Treatment of a Woman by Metropolitan Police

[LuluBlakey1]

I can barely believe the shocking article I have just read.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/24/met-apologises-to-academic-for-sexist-derogatory-language?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

To summarise:
For no reason other than she handed a 15 year old boy who was being arrested in a Stop and Search a card where he could ring the number to get legal advice, this woman was:
1.Arrested. (a court later said she had done nothing wrong) She refused to give police her name. She was taken to Stoke Newington Station

1. A Metropolitan Police Custody Sergeant, Kurtis Howard, gave orders for her to be strip searched .
2. CCTV shows him telling officers to show her “resistance is futile” and to search her “by any means necessary”. “Treat her like a terrorist,” he says. “I don’t care.”
3. In a cell, three female officers bound her by her hands and feet, pinned her to the floor and cut her clothes off with scissors. She described the ordeal, which left her with a number of visible injuries, as like a sexual assault.
4. Other male officers made remarks about the smell of her body and underwear, saying she was dirty and stank. The female officers made rude remarks alluding to the amount of her pubic hair. They discussed her needing fumigating, her clothes being filthy.
5. CCTV shows them taunting her while she is in a cell

The Met have lied about this and denied this behaviour for years when she complained. She has pursued the complaint relentlessly through solicitors and eventually the CCTV has been provided which has confirmed everything she said was true. It has taken 9 years to reach this point. Today they apologised.

Re:the strip search- In 2018 Kurt Howard appeared before a Metropolitan Police disciplinary panel, which cleared him of gross misconduct. He argued the search was necessary to assess any risk Duff might pose to herself, ('for her own mental health' was the phrase) and its chair concluded his actions were those of a responsible officer.

The Met are refusing to confirm if any officer has been disciplined.

The woman is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Nottingham University. She has had the resilience to pursue this for years and has eventually won her case. But:
a) How many times does this happen and women just put up with it?
b) How the fuck did the Met Police disciplinary committee conclude that Kurtis Howard's actions were 'those of a responsible officer'?
c) 3 of these officers were women- how disgusting is that?
d) Why are the Met being allowed to refuse to say whether anyone has been disciplined - they should ALL have been sacked.

No woman can expect to be safe with the Met. I truly believe that. There have been terrible examples in the last 18 months which show misogyny is absolutely endemic and accepted in the Met as part of how it operates. I can not remember being so upset by something - these are not weirdo officers carrying out an act alone on a street like Wayne Couzeyns. These are a group of 6 officers including a custody sergeant carrying out this assault and abuse in a police station.

I am writing to Cressida Dick about it- I will let you know if I get a reply.
I am writing to Pritti Patel (waste of time I know).
I am writing to Keir Starmer - I will let you know if I get a reply.
I am writing to my MP to ask him to raise this in the HoC - just because I have no idea what else to do.
Any ideas welcome.

I read this this morning and have been haunted by it all day. I can't imagine having to live through it - or perhaps I can and that's the problem.

I was wondering today who is in charge of police training - is it the government? Are there private organisations or perhaps the police themselves? When you listen to Laura Richard's Crime Analyst podcast it's blatantly obvious that this deep, sickening hatred of women is baked into the institution. It's not just The Met (as we saw in Newport just this week).

Maybe it's not every officer, but there's a pattern of condoning sexist behaviours of all degrees of severity across the forces.

This "incident" was gratuitous, deliberate assault. And nobody has been suspended? They should all have been fired and the female officers charged with sexual assault, with the senior officer too charged for encouraging it to happen.

And they want us to come to them when we've been raped, our partner is coercively controlling us or we in some way feel threatened? The police are not a safe haven. They haven't been probably ever, but it's now become glaringly obvious.

The Met is the same force responsible for the spy cops scandal, as well

open.spotify.com/episode/1wp2oRPBx1En4qZNvHoyQZ?si=wFFkd1LlSJiaSLKG_hmG9w&utm_source=copy-link

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/25/activist-deceived-relationship-met-police-officer-wins-compensation-kate-wilson

Not a lot makes my jaw drop these days but I found this incredibly distressing. I'm a policeman's daughter (and daughter-in-law, neither in the met but my cousin is), my dad would've been utterly horrified by this story

This is horrible. Add to it the news that the man who stabbed his ex this morning in Maida Vale had been reported to the police numerous times for beating her up, but nothing had happened.

What an amazing woman. Its terrifying, she is strong and in respected position so when she speaks people listen. How many vulnerable woman has this happened to who can't shout up? This is why her voice is so important, she is shouting on behalf of women who cannot.

Woman's Hour interview with Dr Duff this morning. Starts just after 10.02am if you're on catch up. Jawdropping. What a strong woman she is, to have pursued this to the bitter end. I can totally understand why most people give up early on and we never hear about similar cases.

Horrific interview ..at length ..with Emma Barnett on Womans Hour this morning .

@ginandbearit

Horrific interview ..at length ..with Emma Barnett on Womans Hour this morning .

I had to switch it off. It was too upsetting...

Telling that at the end of the interview Emma read out some reader responses. One recently retired Met officer saying the Met seemed to have changed to something s/he didn't recognise any more, but another woman saying a very similar incident happened to her in 1982. Inevitably an apologist there too saying she brought it on herself. No, she didn't. It is not the hallmark of a civilised society to have a police force whose officers are incapable of dealing with stroppy people who know their rights without resorting to violence, humiliation, false imprisonment and false charges against them.

@PermanentTemporary

I genuinely believe that Thames Valley Police aren't like this. Am I naive or is their culture better? What could change?

Naive. It speaks to police culture as a whole.

If it took someone in a relative position of power* within society a decade of their life fighting just to get an apology for an abuse like this - but no actual disciplinary action - what do you think happens to vulnerable and disenfranchised people being abused by the police?

A decade just to shine some light on it.

Those abusive officers are still in post continuing to perpetrate abuse with the endorsement of their institution.

*power in terms of profession, connections, status, not having the kinds of vulnerabilities that would have meant the media ignored her story as "not credible" (e.g. pre-existing mental illness), etc etc

I think we need to push for a review of the decision that there was no misconduct - as the police behaviour was completely out of proportion to risks- we need this in order to maintain our trust in police from a woman’s perspective

@Mamajunebugjones

I think we need to push for a review of the decision that there was no misconduct - as the police behaviour was completely out of proportion to risks- we need this in order to maintain our trust in police from a woman’s perspective

We have no power to do that.

This wasn't an isolated incident, so getting rid of those responsible wouldn't even change anything either.

Suspect you are naive honestly.

However I had a job where we had to deal with several police forces, and the rudest most selfish and vile behaviour was from Met officers. Closely followed by West Yorkshire Police.

Don’t think I am naive - suspect this is wide spread and can imagine fits is totally with macho police culture. But there is clear need to do something- what about a petition - with the poor lady’s agreement looking for a review?

There will also be ways of escalating review of judgements- but will probably require her desire to this- and if re- traumatising - maybe not be in HER best interest- even if would serve us all better to look at this. Almost needs a macpherson type review but into misogyny by police

Fucking awful. This is sexual humiliation and degradation, and this is probably not at all unusual.

@ThatWasntAFunJob

Suspect you are naive honestly.

However I had a job where we had to deal with several police forces, and the rudest most selfish and vile behaviour was from Met officers. Closely followed by West Yorkshire Police.

West Yorkshire Police doesn't surprise me either.

@ThatWasntAFunJob

Suspect you are naive honestly.

However I had a job where we had to deal with several police forces, and the rudest most selfish and vile behaviour was from Met officers. Closely followed by West Yorkshire Police.

This is weird. If you had asked me to guess which two forces were worst, I would have predicted the Met and West Yorks...

Looks like the investigation IS ongoing and open - if this article is correct - it’s the Mail. She’s done so well in persisting to hold the police to account. Outcome of the judicial review appears surprising though - perhaps might be have been different if the CCTV footage had been available

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10453691/Cambridge-graduate-recalls-clothes-cut-officers-intervening-stop-search.html

The fight in itself to get the CCTV is in itself a story. Perhaps the police need to have a duty of candour like the NHS.

@Mamajunebugjones

The fight in itself to get the CCTV is in itself a story. Perhaps the police need to have a duty of candour like the NHS.

Have you seen how the NHS responds when it kills patients? The two women who were suspected to have been infected with herpes by their surgeon and subsequently died after giving birth? Where the NHS claimed to be unaware of any connection and buried it until the families fought and managed to bring it into public view through media - so only now is inquest planned?

So many other cases. I'm not sure NHS is any better, whatever duties may on paper apply.

That case sounds appalling- I did read about it. I know some NHS trusts do take this seriously though.
Just trying to think of solutions - what do you think might help?

The police have refused to disclose to me footage of me doing an entirely innocent act despite me putting in a foi request. Said footage had been put to me when I was interviewed under caution. The officer had tried to goad me into talking by saying it showed me doing something it manifestly did not. I was then charged with a crime and the emails between officers say I was very upset and therefore might plead guilty. The complainant was an abusive police officer in that force.

I lawyered up and the CPS stopped the case but the answer to my foi request says that I “had my chance” at the interview to comment on this tape. This is obviously nonsensical but my police record still shows the lie.

That was two years ago.

Sorry, pressed send too soon. Would this woman’s success help me now do you think?

Thames Valley police had their own misogyny scandal 40 years ago when they "persuaded" a woman to drop her rape accusation:

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09lqp6t

I remember the almighty fall-out from that and I believe they addressed a number of issues. A friend of mine worked there as a police officer and said quite a few of their procedures had been changed.

No idea what it's like now, though.