Feedback on Complaint to Police re Standing for XX Bristol Event

[ScreamingMeMe]

twitter.com/VikkiLax1/status/1562761908372901890?t=lzlJhwTmM0iSpX2wxFfLlQ&s=19

Like many women I complained to A&S police following the @StandingforXX speakers corner in Bristol in June. My complaint was included in the information presented to a new Public Order Scrutiny panel which sat last month...

Feedback and observations made by the panel which I am advised will be used by the force as learning opportunities include the following (feedback begins in next tweet).

Women were stopped from voicing their opinions due to intimidation from counter protest group Trust in the police is at an all time low especially in women this comes from Sarah Everard,but also violence against women from police and
males and how it’s dealt with institutionally

The wearing of rainbow lanyards doesn’t show that the police are impartial, whilst no one present felt offended by this, it brought into question from the panel if we were impartial in the context of this event.

Consideration should be given to the fact ethnicity was not a higher priority, maybe this is something that could be taught to officers during training.

The Equality Act is also not widely featured in powers and policies and is a second to ECHR in the panels view. Consider this as an area for command training

Women’s rights get pushed to the bottom end, and it felt as though the speaker’s corner were asked to leave and move away. The whole point of the speaker’s
corner was to get women’s voices heard, and the police helped to prevent this being the case.

Cameras in faces of women who have attended - can result in job loss for supporting certain causes, therefore the counter-protest made them feel very

uncomfortable. Discussion around our BWV and how it can be used were had.

TERF term was used a lot which is provocative towards women. Kelly J Keen, one of the speakers, has a large following of women who do not want to be silenced.

The topic around trans rights in the world is quite heated, prepare for the worst in planning a policing response, not to have officers visibly there necessarily, but on
standby.

Discussions took place around appetite for risk in resource planning and the possible push back from Gold Commanders if we think we are over resourcing our contingency.

We could have predicted the numbers from information they had from social media - our intel was not good regarding numbers and needs to be better.

Intel
from Manchester event wasn’t accurate it was not ‘peaceful’. The police may
have said it was peaceful as our understanding of that term is different to the wider public. What we call tension in the disorder model can be really scary for those present.

The media called the speakers corner a protest and this has caused offence to the speaker’s corner who were not protesting, just talking. Agreement that the opposing party was a counter-protest.

It was felt that the Women’s corner was not a priority for the police – police are there to protect people from violence not to protect freedom of speech.

Had the officers seen the women getting pushed in Manchester, we are unsure if those present had, they would understand the people who were there were probably scared this will happen to them. (End of feedback)

I will tweet separately the feedback in relation to comment regarding body warn video (BMW). Whilst I commend A&S police for the setting up the panel I am most concerned that they quite clearly did not consider previous events in Manchester
properly - this is very concerning.

Thread about the event, and the protesters

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4572131-standing-for-women-bristol?page=1

More:

twitter.com/VikkiLax1/status/1562819592111935490?t=iQoq5mn8mHkGdT0eeFEZXA&s=19

To ensure balance and fairness the following are the points that the public scrutiny panel noted in response to the @StandingforXX event in Bristol. I commend A&S Police for holding this panel, but I feel the views of the panel show that preparation for the event was poor and policing on the day also poor and put women & girls at avoidable and unnecessary risk.

Panel feedback begins -

"There are some key points above that will be fed into the command training for public order and be highlighted to the Operational Planning team for reminders to silver commanders.

The points are to be recorded in the policing event report and circulated. It was felt that the panel were confident to challenge the police and be constructively critical where they felt it necessary.

This was exactly what the police were trying to achieve through this process and sets a strong relationship foundation moving forward to develop this concept. The next meeting will draw out the learning with the extra attendees to recap the process and ideally find an independent chair. This will be linked to the public order open day on the 14th of September.

The police would like to put on record how grateful they are for those willing to support this panel and the positive engagement we have had which shows the huge opportunity this process can have on the policing of future events." (End)

Thanks for posting @ScreamingMeMe

Thanks @ScreamingMeMe

Alf Up A Tree recorded this video on the day, it really gives you a sense of the abuse and harassment:

But will they talk to Brighton and share their assessments for when we go there in September for Let Women Speak? When I wrote to Bristol I copied in Brighton to express my concerns.

Thanks for that video link @Ereshkigalangcleg, to Alf up a tree! and to @ScreamingMeMe It’s really good that you complained and brought some reflection on to the police actions. What a bunch of bullies those fake anarchists are!