Inside the police state

Just back from Trafalgar Square where I witnessed protesters being released from the ‘kettle’. One by one they were marched out, a police officer in riot gear on each arm, as if being led to the gallows. Instead a light was shone in their face, they were positioned in front of a video camera and then filmed front and back, all the while restrained by the police officer on each arm so they could not cover their faces. None of the young people I witnessed were resisting, struggling or violent in any way. They just knew that if they wanted to be released they had to submit to being filmed and having their details taken. I spoke to one man who said that everyone over the age of 17 had been arrested and filmed in this way prior to release.

I tried to get a closer look; to see and hear exactly what was going on. But there were police officers protecting police officers protecting police officers – making sure that the filmers could carry out their sinister business. If I got too close, police officers aggressively urged me back and told to me leave because I was in a ‘sterile area’. I saw a man in a high-visibility vest with the words ‘Legal Observer’ on it in a similar quandary: the police were not allowing him close enough to hear what they were saying.

Yet despite this outrageous infringement of the civil liberties of those who were exercising their legal right to protest, when it comes to rape, sexual offences and violence against women, it seems those accused cannot have their civil liberties protected enough.

Thankfully, the Con-Dem government have finally backtracked on their move to grant anonymity to men accused of rape, but in an era where around 95% of men accused of rape in the UK get off without any charge, it is frightening and perplexing that this measure was ever under consideration.

I was sexually harassed by a man about two years ago, and when I reported the incident to the police they refused to arrest him, fingerprint him, photograph him, take his DNA or arrest him. They would only agree to arrest him if I waived my anonymity by making an official statement. But why would I do this when they had already admitted that the Crown Prosecution Service would definitely not take the case to trial because it was ‘my word against his?’

The list of men who have been left to rape, murder and abuse women because police are too incompetent or too unwilling to arrest them and properly document them when they first come to their attention is growing ever longer. The list of women who have not seen justice after they have been raped or abused because police do not properly collect evidence or lose it is similarly shameful. Where is the ‘sterile area’ for women? Where are the vans and vans full of police when we are attacked and harassed?

I have been convinced for sometime now that in order for women to see justice for male violence, all men accused of a sexual offence or violence against a woman must be fingerprinted, photographed and have their DNA taken.

Tonight convinced me of that even more. If a legal protester can be filmed and this film held as a police record, why can the same not happen for any man accused of rape, sexual harassment or violence against a woman?

‘Don’t you care about Nelson’s Column?’ a police officer asked me tonight. No, I don’t. I care about justice for women, and I don’t appreciate police time and resources being wasted on protecting the Bullingdon Boys and their empire at the cost of our civil liberties and right to protest.