The past few weeks have been rather unpleasant as an understatement. Sarah Everard, a woman who had been missing from south London had been found dead. The anger and disgust felt by many women about the lack of safety of women in Britain was only further fuelled by the fact that a policeman is alleged to have been her kidnapper and murderer. Wanting to do a socially distanced and masked outside memorial vigil in the evening at the place where she was last seen alive on CCTV, several women’s groups tried to negotiate with the police to allow the vigil to go forward and then were denied. Under threats of £10,000 fines each for the organisers, Reclaim these Streets cancelled the vigil and instead called for an online vigil and for people to put candles in front of their houses. Sisters Uncut, one of the groups participating in the organising committee, decided to go ahead with the protest on Clapham Common and while some larger protests elsewhere were cancelled, many women held small local socially distanced and masked vigils.
The police instead of standing there and letting a dignified memorial vigil go ahead, decided to break up the vigil and arrest the protestors. Pictures of police violently arresting women at a memorial vigil for a victim of femicide shocked people. I guess we should be thankful for that … The violent attack against a peaceful memorial vigil by the police lead to additional protests about the actions of the police themselves and calls for the resignation of Cressida Dick (the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police force) and questions over the role of the Home Office led by Priti Patel in wanting these vigils to be stopped.
Dick refused to apologise for the manner in which the police dealt with the vigil, hiding behind the Covid lockdown rules. Since the participants in the vigils wore masks and if the original vigil had been allowed it would have been socially distanced, the legitimacy of this argument is dubious as an understatement. The excellent work by Sisters Uncut including continuing protests and on-line educationals must be applauded as they linked together a whole series of current events happening in England.
Unfortunately, the use of fines to break up socially distanced protests has form. For example, on March 7th, a socially distanced and masked protest of 40 people was broken up in Manchester for violating Covid laws and the organiser Karen Reissmann fined £10,000. The protest was called by an NHS nurse infuriated by the pathetic 1% increase offered by the government for nurses; yes, clapping is cheaper, nurses (already underpaid and overworked) are being essentially offered a cut in pay due to inflation. The money to pay the fine was raised on line; but quite honestly, the fine should never have been levied in the first place.
These protests against the actions of the police at Clapham Common then began to be linked to a bill currently in its second reading in Parliament called the Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill which many civil and human rights organisations are concerned will have a serious impact on the right of assembly, protest and freedom of speech. The use of fines to break up small socially distanced protests under the cover of Covid Laws is already worrying.
The proposed bill gives both the police and the Home Office the ability to decide which protests can or cannot occur; this bill will survive the Coronvirus pandemic and came out as a response to both Extinction Rebellion and Black Lives Matter Protests in Britain. So, this is a bill whose targets are clearly protestors and whether these protests are allowed to happen depend on whether protestors are annoying or block roads and transport; there is no question who this bill is aimed at. But the right to assemble and protest are guaranteed by the adoption of the EC Human Rights Charter as British Law under Tony Blair; yes, the law that the Tories have been wanting to eliminate as part of leaving the EU (but they are part of British law) – dangerous things civil rights. Moreover, there are also very disturbing racist threats against Gypsies, Roma and Travellers in the bill threatening their way of life due to access to the countryside being seriously regulated which means that travellers will not legally be able to roam.
The penalties for protests are serious; in fact, we are looking at 10 year prison sentences for damaging a statue. Given the average sentence for rape is 3 years this should make people think perhaps there is something seriously wrong with the bill, but really what is more important violence against women or violence against a statue? Protection of property, of course; usually the state is a little bit more subtle about protecting property but that they brought this appalling bill for its second reading following police violence against a memorial vigil, says a lot about how completely oblivious the Tories are. Reading the government’s explanation of the reasons for and purpose of the bill and the discretion given to police and the Home Office to address protests while at the same time talking about the treasured right of protest and freedom expression would be laughable if the situation was not so dangerous. The continuing protests finally forced the Labour Party to actually vote against the bill (they were planning on abstaining) due to the obvious anger of protestors and demands by civil and human rights organisations. After passing its second reading, the bill has been delayed until later in the year due to the massive and ongoing protests. If you think that protests do not work; then you need to think again
Femicide and Violence Against Women and Girls
In the midst of all these protests against the Police, Crime, and Sentencing Bill, we must not forget the original vigil and the reasons for it. Moreover, we need to put the discussion in the context of femicide in Britain and around the world. Invariably, what becomes evident when looking at femicides around the world, it it is women of colour, indigenous women and marginalised women that are most often the victims.
Looking at the list of 24 women killed this year in London this year shows that this trend is not absent in Britain. One of the most significant problems in discussing femicide in Britain (the killing of women because they are women) is the manner of reporting of murders of women; they are reported individually rather than being examined as a trend as such the categorisation of murders of women statistically is not coherently organised to get a clear picture of the situation. While the majority of women killed happen in the home, women also are murdered by strangers outside of their home; according to The Guardian, 8% of women murdered are murdered by strangers. The Femicide Census (which is not being compiled by a government body) has documented the extent of femicide in the UK over a 10 year period. As reported in The Guardian:
“The problem of the state response goes much deeper than incomplete data, however. In reports on government strategy on violence against women and girls for 2010-2015 and 2016-2020, homicide was barely addressed and femicide was not named. In 2010 there was one mention of supporting the introduction of Domestic Homicide Reviews. In 2016 the killing of women and girls is confined to 2 lines, again only focusing on domestic homicide, ignoring the 35% of women, like Sarah, killed by men outside of the family.”
Moreover, we need to address the rise in violence against women during the lockdowns for the pandemic which is evident in many countries. In Britain, the Office of National Statistics documented the rise in domestic violence during the lockdown from March to June. While lockdowns attempted to reduce the spread of the pandemic; for many women the lockdown The largest percentage of violence against women occurs in the home; that is domestic violence.
“The police recorded 206,492 violence against the person offences flagged as domestic abuse-related between March and June 2020, a 9% increase compared with the same period in 2019. The number of offences flagged as domestic abuse-related in this period increased for all offence groups compared with the previous year, with the exception of sexual offences and other offences, which decreased by 3% and 6% respectively (ONS).”
In terms of domestic homicides during this period we see an increase again (as stated in The Guardian, this is one of the lines of reporting but the murder of women as a group is rarely documented in government and police reporting):
Provisional data show there were 64 domestic homicides recorded by the police in England and Wales between January and June 2020, of which 30 occurred in the period April to June (Appendix Table 3). This represents an increase in the number of domestic homicides recorded by the police compared with the same six-month period in the previous year, but a slight decrease compared with 2018 (ONS).
The statistics published by UN Women about increased violence against women and girls during the pandemic are shocking:
- Calls to helplines have increased five-fold in some countries as rates of reported intimate partner violence increase because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Restricted movement, social isolation, and economic insecurity are increasing women’s vulnerability to violence in the home around the world [2].
- By September 2020, 48 countries had integrated prevention and response to violence against women and girls into COVID-19 response plans, and 121 countries had adopted measures to strengthen services for women survivors of violence during the global crisis, but more efforts are urgently needed [3].
- 137 women are killed by a member of their family every day. It is estimated that of the 87,000 women who were intentionally killed in 2017 globally, more than half (50,000) were killed by intimate partners or family members. More than a third (30,000) of the women intentionally killed in 2017 were killed by their current or former intimate partner [4].
More Police?
Violence against women derives from the misogyny in our societies; it has not only been institutionalised, it is systemic. The calls for more police on the streets, increasing CCTV cameras (which are already located all over the country) and stiffer sentences which always follow murders, rapes and violence against women raise the obvious question whether this is the way to actually address the issue as it has been deeply unsuccessful. Do we need more laws empowering police or perhaps other ways to address systemic misogyny be more fruitful?
The reality is that the police, criminal justice system have the laws already in place and that has not stopped violence against women and girls, or increased rape and violence convictions. As reported in The Independent:
“Less than one in six female victims of rape in England and Wales reported the incident to police, new figures show.
Campaigners warn the dearth of victims coming forward stems from survivors fearing the criminal justice process will be a “humiliating and traumatising experience” and knowing the chances of securing justice are low due to dwindling prosecution rates.”
Then of course, there are the police themselves. The overwhelming majority of police are men and they work in a culture of “toxic masculinity” which impacts the ability of victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and rape to get investigations on reported crimes, forget justice for those that have had crimes against them; and it is not only misogyny, there is racism as well. So, will more women cops have any impact in this situation or will they fall prey to the misogyny and the racism in the force itself? As reported in The Guardian:
“One female police officer, however, believed there was a culture of “toxic masculinity” within the police. Speaking on condition of anonymity, she put some of the problems down to the high concentration of men. “There’s such bravado,” she said, describing a “hero complex”. In her experience, male officers will often make sexualised comments about women, both that they work with and on the street. “Women are very much objects,” she said, describing a phrase bandied around to describe female officers: “Is she job fit? … As in, does she look good outside of the uniform as well as in it. […]
She even went so far as to describe a problem with “the fetishisation of women, in particular black women”. She described sexist attitudes as normalised. “It’s really quite traumatic because as female officers you have to wonder if you’re going to be believed, and if you’re going to be ostracised as a troublemaker if you come forward to complain.”
Even more shocking, there are the records of police sexual misconduct including sexual assault, sexual harassment and rape. Equally disturbing is the fact that most police accused avoid disciplinary procedures by leaving the police force. In an article from 2019 in The Independent:
“Figures obtained via freedom of information requests show just one in every 18 members of the Metropolitan Police accused of sexual assault is ever subject to formal action against them.
Between the start of 2012 and 2 June 2018, a total of 562 officers were accused of sexual assault and only 43 faced subsequent proceedings, according to data released under the Freedom of Information Act. Of those 43, 31 had formal action taken against them, and the remaining 12 were subject to informal "management action". Eighty-five cases are still being considered. But the vast majority – 420 – faced no action.
Some 313 of the accusations were made by members of the public, while the remaining 249 came from fellow police staff.
Of those 562, 14 retired or resigned. Of those 14, a single officer was forced to undergo a formal investigation that saw them stripped of their pension.”
The Guardian reports in a recent article that this is a continuing problem:
“Separate data confirms that sexual misconduct among officers is a continuing problem. Figures from the Royal College of Policing’s current “barred list” – officers who have been dismissed from a force and are banned from joining another – show that nearly a fifth of offences include abuse of position for sexual purposes, domestic violence or harassment against the public and colleagues.
Of the 555 officers barred since the list was introduced in December 2017, more than 1,100 reasons for dismissal are listed of which more than 200 involve sexual, harassment or domestic abuse offences. Nearly a quarter of the barred officers served in the Met.”
Finally, there was possibly the most absurd suggestion advocated by ministers, putting plain clothes police to patrol pubs and clubs to keep women safe?! Given accusations against police for sexual assault, sexual harassment, on what planet do these MPs think that we can trust the police to protect women? Given the Spycops Bill where undercover operatives of the state (that includes police) are protected from crimes they commit while undercover (and that includes rape, murder and torture), one needs to wonder if these MPs really are living on the same planet as the rest of us?
Is the answer giving the police more power after the fact or can we try to address the issue of misogyny before it has an impact leading to violence against women, sexual assault and murder? To do this we need to address the roots of misogyny and that means tackling it before behaviour has consequences, we need education, social services, mental health support in our communities, that is, in the areas where we live. So much of the services that did exist have been vitiated by a decade of austerity and if we want to actually address misogyny and racism, we need to do it before it takes root. Far too much is being done by charities and voluntarist organisations where funding derives from individual donors, we need the state to actually fund these services.
Children need to learn that violence against women is unacceptable, that women deserve to be treasured like all members of our societies and that our contributions to society and our lives are valued. But we live in a misogynist society and that also means that we need state funded shelters for women that have experienced violence to get them out of dangerous situations. In a NY Times article that addresses the debates going on in Britain, one proposal that has been shown to be effective was raised, that of “perpetrator programmes” that work with abusive men to prevent further attacks against their partners and families.
”Perpetrator programs, which work intensively with abusive men to prevent them from attacking their partners, have shown some promise in cases where the abusers are committed to change, said Dr. Westmarland, who has studied them.
“The physical and sexual abuse reduced quite substantially and in some cases was eliminated altogether,” she said. But she noted that the programs had not been effective at reducing coercive control — the domineering emotional abuse that is the hallmark of domestic violence and that is deeply traumatic in its own right.”
Quite honestly, the police are part of the problem as is the criminal justice system. We need to offer different solutions and that means we need to change the societies we live in. Who do the police serve? It is clearly not us ...