Women targeted in stabbings in Belfast

[ThinkIveFoundYourMarbles]

Three women stabbed and two more punched in the neck/head. Motive isn't clear yet but I'm guessing it's no coincidence that the victims are all women.

I honestly thought when I used the example about Dogs Trust that no one would object to them not centring cats. It never crossed my mind that someone might actually think it's unreasonable of Dogs Trust to focus only on dogs.

How can you ever support any charity or political action or campaign if you think it's unfair to focus on one particular issue? My mind is blown.

These poor women, I hope they've caught the man who did it and throw the book at him. I doubt it though.

And Katty women and girls attempt suicide at a higher rate than men so theres a bit of whataboutery for you.

So.....Why did this man cycle on his mountain bike around Belfast looking for women? why did he stab and/or punch SIX women? Look at the timings. he's cycling around stabbing women aged around 20 years old. he punched two of them in the neck/head -

The timings and what he did:

1. 7.42pm on Monday evening in Castle Place - female pedestrian received a stab wound.

1. 7.51pm on the Ormeau Avenue - second woman stabbed

1. 8.56pm on Donegall Square West. - third woman stabbed

1. 8.56pm and 9.01pm on the Dublin Road, - fourth woman stabbed and punched at the back of her head.

1. 9.01pm, University Road, - fifth woman stabbed as she walked along the road

1. 9.03pm Upper Lisburn Road - sixth woman is punched in the neck

Any guesses where he spends time online? Any groups he might be part of that encourage doing this?

Katty, feminists have heard all your nonsense before. If you care so much about men, go and actually DO something to help them rather than attacking women. But you won't, will you? Funny how MRAs never seem to care so much they put their money where their mouths are, though.

There have been attacks in France, Paris and Strasbourg. In Paris it was because woman was wearing a short skirt.
I presume there have been several attacks or these wouldn't have made the newspapers.
This could be copy cat attacks.

What's that rule about misogyny that applies here? The worst thing about women talking about male violence is that it makes men look bad?

I haven't spoken to any men who live locally who are worried about anything other than this man being caught swiftly before he hurts another woman and wondering what's made him so fucked up to target them in the first place. All the men I talk to are reasonable and not nursing some chip on their shoulder about men's rights though.

[quote kattyboomboom]Only 7 per cent of Britons consider themselves feminists

www.google.com/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/only-7-per-cent-of-britons-consider-themselves-feminists/amp/[/quote]
But that's not what you said is it @kattyboomboom ? In your previous post you said 93% of women do not consider themselves feminist then link to a media article where 93% of Britons (including men) do not describe themselves as such. That's not a huge surprise, it's also not a research article, it's a newspaper report, behind a paywall that doesn't actually support what you originally said.

You are clearly determined to derail. Ask yourself why you feel the need to do that? Why is a thread discussing violence against women so offensive to you that you feel you need to deflect and derail it? If you are genuinely interested in defining and discussing the limitations of feminism or of raising awareness of violence against men why haven't you started constructive and separate threads discussing those issues? Why instead are you trying to detract attention away from victims of violence?

Let's be honest, it's because you aren't interested in those things - you're only interested in goading and derailing under your faux-innocent guise of 'critiquing feminism'. And it's fooling no one. It's simply tedious, and disrespectful to the women who are victims of male violence in Belfast

I'd suggest that if you find feminism so problematic you avoid the feminism boards, and if you want to discuss how tough life is for men then start your own thread rather than trying to give other people into discussing what you think is important. If nothing else it's pretty rude.

Also @kattyboomboom
Some more figures to emphasise how wrong you are:
https://www.onepoll.com/36-of-british-adults-define-themselves-as-feminist-yet-76-support-gender-equality/

https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulusuploads/document/iopahgu564/InternalResultss180205FeminismmSuffragettes_w.pdf

@WonderWomaaan

I kind of see what Matty is trying to say. It's like the dogs trust saying "don't worry about cats, they don't need your money as much as dogs" rather than focusing on cats. But to me radical feminists and MRA's are groups that often contain large numbers of sexist and hateful individuals so I'd rather just say I'm egalitarian despite having many feminist beliefs. But you're wasting your time arguing on mumsnet women's rights section, Katty. There's somebody every few weeks with the same arguments as you and always goes same way.

But your argument is flawed because Dogs trust don't dimiminish cats in their work promoting dog welfare and on this thread we weren't discussing violence against men as a counterbalance to violence against women. This is the feminist board and it centres women. If you don't like that start your own board where you can discuss how tough men have it.

All causes centre on focussed issues, it's how all charities, activist and political progress groups works. It's bizarre you don't seem to understand that. It's only the whatabbouterists like you that persist on crowbarring in unrelated issues to distract from the issue at hand and stunt progress on all levels.

If you're that bothered about violence against men ask mumsnet for your own section to discuss it. But don't come to an unrelated section then complain that we're not discussing the unrelated thing you think we should be. Go start your own board instead.

Oh look, it appears we can’t....

Would anyone like a thread to discuss the stabbings and assault of 6 women in Belfast?

I have actually always felt very safe walking around Belfast at night. I remember as a student thinking how much safer it felt in the city than in the country town that I came from. Random fights were ironically much more rare in the city (although obviously not unheard of).

I hope this man is put behind bars and the city goes back to feeling safer.

Yes I think it's clear that this is a misogynist with a sense of thwarted entitlement rather than a general reflection on Belfast's safety.

The media reporting so far is sympathetic - it'll be interesting to see how reporting develops as more is known about the suspect

I wonder what sort of reaction I would get if I went to a BLM forum and told the posters there that White Lives Matter Too.

@Smallsteps88

Oh look, it appears we can’t....

Would anyone like a thread to discuss the stabbings and assault of 6 women in Belfast?

YES! 😭

Some more figures to emphasise how wrong you are:

To be fair, that article backs up the point that not many women want to identify as feminists. But clearly the 7% of women statistic is incorrect.

Women get stabbed, police say “women shouldn’t go out alone until he’s caught” and it’s wa wa wa poor men have it harder

What. The. Fuck

I was just talking to a friend earlier who lives on one of the roads where this happened and he mentioned having been out the night before last for a long walk whilst listening to music and it struck me how I would never do that, but moreover I don't think a single female in Belfast would have done that at night this week.

I've just been reading about a man in North Belfast who has been convicted of raping his own mother. So many men are just unspeakable,

Belfast is a great city though..I absolutely loved living there and like a PP always felt very safe.

@kattyboomboom

Does your 'violence arena' encompass ALL violence? Including domestic abuse, sexual violence and rape?

Because while you are right about street violence and fights having predominantly male victims if you start to involve everything I consider to be violence I'd say females experience more - not that this is a race to the bottom but that is what came to mind when I read your post. Or am I being silly and pretending otherwise?

I'd say men have worse overall tbh.

Men are 400% more likely to be attacked by a stranger, whilst women are 10% more likely to suffer domestic abuse (I think it was 40% vs 60% from memory but most studies believe that many men are reluctant to report for fear of being seen as unmanly.

As I understand it, men are more more likely to be attacked by a stranger, whilst women are more likely to be attacked by an acquaintance of partner. Men make up almost 80% of worldwide homicides (70% in the UK).

Ah. You're one of those 'what about the dudes??!' people. Fine. I don't have much time for that these days particularly on threads about violence against women. So I'll not be engaging again I don't have the patience.

Ok then, moving on. This is yet another shocking example of violence against women and it is becoming shockingly more prevalent in many countries; India, Pakistan, Mexico, Brazil, yes here and the US but those countries are seeing outrageous increases in femicide, it is very worrying indeed. There does appear to be a marked increase in men hating women and treating them as sub human. I wonder if the internet has aided this and allowed people who were once outliers in their hatred to form communities thus making it all more normalised. It doesn't help that - as we have seen on threads here recently - the punishments do not appear to fit the crimes making it look like violence against women and children isn't being taken seriously enough by those who should be deterring it. It may be time for far more severe punishments not less as clearly the message isn't getting through (unless the message is it is fine to act upon your hate for women).

I think feminism should centre women but if I'm honest I don't like the way so many feminists feel they have to knock down men at the same time. It just alienates the majority who are decent guys.

From a selfish viewpoint, we need men on board to tackle male violence and a 'fuck you' attitude isn't going to really galvanize the non-violent majority to go out of their way to help with an issue which they likely don't feel responsible for.

I'm not sure being grateful to non abusers is the answer here tbh. It's not like it would have stopped this man going around stabbing people. Plus decent men don't usually think well, she wasn't grateful enough to me for being decent, maybe I'll turn into a MRA.

Back on topic, the man arrested has been charged. Good.

I can't believe I typed people instead of women, apologies. It's not like he was going about stabbing men.

@WonderWomaaan

I think feminism should centre women but if I'm honest I don't like the way so many feminists feel they have to knock down men at the same time. It just alienates the majority who are decent guys.

From a selfish viewpoint, we need men on board to tackle male violence and a 'fuck you' attitude isn't going to really galvanize the non-violent majority to go out of their way to help with an issue which they likely don't feel responsible for.

Who is knocking down men? Either they commit these acts of violence or they don't.

They do commit these acts of violence, its a fact and pointing that out isn't knocking down men and saying I am sick of having men's issue interjected into a thread about violence against women isn't knocking down men either.

This is a feminist board and if I have a 'fuck you' attitude to men placing themselves into a discussion about violence against women on a FEMINIST board it is because I am tired of it, it happens with alarming frequency and it is used to derail the existing discussion and change the focus to that of men. Perhaps a timely reminder of how bloody often this happens is needed here.

victimfocusblog.com/2018/01/03/stop-asking-me-what-about-men/

Oh and one other thing ... if men don't feel responsible for male violence against women then that says a great deal about them, their selfishness and their ability to look away from the truth. I'll be maintaining my fuck you attitude because I'm tired of bending over backwards to accommodate the feelings of men - after all it hasn't got us very far over the centuries in the area of male violence. I tried it and I'm done.

Back on topic, the man arrested has been charged. Good.

I’m being tentatively positive about this. I Suspect they may actually come down hard on this one because it doesn’t have the mucky complications of consent or relationships that our courts seem incapable of understanding. There’s no room for “she was flirting with him then changed her mind” or “she dumped him the night before” in this one. He very clearly targeted women for no reason other than they were women. The only issue will be his defence claiming psychological issues.

@Smallsteps88

Back on topic, the man arrested has been charged. Good.

I’m being tentatively positive about this. I Suspect they may actually come down hard on this one because it doesn’t have the mucky complications of consent or relationships that our courts seem incapable of understanding. There’s no room for “she was flirting with him then changed her mind” or “she dumped him the night before” in this one. He very clearly targeted women for no reason other than they were women. The only issue will be his defence claiming psychological issues.

Sorry for contributing to derailment.

I hope you are right and it is certainly worth keeping an eye on how this goes with sentencing as it might be quite telling. I very much hope it is hard sentencing for all the reasons you mention Smallsteps . It will be interesting to see if they make a point of the fact he was targeting women and why. I think I must be quite jaded as I am wary of how they will tackle it. I'll try and share your tentative positive view.