Sex Attacks in Cologne and other European Cities Part VII

[januarybrown1998]

part 6

part 5

part 4

part 3

part 2

part 1

The events of NYE were shocking enough; the subsequent minimising and under-reporting were an affront to women's rights to equality across Europe.

It's a testament to the tenacity and commitment of this community that we are at thread VII; do join the discussion and feel free to share the links and letters to anyone you think may wish to be part of this important debate.


We are currently awaiting the approval of a petition to parliament.

Shortly we will post links for those who want to take a proactive part in safeguarding the rights of all UK women to live in freedom from the fear of mass sexual assault as we sadly saw in NYE and reports of which are finally seeing daylight across Europe.

[VertigoNun]

What is the point of the motion?

[SonyaAtTheSamovar]

Yes MPs sign them to show support but they hardly ever make it to debate.

It might show you if your MP thinks strongly about openness in the mainstream press though!

[RomComPhooey]

Ok, I'm 2 pages behind but I wonder if a discrete action for these mass sexual assaults is for our police forces to implement some kind of real-time sexual assault data monitoring or reporting (even a hotline) so that they can more quickly form a view that urgent police intervention is needed in a specific location. From the reporting I've read, the assaults in Cologne went on for some time and women were still arriving in the station & being funnelled into the problem area. Better intelligence earlier on would have prevented many of the later attacks and allowed the police to apprehend offenders at source - sending in plain clothes officers may even have allowed police to intervene in assaults and arrest offenders on the spot. If this a new and serious form of attack, we need our crime data capture and policing to adapt accordingly. I suspect if there was a similar event here, our current police measures and intelligence are all wrong. Can you imagine if women had been kettled with those groups of men in those circumstances? I think you'd be looking a tens of rapes, possibly gang rapes, not a handful. Think on people!

[southernstar]

Hi I am new here but been watching your conversation for last week or so, very pleased there are so many people wanting to do something and make a change . Just thought I'd let you know , Nigel Farge has just tweeted ; after Cologne EU ref is about nothing less than the safety and security of British women. I am not sure this should be a political issue as in which party but the more people hi light this the better.

[WillBeatJanuaryBlues]

sending in plain clothes officers may even have allowed police to intervene in assaults and arrest offenders on the spot

i think a female plain clothes policeman was attacked.

one of the reasons the attack was so successful is because it was un unprecedented.

like the Paris attacks have woken up our police to fire arms, response etc, lets hope and pray a similar attack here would be handled better....the western world is awake to it now....

[RomComPhooey]

Well, it isn't unprecedented anymore, so what are the authorities doing to mitigate the risk of it happening here?

[VertigoNun]

…

From NF twitter account. He is quoting Alison Pearson. I am weeping NF is one of the few voices.

[SonyaAtTheSamovar]

Good question RomCom.

[RomComPhooey]

The more I think about it, that's the bottom line. Now it is 'out there' as a practice, it could be just as easily be a large group of lairy drunk British men at the station after a footy match or men at a demo/public order pile up. It may have started as a cultural practice in N Africa, but it could just as well be adopted by anyone here.

[RomComPhooey]

Eh? Check my posting history. I named changed after the whole Jeffrey thing but I've been around for ages. But that attitude has fucked me right off. I'll stick to writing to my MP, but good luck with your petition. Fucksake!

[polentapies]

Do.

[Theydontknowweknowtheyknow]

Blimey I don't know what the world is coming to when the only person making waves on the behalf of women is Niger Farage.

Those other MEPs did look pretty inept.

But really NF doesn't really care about us, he cares more about getting out of the EU.

[polentapies]

They

Great name and particularly prescient right now

All the right wing fuckers are jumping on this and none of them care about women.

What's really concerning is that the Left don't care about women either

[Theydontknowweknowtheyknow]

Polenta thanks

Yes I really don't feel like aligning myself with people who are the first to disbelieve women when attacked by "our own kind".

The whole thing is quite depressing.

[TwistedReach]

Sorry Rom, if you have a view that is different to the majority here you will be viewed here with suspicion (and called a troll or sock puppet)

[HelenaDove]

"Yes I really don't feel like aligning myself with people who are the first to disbelieve women when attacked by "our own kind"."


THIS!

[GourmetSoup]

I'm not sure it's fair to say NF doesn't care. After all, he does have a (German) wife and daughters?

[emilybohemia]

RomCom, you makes some good points there. In Germany it certainly seems it has been out there as a practice for some time. Looking at how police intend to respond to attacks in the future is very important. I'm sorry your comments were so quickly disregarded.

Police failures to respond appropriately seem a massive part of the problem. There is a feminist group in Germany that has a campaign called ausnahmslos that are trying to raise this as an issue amongst other factors linked to sexual violence.

[polentapies]

So I'm calling Mitt RomCom, in the interests of balance. Ok

[SonyaAtTheSamovar]

Oh give over Emily.

[fakenamefornow]

I really think you should ask for crimes against women like this to be recorded as hate crimes in the same way they are when perpetrated against other minorities. You would then be asking for some concrete change, not just that they talk about something.

I know some posters have said on previous threads that this would damage women's rights but I don't really see how. Maybe I'm being a bit thick, sorry if I am and you're fed up explaining to me, but please explain one more time. In the past posters have said this would silence people like Germaine Greer on trans women, but trans people are already a protected group so I don't really understand.

[emilybohemia]

Give over what Sonya? Do you not think the role of police in preventing and responsing to these kinds of crimes is relevant at all?