Jennifer Swayne arrested for stickering.

[Thelnebriati]

Jennifer Swayne has been arrested on charges of vandalism, ‘hate crimes’ and public order offences. Police searched her house and removed several sheets of stickers.

twitter.com/WeAreFairCop/status/1485304357293891588

Have anyone out in a FOI request to find out about the relationship between Gwent Police and Stonewall?

So I can't say anything or do anything, my hands are tied, my mouth is gagged, but me and many women are watching this unfold. We have to and do maintain a neutral opinion, or our jobs are gone.

But we silently watch from the sides.

Also the "ACAB". "ACAB Except When I Call Them About Other People Protesting"?

I finally had to Google that. And now I know it's not the usual Assigned [C word we don't use] At Birth phrase.

""free speech, free protest, free people" I think that's "free press" (the last two letters are reversed). Doesn't clear anything up but I'm reluctant to misrepresent them.

You're right, I mistyped. It's definitely "free press"!

Also the "ACAB". "ACAB Except When I Call Them About Other People Protesting"?

As always

@ItsCoachBombay

So I can't say anything or do anything, my hands are tied, my mouth is gagged, but me and many women are watching this unfold. We have to and do maintain a neutral opinion, or our jobs are gone.

But we silently watch from the sides.

But you CAN support women who are out there pushing back just by reading what’s going on and commenting on here. We can only do what we can, when we can.

finally had to Google that. And now I know it's not the usual Assigned [C word we don't use] At Birth phrase.

I can't help reading it as Assigned Cop at Birth

Why are there pills in the library phone box? They look like Fluoxetine

@Femisaurus

Why are there pills in the library phone box? They look like Fluoxetine

They had an ambitious plan to not only turn the phone box into a community library, but also a first-aid point, place to collect sanitary products, and place to deposit used needles. That may be why the tablets are visible.

Ah yes, a precariously-positioned sharps box. Just what every community library needs. Its positioning does mean that no wheelchair-user will end up with a lap full of sharps; but that’s not much of a silver lining.

Presumably it was placed there with the idea of providing a safe sharps disposal facility for local IV drug users. If so & there IS an accident, not only will there be an injured individual (no sign of first aid supplies; hopefully instructions on treating needle stick injury are just not visible rather than absent) they could contract multiple blood-borne infections. It’s very likely that any such injury would be sustained by a toddler/young child - which is more likely depends on height of box. (Animals accompanying a human into the space also at high risk.)

If there is a local IVDU population of sufficient size to warrant providing a safe disposal site for sharps then the box is of insufficient size. Provision of a sharps box that is too small is likely to result in attempts to overfill it + used sharps being dumped in & around the community library. If the sharps box is one that was prescribed for an individual repurposing it in this way is utterly inappropriate.

IVDUs need clean sharps as well as safe sharp disposal; obviously the library cannot provide the former. There are, however, multiple needle exchanges in Cardiff.

Individuals who self-harm are known (in some cases) to extract items from sharps bins to allow them engage in self-injurious behaviour. This is dangerous enough in healthcare settings; with a sharps bin from a phonebooth library? The consequences could be far more severe than the individual engaged in DSI intends.

The absolutely shocking arrogance to do this. Do we know if their library provides other “services”?

I don't know. There was a discussion here, where various users on twitter raised similar concerns about the sharps bin.

twitter.com/genderisharmful/status/1428075764457648129?t=OEfv6GYXvNBAG8QUA7A9bw&s=19

FWIW, I think the community library, sanitary towels stash, and a stock of plasters is a lovely thing to set up. But I also think any sharps bin in the same place is a recipe for disaster. The bin will end up over-full, and it would be far too easy for some child to put his or her hand on a used needle while rummaging around for a book.

Or an adult, come to that. I wouldn't want to squeeze into a cluttered cupboard containing a possibly overflowing sharps bin without wearing safety boots and thick gloves, as a minimum. I can very easily see a multitude of ways in which a quick stoop to look at the bottom shelf ends with you grazing against the pointy end of a fallen needle.

Thanks Purgatory, that link was really helpful.

I am very much in favour of community libraries: access to books is so so important; & this model allows literally everyone able to get to & from a CL to borrow any appropriate material they may have.

I also think there should be lots more public access defibrillators in the UK - but NOT inside a cramped phonebox library! I know about the heartbeat scheme that’s exchanging for AEDs for phones - but the point is precisely that they’d be easily findable because time is of the essence. You can’t be having someone needing to negotiate the library queue & potentially even clear away clutter (which maintainers of library can’t guarantee wouldn’t build up between their visits) to get to the defib when it’s needed.

Combining the library with the “safe” sharps disposal, “first aid station” & providing period products seems to me like they’re trying to run some kind of (unstaffed?) community hub out of the phonebox. If it were a TARDIS they’d have enough space, but as it is they don’t. Would be interested to know about organisers’ first aid qualifications & provisions planned there - even things as simple as responsibility for the inventory & restocking. WRT period products, I don’t see how they could stock an amount that would function other than as “oops caught short” without someone taking the whole supply - which most people wouldn’t. There are also free period products (including reusables!) available from multiple sources for women & girls in Cardiff, so as with the sharps they’re replicating the work of other agencies, but inefficiently. It just seems more like a vanity project/way to validate any claims organisers might make to be activists &/or community organisers &/or pivotal in provision mutual aid (etc). The resources, other than the library, are not real (as it were) & may actually prevent the library reaching its full potential.

(If anyone’s wondering why I’m not enraged about the tablets that were in the photo, that’s because I have, for sanity-maintenance purposes, to believe, that they were just put down for a moment while the photo was taken…)

In the Times today:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/aaa8ead4-7ee9-11ec-8532-85a58274df7c?shareToken=3f98650d15e518ea53db325b98696253

@PurgatoryOfPotholes

This is a picture of a broken phonebox which the good individual from Cardiff has been decorating and turning into a community library. A noble endeavour but I am intrigued what message is intended by the "free speech, free protest, free people" poster placed on the exterior of the phone box.

Also the "ACAB". "ACAB Except When I Call Them About Other People Protesting"?

Did they have permission to do that? Where I live any remaining red phone boxes are preserved.

By which I mean not painted on and made to look a fucking mess.

Wow those comments in the times. And they didn’t even report on the manhandling and medication. Or the little twerps lying about there being glad and pins under the stickers, or them then proudly posting on twitter that they were off to sticker the area with anti women material.

The force said that it was required to respond when members of the public reported they were offended by posters.

We clearly aren't reporting the stfu posters as offensive enough.

I look forward to hearing how on Earth the police twist this as being a crime.

They didn't even add that she had to drive her mobility scooter home at 3:30

(If anyone’s wondering why I’m not enraged about the tablets that were in the photo, that’s because I have, for sanity-maintenance purposes, to believe, that they were just put down for a moment while the photo was taken…)

I am also choosing to believe the tablets visible are solely for personal use and were fished out of a pocket with someone's smartphone and temporarily put down on the nearest surface while the photo was taken.

Time for the womyn of Gwent to start making complaints to the police about stickers and other material that is gynephobic, misogynist and threatening to those who are female. I’m sure we could muster more than six different complaints.

[quote Igneococcus]In the Times today:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/aaa8ead4-7ee9-11ec-8532-85a58274df7c?shareToken=3f98650d15e518ea53db325b98696253[/quote]
It's the Mail too.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10446037/Disabled-campaigner-womens-rights-arrested-hate-crime.html

Her other posters said that women were in danger in prisons from transgender sex offenders and called for “no men in women’s prisons”.

Does anyone know if the posters actually claimed female prison inmates were in danger from trans inmates or was it simply "no men in women's prisons"?

It makes no difference to me but it would be interesting to know if the posters were as the Time claims or this is yet another example of women rights being framed as anti trans. You might think it was evidence of a conflict of rights but the powers that be never seem to frame trans rights as anti women.

The Times article feels a bit odd as the journalist strives for what they think is balance.

The images I've seen say just no men in prisons

She doesn't add lots of other info.