Sinèad Watson was detained for tweeting

[Imnobody4]

Just seen this by Sinèad's lawyer. Don't know anymore than this, sounds par for the course unfortunately.

https://twitter.com/AlexandrTheOkay/status/1798811587802783918?t=vEKv8-1P1B256A_S1DcPGg&s=19

Someone at @PSOSGreaterGlas needs to answer for the absurd, inhumane protocols you have set up. You need a complete policy revamp and whoever came up with your current procedures needs to be fired.

Sinèad Watson was detained for tweeting, for speech. For typing characters into a text box. Her phone was taken. She was arrested. She was handcuffed. She was put in a dirty cell. She was not given feminine products and made to sit in her own menstrual blood for 3 hours.

For what? She is under suspicion of "malicious communication online." Not a violent crime. Not a crime that has anything to do with the content of her cell phone. All of Sinead's purportedly illegal tweets are/were public at the time of her arrest. There is NOTHING on her cell phone that has anything to do with them. This is a violation of her privacy to embark on a fishing expedition for unrelated evidence.

Put aside the obvious free speech violation, because I get that not every country feels the same way (but it is a violation of her God-given rights to charge her with this absurd thought crime). Even IF you believe that tweets are illegal, the way she was handled and processed is completely unnecessary, unsafe, and dehumanizing.

Someone needs to lose their job. Sinèad is owed a massive public apology for what happened to her at a BARE minimum.

there are hateful "memes" doing the rounds on twitter including one what's presumably an offensive caricature of a trans woman who is being hanged with the caption "pronouns: was/been". There's definitely an increase of that sort of thing since it was bought by Elon Musk. Any opinion on that?

I distinctly remember a lovely meme produced by TRAs showing a hanged woman with the words TERF under it. Also many, many, many other vile memes produced by TRAs all threatening death and violence to women who disagree with them all allowed not only to stand but to flourish under the previous owners of Twitter. Your opinion on that @Christinapple is?

Yes I remember that meme.

I remember the ‘punch a TERF in the face’ t- shirts and posters too. Tbh there is a lot worse on Twitter regarding inciting rape with spiked objects and killings of ‘Terfs’.

But a detransitioner airing her views after grossly mistreated by medical professionals, serious mental health issues and bombarded by hate of TRA and she gets arrested.

If there is a crowd funder for legal costs I’ll be contributing

@Christinapple , why would you ask us to condone any of that, perhaps you meant condem?

@GailBlancheViola nobody's saying that's ok though.
So much whataboutery.

@ArabellaScott

Actually, the reality is that ‘innocent until proven guilty’ is just not true. Slightly/massively off tangent here but I write as someone who was arrested, detained in custody for 21 hours and then interviewed under caution. Because my adopted teenage daughter, who has significant mental health issues, made a false allegation of assault against me. The police decided ‘no further action’ but children’s social care began an investigation under child protection proceedings. My life has been utter hell for the past five months; I don’t think I will ever recover. Plenty of people genuinely believe that there is no smoke without fire.

Just to emphasise the indignity; I am menopausal so I didn’t have to test the access to sanitary products. However, every time I needed to use the (lidless and seatless) lavatory in my cell, I had to press a bell to ask for toilet roll to be handed through the hatch. There was no sink for hand washing and I was mocked for asking to be allowed out of my cell to wash my hands every time I used the loo. Which, like every part of my cell, was under CCTV surveillance. I would never wish such an absolutely horrific experience on my worst enemy. I have been left with PTSD. I understand why my adopted daughter made the false allegation - because she is severely mentally damaged by her early experiences - but I consider anyone else who would seek to have another person arrested, incarcerated and subjected to humiliating procedures (DNA swabs/mug shots/finger printing) on the grounds of a disagreement of opinion as unspeakably cruel. There is no feeling of panic like the sensation when that heavy cell door is locked and you are left in an airless and windowless room with no concept of the world and weather outside nor the passing of time.

I consider anyone else who would seek to have another person arrested, incarcerated and subjected to humiliating procedures (DNA swabs/mug shots/finger printing) on the grounds of a disagreement of opinion as unspeakably cruel.

I'm afraid there are people who are that cruel. Years ago I watched The Nazis - A Warning From History. It was the Gestapo episode. They didn't have an agent listening to each house - the vast majority of their work came from denunciations.

“CP? You mean child sex abuse ? There is no such thing as 'child porn'. Are you sure you have any understanding of feminism?”

@Helleofabore I’m on your side, but the man in question is an American and “child pornography” is in fact the correct legal term in the US.

I don’t understand what’s supposed to be wrong about using the term “child pornography.” It’s pornography, made to appeal to erotic interests, and it’s made with children. I’ve heard people say, “Calling it pornography gives the impression that the children consented,” which I think is ridiculous. We acknowledge in other contexts that pornography isn’t always made consensually.

Terms like “child sexual abuse material” are accurate, but they’re also unwieldy (six syllables versus eleven), and I feel like the ideology behind the terminology is that we won’t understand that using children in pornography is abusive unless we change the terminology. And most people are not that stupid.

Are they not? I have seen far too many excuses and justifications on here regarding the threats both verbally and physically from TRAs and their allies towards women to believe that.

It's not whataboutery, I was responding to comments on this thread by a particular poster who again was justifying the treatment of Sinead Watson and all other women who dare to disagree with TRAs and their allies or express a contrary opinion.

Your own first comment on this thread which detailed the degrading, dehumanising, disdainful treatment of a woman by the Police in the opening post and how did you choose to respond? Ah yes, by making a sneery snide comment reeking of victim blaming and trivialising what had happened to her. Of course you then tried to backtrack as you always do.

GoodAfternoonGoodEveningAndGoodnight · Today 11:09

Not sure what this shigami eyes thing referred to is but yes you can read tweets from people who you have blocked on Twitter.

If only you hadn't had a comprehensionectomy. If only you had the ability to read an entire, short post.

I'm so sorry to hear that. I've heard people say that police custody is far, far worse than prison. I hope your ordeal is over, and I hope you're able to heal.

I knew there was no presumption of innocence in things like TV licenses, speeding and so on. I never thought about it much beyond that, didn't want to go there.

@WhompingWillows

“We acknowledge in other contexts that pornography isn’t always made consensually.”

Wouldn’t any content of adults made public they did not consent to also be consider sex abuse material? While you disagree with the opinion that, “Calling it pornography gives the impression that the children consented,” I most certainly agree with it.

It is your personal choice to call it whatever you want. You can reject or accept the terms you wish to use.

However, differentiating between content released with full consent and that that is not consensual is vital to fight the abuse, the rapes and the assaults. Just because the final outcome is the entertainment of others, doesn’t mean that hiding sexual abuse and rape behind the term ‘pornography’ is appropriate.

The point is also moot if the poster is not based in the USA. I don’t believe that they are. So regardless of whether the article was about a person from the USA or not, the poster chose to use the term thereby dismissing the horror that is child sex abuse.

WhompingWillows 💐💐💐
I'm so sorry, I hope you & your daughter are both getting the (very different) help you need.

You claimed there was “no such thing as child porn.” Child pornography is a legal term in the United States, and the man mentioned, who’s an American, was prosecuted for possessing it. It’s not incorrect to use the legal terminology of another country if you’re talking about a prosecution in that country.

Re: porn equaling consent, no one calls “Deep Throat” “sex abuse material,” even though Linda Lovelace alleged she was forced and coerced during filming. Sexual photographs or videos released without someone’s consent are known as “revenge porn.” Correct me if I’m wrong, but if I understand correctly, Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 in the UK talks about “extreme pornographic images,” and uses the term “pornography” whether or not the participants consented. There is not some universally-held understanding that pornography is always made with consenting participants.

Thank you, that’s kind. I must say that the vast majority of custody and police officers I met while in custody were exceptionally kind. The issue for me is that deprivation of liberty is so easy for others to achieve, on the basis of a few lies/angry words.

If you choose to accept that terminology that is your choice. Even if it is the legal terminology, you as private citizen can choose to call it whatever you wish in your own communication such as on a feminism board with the majority of users living in the UK.

As we are only now beginning to understand the pornography issues and impacts around the world, I hope that in the decades to come the language used around categorising the content may change across the word to reflect the truth. In the meantime, I will choose to call out the use of the term, particularly regarding child sex abuse, here.

The issue isn’t what you’re calling it, it’s you pouncing on someone else for talking about a criminal case on another country and using that country’s terminology, to the point of telling her that there’s “no such thing.” There is. Whether you like it or not, “child pornography” is a legitimate, defined legal term in the US, and I think it’s poor behavior to come after someone for using a common legal term as though it’s heinously, unusually offensive for her to do so.

Are you missing the entire point of what that poster was attempting to do with that article in the first place? You and I arguing about the terminology is beside the point and while you feel it is an important conversation, I don’t. Only partly because I am not in the USA, and I doubt that the poster who posted it is in the USA, and this is a UK site used by the majority of people based in the UK.

Also because the article is being used falsely to show that feminists should have to ‘call out’ the behaviour of some random criminal because that man protested a drag event. Of course, that poster also did this in a ludicrous attempt to force team feminists with neo-Nazis.

That was in response to me pointing out that the poster who had a prejudiced view of the discussions on this board as per a previous post that day, had just misogynistically accused a woman of misusing her situation to gain undue sympathy.

So, I consider whether you and I will ever agree to be irrelevant to the point that poster and my response. And we can go around in circles about language usage, but it will lead nowhere except to derail this thread about Sinead and the general treatment of female people in prison.

I think many of us on this board have a firm understanding of exactly how harmful legal terminology can be when it doesn’t reflect the reality of the full and objective truth.

I too want to offer my sympathy here WhompingWillows. That was hard to read but so important.

Yes, for sure. As has been noted, there is bugger all help for the falsely accused, and it's easy to abuse the system to punish someone.

I understand the counter arguments, but there's also the depressing reality that 'justice' is very uneven, unequally applied, and often makes mistakes.