used as weapons, etc.

In the wake of Sarah Everard's rape-murder and that other Met officer who did all those rapes, it's a slap in the face to women and a startling display of institutional power and contempt for us. They've employed men who rape and murder and ignored the reports that could have jailed these men sooner. Then, when we thought that they could not sink lower in their hatred of women, they arrest the night safety workers who try to protect women on the streets when a phone call could have clarified why those workers were there.

As for the horses being startled by rape alarms, the Household Cavalry has a horse-back mounted brass band with kettledrums in, and the horses cope just fine. Police and military horses are trained to cope with noise. So I call bullshit on this excuse for arresting anyone with a rape alarm, not just the night safety workers.

Hmm. The issue with the rape alarms is that they would be used to make horses bolt into the crowds. Have you seen the carnage a bolting horse can cause ploughing into a crowd of likely children in the front and adults behind? The police weren’t acting in this case to protect the RF, but regular spectators, otherwise known as innocent bystanders.

As for the horses being startled by rape alarms, the Household Cavalry has a horse-back mounted brass band with kettledrums in, and the horses cope just fine. Police and military horses are trained to cope with noise.

Drums do not sound anything like a rape alarm 😕 Your argument is rather like saying humans wouldn’t be startled by gunshots because we go to rock concerts.

Why should they? It's still vaguely, sort of supposed to be a democracy isn't it? They were doing something legal, giving out something legal. But now we have to be IDed if we're doing nothing wrong. Fuck that noise.

I'm sorry but since the police can't control their own ranks, I don't think we should be harassed by them for doing legal things.

We need to resist this kind of thing now. If Sarah Everett had been suspicious of police reach, and refused to do as she was told, there's a very slim chance she wouldn't have been murdered. Police don't just get to tell women what to do any more. They aren't trustworthy and that's their problem to solve.

Have you seen the carnage a bolting horse can cause ploughing into a crowd of likely children in the front and adults behind?

I have been kettled by the police when on a legal march. With police horses. Does that count?

The police don't just get the benefit of the doubt any more. Do you understand that? And understand why?

If it wasn't part of a fairly obvious total lack of action on rape, it could be seen as acceptable. But in every single way the police are showing they don't care about rape,

This. It's the pattern that it's part of.

And my other question is was anyone actually endangered by this? Because you can’t really say that was the case unless a rape happened that would have been prevented if the arrests had not occurred.

1. The Home Office are concerned enough about rapes in Soho to fund this project. Therefore there's probably evidence that giving out the alarms helps.
2. If I drove my car without making sure that everyone in it wore their seatbelts, I would be rightly slated for endangering myself and my passengers. If I tried to justify myself with "was anyone actually endangered by this? Because you can’t really say that was the case unless a death happened that would have been prevented if we had worn seatbelts" then I would be flamed off the site as well as completely wrong. "Endangered" is not a synonym for "harmed". Endangered means "put at extra risk". These women were put at extra risk by being deprived not only of alarms but of all the night safety team's other services because the night safety team were in police cells.

As you must be aware, police and Army horses are trained to cope with all sorts of noise, not just drums. I listed some of them. Guns, fireworks, riots, sirens, you name it. Those who can’t cope with that in training are not accepted into service.

One horse did spook on the day and crashed into a crowd barrier. That’s what crowd barriers are for.

@bd67thSaysReinstateLangCleg I agree, they could have let the volunteers do other work that night but not hand out alarms. And they could easily have verified what the workers were doing, which clearly didn’t include supplying activists with rape alarms at 2 AM.

Drums do not sound anything like a rape alarm

No, but a soprano cornet does. Which are standard instrumentation in a brass band. My point being that military and police horses are trained to withstand all sorts of noise

“We need to resist this kind of thing now. If Sarah Everett had been suspicious of police reach, and refused to do as she was told, there's a very slim chance she wouldn't have been murdered. Police don't just get to tell women what to do any more. They aren't trustworthy and that's their problem to solve.”

I completely agree @MrsTerryPratchett

Yes I am aware but you don’t seem aware that the people who would know best what noises the police/guard horses can withstand would be the police/guard and not you. The fact you’re “calling bullshit” indicates you think you know better than the very people who train and are responsible for those horses when you cannot possibly know better.

Not “all sorts of noise”, rather “many sorts of noise” which do not include rape alarms.

An attempt to justify this
https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1655140640471101440?s=20

One horse did spook on the day and crashed into a crowd barrier. That’s what crowd barriers are for.

Two to three horses would make short work of a crowd barrier, which would then crush whoever was on the other side of it, likely children.

I’m not saying I know better. I’m saying they know full well that this is a false excuse and they know it.

As scary as that is, that was with horses under control. Why would the police need “the benefit of the doubt”? Surely you’d want more information before condemning anyone?

Were the police and army staff who train and ride those horses actually doing the arrests? I don't think so. The people who know best would getting an early night ahead of the big day. So the coppers doing the arresting know probably less than me about what a horse can tolerate, becaue, unlike most coppers, I have had riding lessons.