Mother arrested in front of child by Met over bus fare (that she had paid!)

[TERFinTheHouse]

Tw: upsetting content

twitter.com/saskia_cole/status/1682705268721737728?s=46&t=p6GESSn09HWHVXYgTLIbJg

Why was this woman arrested like this!?! Her poor child!

According to other Tweeters, she had paid her bus fare BTW.

I used to live near a university known for being very posh and having a lot of extremely wealthy students, and would regularly see students fare dodging and sometimes being caught. Not once did I ever see a white person get in trouble for fare dodging, often they got off scot free even after being caught (and please remember this lady DID have a valid ticket).

I have multiple times witnessed obviously very posh white young men run away giggling or even shove people out of the way to avoid ticket inspectors. Even shove ticket inspectors out of the way to avoid getting busted for fare evasion. Guess what? Not once was any action taken. Not in a million years would police turn up and be physically violent to a posh-looking white person for not showing a bus ticket.

This thread is 100% racist and an example of how deeply entrenched hatred of black people is on Mumsnet and especially on Feminist Chat. Next time someone claims that GC views have been exploited to push far right/bigoted agendas, all we need to do is point them to this horrible white supremacist fest of a thread.

Just not arresting black people because they might be traumatised? Not arresting mothers as their children might be traumatised?

FOR NOT SHOWING A FUCKING ONE POUND BUS TICKET ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE??

You just know that if police starting routinely getting on buses in posh white areas, demanding everyone show them their tickets, and roughing them up and violently arresting them for failure to comply, there would be mass outrage. Except that would never happen, would it? We all know if this woman was white, none of this would have ever happened.

Very convenient for you to be try your hardest in multiple posts to twist this into the awful criminal black lady who deserved to be arrested.

you think we should just let black people not pay bus tickets if they don't fancy it?

She did pay.

you think we should just let black people not pay bus tickets if they don't fancy it?

Ffs it's a bus ticket! You can't find a middle ground between doing absolutely nothing and calling 6 police officers to manhandle an innocent woman while her young child screams?
I wonder how much time and money was wasted on this.

They think they're being so clever and subtle, don't they?

We see you.

She'd paid. I'd be reluctant to give police or ticket inspectors access to my bank app. And the police should have de-escalated rather than inflaming the situation.
It's beyond a joke that women can be assaulted and the police refuse to get involved but for the sake of a few pounds, they'll manhandle and arrest a woman. It's absolute bullshit.

I am disappointed by replies on here. I didn’t watch the video and don’t know what happened but I know how intimidating situations like these can be. My son got a fine for having the wrong ticket a few months ago, and he said the ticket inspector was with a transport police officer, or whatever the fuck they were, very heavy handed and needlessly aggressive. No manhandling or anything, just utter aggressive pricks in front of a non-challenging single guy. They took his passport out of his hand to get his details (gave it back) etc. DS was travelling on his own and reading a book at the time. He was coming home for my birthday, as it happens. He was very upset.

I’d wait to hear more details before jumping on with “well, if you have nothing to hide”.

She didn’t behave reasonably. She could have avoided the whole situation by complying with them. If she had paid her fare why cause all the drama?

Perhaps she was arrested for a public order offence? Why would any decent parent behave like that in front of their child?

The police attract a lot of bully types of people I’d say at least 50 percent

☹️

It attracts a certain type, that's for sure. Makes sense if you think about it.

@PerfectYear321
Yes I spotted that too.
🙄but I'm trying to ignore.

We only see part of the video. Things must have escalated before hand to have got to that point.

It’s terrifying that it was allowed to escalate, all for the cost of a ticket, important as it is for all of us to do our duty. A sense of proportion. It’s like bloody America, where they’ll pin you to the ground for the littlest thing.

They must have because the police are always right!

All of this. I grew up in Croydon and I know from being the passenger in many cars with boys when we would be stopped. My Muslim friend with a big beard just squeaked a win past Black friends but only just. White was dead last on getting stopped even though more of them were taking many more much more serious drugs. And driving like twats on occasion.

'Complying' isn't any guarantee of a happy outcome and hasn't been for decades, possibly forever. You'd think feminists would have learned that from Sarah Everard.

I'm so white I'm almost see-through and I find it difficult to fathom how people can't see it. Surely a little empathy and class analysis is all that's needed. Telling oppressed people to just comply a little more should make you pause.

@SkylarSpirit yes, an eye opener. Deeply disturbing. I hadn’t seen this aspect of MN.

It doesn't matter what happened before. It's not a member of the public's job to de-escalate situations - it's the police's job. That's why they receive training in it. They failed to manage the incident appropriately.

Im a white woman in my 40s and almost ended up in a situation like this once.
On a train that was almost at our station. It was hot, I was thirsty, tired and very keen to get off the train and start for home. Rucksack full of my days stuff on my back ready for the off.
Ticket inspector got to us just as the train pulled into the station. She asked to see our tickets (no barriers at our station so usually no need at all to have them anywhere handy) I huffed and puffed cos we were literally pulling into the platform. I got off with my teen kid.

Ticket inspector follows me off the train and barks at me like I was some sort of major criminal. She was incredibly bossy and scary. I pretty much had to tip out my bag to find the tickets (multiple pockets and Id forgotten which one they were in).
As soon as I found them she said "thanks" and got back onto the train, said nothing else, not even a glance at me. Totally didnt care at how distressed I was at this point or that my stuff was now in a heap on the platform. Was a pity I didnt have a sunflower lanyard handy as maybe....... possibly........ she would have acted more compassionately had I had one visible.

So I can well imagine how the situation occurred for the woman in the video - she had legitimately paid...... and even if she hadnt........ is all that fuss and drama by the police really necessary for a ticket worth less than £5. Her poor boy watching it all. Yes I know they are only doing their job but in her situation and mine they were completely OTT.

There are always gfs waiting to jump on threads like this. They love any opportunity to be racist and to victim blame and to justify women being manhandled. They deliberately come to this section to be as goady af.

I LOVE that the black guy that phoned this, clearly didnt know her at all but waded in to try and help and called her his sister. Awesome guy.

Ooops I forgot to add to my long comment above that the situation I experienced which was a rare one off for me........ Ive no doubt thats cos Im white and averagely boring looking. Im certain it happens a whole lot more to people of colour (apologies I dont know the most appreciated term atm)

@Yfory you describe very well that sense of dread and panic even when you’ve done nothing wrong. (DS I mentioned above had paid £17 instead of £23 or something like that for his fare, so fair enough, but so out of proportion to the misdemeanour. Pricks.)

Well now you know why. The "overstretched" Police have far more important things to worry about than murders ie whether or not people have paid their bus fare or not.

what ticket is she meant to show?
every one uses their debit card or oyster and the charge comes up as pending on your account
so what if her phone was dead, or she didnt have a smart phone? how would she prove that she tapped?

i have never been arrested for not paying a bus fare or train fare in my life,
the only time i got caught was when I was a teenager,
we had to give our details so that they could send a fine, we gave them fake details
a fine would have been more appropriate in this situation , or how about just ask her to leave the bus?
on what planet do you arrest someone for not paying a bus fare? absolutely ridiculous, if i was there i would have just paid for her and told the police to go away

This situation is awful and I feel sorry for the poor woman arrested for a potential minor infraction when according to comments on a recent thread, shops can’t get police to attend when they’re frequently cleared out by people known to them on cctv.

I was on that thread. The young man did not have ownership of the bike. The woman, a pregnant medic, who had just completed a 12 hour shift, had just paid to hire the bike. She was physically on the bike and had removed it from the dock. The young man, whilst she was on the bike and attempting to go home, then forced the bike back in the docking station because he wanted the bike for himself. That in itself was an act of aggression.

He btw was on an underprivileged youth scheme, where he didn’t have to pay to hire a bike as long as he redocked every 45 mins. She took the specific bike that he had been riding around on for some hours, redocking every 45 mins. It was her legal right to take the bike. She wanted the snazzy electric bike. Pregnant, having just completed a long shift, legally as well as morally, he should have left her to take the bike. He could have hired another bike, even if it was one of the older style bikes or gone on a search for an alternative newer style bike.

The youth in question thought he had some kind of ownership over the bike. He did not. It got very heated and the woman was overwhelmed and said some stuff, which could have put the youth in danger, which was wrong. However, he man handled that bike back into the docking station in the first place thus preventing her from going home. Having been pregnant myself, she probably felt pretty vulnerable surrounded by a group of young adult or almost adult males.

how anyone thinks this was an appropriate response from the police on fare evasion is beyond me.

Whether or not she had paid (she had) is not really the point, it’s how the police allowed it to escalate.

like others have said, real hints of racism on here.