Carolyn Farrow taken to police station

[ScreamingMeMe]

Long twitter thread here. She's had her electronic devices seized too, and has been accused of being certain posters on Kiwi Farms and Mumsnet

@BernardBlacksWineIceLolly and @BreakWindandFire sorry to tag you but she's been accused of being you!

We all know who this will be, but as Caroline says, please don't speculate/discuss them.

twitter.com/CF_Farrow/status/1577092705154666496?t=Cv7tRv3YdqIogpXT_MSwZQ&s=19

That’s horrendous and terrifying in equal Measure. I don’t understand what is happening for the police to do this. Surely it’d not normal to arrest anyone without having any evidence. It would be bad enough if they turned up and asked for a voluntary chat, but to drag someone off to the station without any evidence, presumably based on a report from another individual, is insanity.

How can they arrest someone based on having a username on a non UK, non US even based char forum which supposedly doesnt even exist anymore? Even being on Mumsnet. So what? It's moderated.

It does exist, I've just been looking at the memes.

She said helpfully.

The core thing here is, is this a good use of police time?
Or in fact is it damaging the police?
So sick of this shit.

This was tweeted earlier today.
I suspect the police might have been befuddled with some unusual reading of the law.
I do hope there will be consequences 😡

The police aren’t “allowing themselves to be used”.

They are complicit, willing participants in the MRA movement, seeing the harassment of women as one of the perks of the job. The “profession”, by nature, attracts power-crazed, abusive types.

There's obviously stuff going on which I have missed.

1. I thought police had right of entry only with a warrant, or in immediate need.
2. I thought a warrant had to be obtained from a judicial personage such as a magistrate. What was this person told and why did he (guess here) accede to it?
3. Who had authorised the arrest, and what for in the absence of evidence.?

This is very scarey, and why to the perpetrators get away scot free?

The police should be utterly ashamed of how they’re being used here. Not for the first time.

I hope this can be the catalyst for a sorely needed inquiry into how harassers and abusers weaponise the cops against women.

Saw her thread on twitter. I hope faircop are onto it because it's a disgrace. "Fortunate" in a way they pick on someone who has literally nothing to hide and nothing hidden. But poor Caroline! They are not actually entitled to break into her house without a warrant are they? She ought to be able to sue or something. I hope she's got her devices back (but doubt she has).

This is horrendous and absolutely terrifying. Poor Caroline. Is this really the world we are living in today? A modern day Salem or a police state where you can be arrested for wrong think?

Haven't the police been warned to stop doing this and start investigating robberies, assaults, rapes etc?
Despite the regular cries of "underfunding" they seem to have plenty of resources to police people's opinions!!

If the Police believe her posts on mumsnet are a criminal offence why are they not finding the ID of posters from MN via IP address? This is bizarre and terrifying.

For the uninitiated, the person targeting Caro has been at this a fair old while, she's had years of this.

So much so that she logs where she is at the time of certain postings on a certain website so that she can prove it isn't her.

So all they really had to do was ask where she was on whatever date at whatever time, she has all the logs if they actually just asked for them.

Now they have all her passwords so can see everything across her emails and social media.

I am not a friend of hers at all, but nobody deserves the harassment and abuse that she has undergone for the last several years.

A story not involving the usual topic, but policing of this sort. University professor complained about his cul-de-sac being blocked off by drug dealers. Had his house searched and his computer removed, to be returned trashed. I hope his work was backed up. An elderly female neighbour had also complained, was taken to the station, and whatever she was accused of so appalled her that she wouldn't tell anyone what it was. Let go afterwards.
Not so much the Stasi as the Mafia.

How can they just take all her devices without permission? Or enter her house without permission?

What would happen if she had posted a cartoon on KF? Or if she did have a secret Mumsnet identity? Those things aren’t illegal quite aside from the fact that she didn’t do them!

The cops involved in this need criminal prosecution or failing that some kind of civil lawsuit where they are personally held accountable. Obviously repeated telling off from judges is not enough to stop this shit. They can’t keep hiding behind “only doing my job”, this isn’t their fucking job and there has to be some accountability.

So this is where we are.

Terrifying.

The above, I realise, is a couple of decades back.

Oh I'm sure a certain poster will be along shortly to tell us this isn't much of a problem, there's probably more to the story and actually most of their time is spent on safeguarding...

When Caroline posts in here, she's pretty open that it's it's her.

This is appalling. Poor Caroline. The person who did this should be in prison for harassment and the police involved should be sacked.

They can’t keep hiding behind “only doing my job”, this isn’t their fucking job and there has to be some accountability.

Yes!

The police have entirely lost my trust as a direct result of their behaviour towards women. This is just one aspect of their deeply ingrained institutional misogyny.

Absolutely FUCKING OUTRAGEOUS. The police- what are they thinking?

It just proves that Hate crime legislation isn’t fit for purpose, that it is being used maliciously, it needs to be scrapped.

May I ask what this is all about? I just read the Twitter feed.

is it about criticising the Trans community or something?

I thought a court had decided that free speech was allowed over beliefs regarding sexual identity?

The police and the CPS have agreed the following definition for identifying and flagging hate crimes:

"Any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice, based on a person's disability or perceived disability; race or perceived race; or religion or perceived religion; or sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation or transgender identity or perceived transgender identity."

There is no legal definition of hostility so we use the everyday understanding of the word which includes ill-will, spite, contempt, prejudice, unfriendliness, antagonism, resentment and dislike.