Met Police threaten to prosecute organisers of 'Reclaim These Streets' womens' gathering

[TheRabbitOfCaerbannog]

The organisers of a socially distanced #ReclaimTheseStreets event planned for Saturday 13th March at 6 pm on Clapham Common say the Met Police are trying to pull it. They say they're threatening to prosecute the organisers. The intention is for a short vigil to remember Sarah Everard and all women lost to violence. They're looking to crowdfund to cover potential legal costs. Harriet Harman has written to the met in support of the organisers...

twitter.com/reclaimts/status/1370123638406545408?s=21

www.crowdjustice.com/case/reclaimthesestreets/

Oh FFS. How do you get a refund from JG, is it possible?

Possibly if you complain they weren't upfront in their description about where the raised money was going to.

Just so everyone is aware before donating their criteria for women's groups is inclusive of men.

How to make an unbearable situation even worse.

Squirm - exactly that's the point. We become responsible as individuals not just the few who fixed the date and time.

re the fundraising - I'm not on twitter so cant do this - but even just as a consciousness raising exercise anyone on twitter can easily also ask whether in view of the EA and the cuts to women only services they will ensure that safe women's spaces are equally respected.

It is hardly a surprise when we know so many younger women have been through the trans process that they would say this.

Now if never before is the time to challenge that narrative not somehow accept it is always going to be like that.

In fact having re read the screen shots they need to be told that they are in breach of the EA which provides for women only provision of services specifically those dealing with women who have survived male violence.

@OvaHere

I would hope they are clear about this in their fundraiser ( I haven't checked). As long as they are clear about it I take the view they can fund raise for who they want. I'll just give a direct donation to an org of my choice.

I don’t think this makes it clear they only are fundraising for organisations that include penis owners in their definition of women.

Have just seen they have an email address so if you want to make them aware that you feel they have got money out of you under false pretenses then let them know.

ie alert them to the fact that they have potentially excluded themselves from donating to women's refuges and rape crisis centres.

I haven't given money as have only recently seen about the just giving page but will certainly email them.

Will be polite and make it a point of information!

[email protected]

Great points Stumbled

They can fundraise for whichever groups they want. But some of us will be proritising women and girls.

Know why the anger but couple of points

If they said anything else the resulting shitstorm would overshadow the murder and the reasons women are seeing this as a final straw

I don't think there's many orgs left that say female only anyway

I think reclaim the night are v TWAW always but in this case pragmatically I would probably look past it.

Obviously individuals should do as they see fit that's just how I feel.

Thecatonthemat - that statement might make you feel very virtuous, but this is an unusual situation, where women have spontaneoulsy come together as a result of male violence. Many my never have heard the arguements about why women only services are important. And as said above with so few women only services left unless we speak up and make them aware.

Mumsnet FWR needs to be more than us just telling each other that we know what is right. We need to some how be pro active and make change. Women's sex based rights have been erased and whole generations aren't even aware it has happened and consequently dont know what it once was and could be again.

Yea I saw that the would only donate to TWAW so that’s a no from me

I’ll make a direct donation to a woman’s charity - the ones that deal with the cunty type of women

If they said anything else the resulting shitstorm would overshadow the murder and the reasons women are seeing this as a final straw

Thereby exposing the hypocrisy of trans activism, which would be a positive thing for Women.

I see that the usual suspects, the political parasites, are sharing photos of confrontations with the police at Clapham. ie the SWP (which protects male predators who abuse women members of the party), Sisters Uncut and Global Women's Strike who will jump on the bandwagon of any event or march if they think there is a chance of engineering a "look at the police state viciously attacking innocent people".

I have no doubts about police violence, but when predominantly male adolescents go along to perfectly genuine protests just because they want to get selfies of themselves "standing up to the police" I despair.

And sad to say the organisers seem to have been taken in by these entryists going on tv to say if we have been there with stewards none of this would have happened. Sorry sisters, but they would no more have taken notice of your stewards than they did of the police.

Been thinking more about this after a comment on one of these threads. I think the ability to protest in a legitimate (and at the momeny covid safe way) is important. But as someone pointed out Reclaim the night had an agenda they wanted to use this vigil for. This vigil should have been just that - a vigil for sarah and others. Protests should take place at another time.

stumbledin agreed, but I don’t think the problem is that some women in groups don’t know these services are important, they are taken in by groups purporting to be for women when their aim is to get males accepted as women by women, advertising fundraising misleadingly. We are not welcome...eg the one posted for the Leeds event.

What a hopeless situation the police are in. It's down to their work that the perpetrator has been arrested and the young woman's remains found.

I’ve seen a few comments along the lines of, if only the Met had worked with RTS - and it is very unclear who RTS are - then the protest/vigil could have been managed differently. If you think that, how do you imagine it could have been managed differently? The self-appointed organisers/leaders on the bandstand - looks like maybe some of the women who were later arrested - were leading anti-police chants (see the Sisters Uncut link that shows this). That’s not about Sarah’s murder, she wasn’t murdered by “the police”. That’s not about protesting violence against women and women fearing walking the streets.

Making the vigil women-only would be an amazing idea - but what would you expect to happen at the cordon keeping men out? The disruptors wouldn’t just behave nicely and turn around and go home when asked to. Do you think the TWAW-believers would be supporting police, or anyone, gatekeeping the event for women only? How could they tell who was a woman (can’t believe that is actually a serious question in this context, but there you go!)?

Honestly I think a trap was laid last night and the Met fell into it hook line and sinker, that is not saying every officer is innocent obviously, there are clear instances on camera of inappropriate use of force and I sincerely hope every one is analysed and participating officers dealt with appropriately. But look, this morning the headlines are not talking about Sarah, or about wider peaceful vigils up and down the country and on doorsteps and online. They are already glossing over the points being raised about how society treats women and violence abuse and harrassment of us is so widespread it is accepted as inevitable. They are talking about the police and the police response. Who benefits from that? Not Sarah and her family and friends, not bereaved women, and not any VAWG campaign.

How do you suppose they managed all the previous events from football fan marches to BLM and Covid denier gatherings? Why was this so different - because sisters uncut are much more challenging threat? I just don't buy it. I don't support the group at all but it is for police to make the correct judgements on policing at a febrile time.

Sorry to pull the “but I asked you first” - you haven’t answered the question and are whatabouting a bit, so more clearly, how do you imagine the police could have better managed the anti-police disruptors intent on hijacking last night, by working with vigil organisers? Who are RTS, what experience or expertise do they have in volatile crowd management? I don’t think nice women in tabards attempting to marshall would have had any effect on this crowd, and they themselves could have been at risk.

Honestly I think a trap was laid last night and the Met fell into it hook line and sinker, that is not saying every officer is innocent obviously, there are clear instances on camera of inappropriate use of force and I sincerely hope every one is analysed and participating officers dealt with appropriately. But look, this morning the headlines are not talking about Sarah, or about wider peaceful vigils up and down the country and on doorsteps and online. They are already glossing over the points being raised about how society treats women and violence abuse and harrassment of us is so widespread it is accepted as inevitable. They are talking about the police and the police response. Who benefits from that? Not Sarah and her family and friends, not bereaved women, and not any VAWG campaign.

I was just saying EXACTLY the same to DH this morning - The Met have played into the hands of extremists. While the pictures are dreadful, i can't help but wonder if some of the confrontations were deliberately orchestrated.

It takes the focus OFF women, and women's need for safe spaces away from all men - even "nice" men (because how do we know? - they don't wear a badge) and put it onto police violence.

I think The Met have been short-sighted and intransigent - but I think this is a police culture which has been nurtured and encouraged by Priti Patel (who is now running backwards as fast as her little feet can carry her) and that Cressida dick, having toed the party line for so long was left with no wiggle room. Of course, she will now be thrown to the wolves (rightly) when it should be Patel who goes first (but she won't ever be called to account or take any responsibility). I wonder who'll take the poisoned police chalice when Dick goes?

The important thing now though, is to get the emphasis back on to women's safety. I wonder how this can be done after this absolutely stinking dead cat has been slammed on the table and poisoned the atmosphere!

how do you imagine the police could have better managed the anti-police disruptors

I believe there was a series of missteps from an organisational perspective. All the reports I've read from women attending the event said that even those who hijacked it were behaving peacefully (drums or not) until the police kettled them. They made a decision to turn the event into one of public disorder. Why?

Hoodathunkit got it in one I think.

Well done.

Oh FFS. How do you get a refund from JG, is it possible?

The most concerning issue for me, had I made a donation, would be about the harvesting of personal information by a secretive organisation.

Request a refund and you risk having further data about your GC status harvested.

It is very upsetting to me that the event was astrotufed. It seems very disrespectful to Sarah and her family and loved ones.

I'm running late but have some material to share later re this network

The Met have been played and were played because they have massive blindspots and areas of stupidity and some of these were exploited. The media are currently being played, being handed a simple narrative that is digestible to the audience. What a terrible mess.

Most of all though, what happened to Sarah Everard and what could be done in response is being completely drowned out and will be for some time. Will the arc in the media be: worrying news-worst outcome-soul searching-row-punch up on the Common-what's the next story?

They made a decision to turn the event into one of public disorder. Why?

Because the event had been hijacked
Because people were still arriving
Because it had be done so crowded that people were packed in closely and large areas were becoming impassable
Because singing/shouting is a Covid risk
Because initial requests to start dispersing were ignored

There was no overt policing for nearly all of yesterday and there has been none today, even though there is a constant stream

And I would dispute there was any kettling as the northern side of the protest (for that is what it was by that stage) open

Apology - This is somewhat off thread, but the Government survey on violence against women has been reopened if anyone missed the opportunity to complete it, and would like to now. Closes on 26th March

www.gov.uk/government/consultations/violence-against-women-and-girls-vawg-call-for-evidence