Collapse of confidence in police

[BovaryX]

The Telegraph reports that public confidence in the police to investigate actual crimes is at an all time low. This is in the same issue which gives prominent coverage to Harry Miller's case.

As few as one in nine people believe police would solve their case if they were victims of crime, according to an exclusive YouGov poll that exposes a collapse in public confidence in the criminal justice system.

I would really, really love to see some evidence that this kind of 'hate crime' - ie writing something on Twitter - escalates into, well, anything really.

Whereas we do actually have hard evidence that DV escalates to murder (of women), rough sex escalates to murder (of women)...

And as always, I'm reminded that transphobia is a crime and misogyny isn't. So limericks bad, rape threats totally legal.

In terms of the police, centralising the force has been a disaster in Scotland, where I'm from. I called the police about a very drunk man on an off-road path a while back - he'd freaked me out but actually I was worried he was a danger to himself as there was a railway nearby - and the call handler just could not get a fix on where I was - not her fault, she had precisely zero local knowledge. Anyone who knew the area would have known where it was. I presume he was eventually picked up because The police then called me thinking I was the man's girlfriend, gave out loads of personal info and told me to come pick him up! A tiny example compared to those on this thread, but indicative of how easy it is to get policing wrong when you move resources away from the communities they are supposed to protect.

And as always, I'm reminded that transphobia is a crime and misogyny isn't. So limericks bad, rape threats totally legal

That's a great point. There is a serious issue with proportionality Harry Miller gets a police record, but women are subjected to vile, misogynistic abuse and threats of violence and it's not deemed evidence of 'hate' There is something seriously wrong with this paradigm

To be honest, the personal accounts in this thread of myriad failures of the police to protect civilians from violent criminals is an indictment of the the situation in the UK. Harry Miller's case highlights it and good that the Telegraph are making explicit links between that and abject failure to investigate crimes beyond Twitter.

I think some balance needs to be restored

Friends have been attacked in their homes by strangers as well as husbands and the police do nothing.

But if you accidentally go into a bus lane or drive 4 miles over the speed limit then they are all over you like a rash.

I think that adds to the animosity

@BovaryX it's very hard when the mantra is 'trans rights are human rights' to remember that trans people actually have more rights under law than women do in terms of transphobia/misogyny. But we do need to remind ourselves of that.

Going slightly off topic, there was a comment on here referencing someone who had worked on the Labour Party manifesto who said that the the TRAs focus was 100% on this sort of thing, rather than the material things that would make an actual positive difference to trans people's lives, for example healthcare funding.

There's a good article in the Times today with Jawad Iqbal covering the implications of Harry's case. Share token:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/5c14ed62-51ca-11ea-b4ee-385bb4c8d255?shareToken=850c7d43a4b65d064eee519c7c3b0fa3

Hey languishing I have posted on that, but didn't manage a functioning share token, can I copy yours?

@BovaryX it's very hard when the mantra is 'trans rights are human rights' to remember that trans people actually have more rights under law than women do in terms of transphobia/misogyny. But we do need to remind ourselves of that

Well said. It's an extremely important point and as you correctly highlight, easy to overlook.

Really? I suggest you apply that smug, baseless assertion in the places around the globe which have draconian sentences. And very little crime

That is a pretty aggressive response, given that you have not provided any data to prove me wrong. Or are you allowed to make baseless assertions, and it's just me who isn't?

The US has 4% of the world's population and 21% of the world's prisoners. Its crime rates are considerably higher than ours. As some states have finally started to reduce incarceration rates, their crime levels have fallen link

Please show me the evidence of high incarceration rates reducing crime rates in any democracy.

I don’t understand why sexism and misogyny is not classed as a hate crime. You simply cannot report serious verbal abuse or abuse on social media against women and even hope to get listened to. Even with sex as a protected characteristic.

Yet it is very well known that sexism and the escalation of abuse towards women is a common denominator in the backgrounds of men who go on to commit serious violent crimes. Including being a background behaviour in almost every single convicted terrorist. DV is there in most cases for example.

So if the real reason behind hate incident reports and recording is to spot patterns and prevent future serious crime, why isn’t this indication included? It’s overwhelmingly well evidenced and often referred to in the press when men are convicted.

But childish poems, leaflets quoting the dictionary and penis stickers on doors results in immediate action and unlimited resources being dispatched pronto. You can’t complain about lack of resources while at the same time applying that which you do have on wild goose (not gander) chases.