Women's Trust in Metropolitan London Police

"Quite rightly, as far as I can see, my team felt that this is now an unlawful gathering which poses a considerable risk to people's health."  

"I don't think anybody who was not in the operation can actually pass a detailed comment on the rightness and wrongness... This is fiendishly difficult policing." 

Police Commissioner Cressida Dick

 

"[I am] deeply concerned [by the scenes on Clapham Common and that Dame Cressida had] committed to reviewing how this was handled."  

"I plan to chair a meeting of the government's crime and justice task force on Monday to] look at what further action we need to take to protect women and ensure our streets are safe."  

"The death of Sarah Everard must unite us in determination to drive out violence against women and girls and make every part of the criminal justice system work to protect and defend them."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson

Many who gathered at Clapham Common held signs protesting violence against women   Reuters

Thousands of women made certain they appeared at a Saturday night vigil for Sarah Everard, 33, a marketing executive who was abducted as she walked home alone after parting with a friend, and never reached home. A police officer has been found responsible for her death. A shocking revelation that has infuriated and mobilized British women to protest their lack of safety in public, where many women fear to be out alone on the streets at night.

Organizers had cancelled the vigil after police had persuaded them that under the circumstances with lockdown in effect, its legality and its safety were under question. Despite the cancellation women decided to attend and to take part in the vigil. "We're still in a pandemic, unlawful gatherings are unlawful gatherings, officers have to take action if people are putting themselves massively at risk", stated Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick.

This, in the wake of a violent police intervention at the vigil. And it was a step much too far for the women in attendance at the vigil and later for women throughout Britain who were not in attendance but were infuriated by the clumsy use of aggressive police tactics against the women at the vigil. Where some women were manhandled, violently sent to the ground, manacled and placed under arrest by London's finest.

The public, infuriated, are calling for the dismissal of Commissioner Dick, and she has responded by defending her force for their forceful action under circumstances where she claims the public's safety and security were at risk. By the presence in mourning of thousands of women, grieving over the murder of a young woman, vulnerable and alone in the dark on a London Street, where an officer of the London Police committed an odiously grievous crime.

One woman, with flaming red hair, wearing a mask, was badly manhandled, thrown to the ground surrounded by police, stifling her right to protest in a free and open society against the murder by one of their own of one of her own. Arms behind her back, handcuffed the way a violent criminal would be for expressing her sorrow and fury at the helplessness of women preyed upon not only by violent men-at-large by by the very security force whose job it is to protect them.

 

Police arrest a protester at the Sarah Everard ‘Reclaim These Streets’ vigil at Clapham Common in London on March 13, 2021. Photo by Mario Mitsis/WENN

When the photographs of this woman being physically assaulted by the very men who were pledged to protect society from the forces of criminality were posted, the public reacted with deserved disbelief and anger. Home Office minister Victoria Atkins, questioned on the the images responded, "I found it very upsetting, of course." And assistant police commissioner Helen Ball had an explanation: 

"We absolutely did not want to be in a position where enforcement action was necessary. But we were placed in this position because of the overriding need to protect people's safety. Hundreds of people were packed tightly together, posing a very real risk of easily transmitting [sic] COVID-19."

"A small minority of people began chanting at officers, pushing and throwing items."

A protester lies immobilized at the Sarah Everard ‘Reclaim These Streets’ vigil in London on March 13, 2021. Photo by Mario Mitsis/WENN

"[I attended the vigil to support women who] cannot walk down the streets themselves because of the fear of men."

"[The police actions were] disgraceful."

"Before then, it was just peaceful protest. I was arrested by police for standing there. I wasn't doing anything."

"They threw me to the floor. They have pictures of me on the floor being arrested."

"And I'm 5-foot-2 and I weigh nothing."

Patsy Stevenson, dangerous red-haired woman threatening a platoon of London Police

At the vigil one individual smashed the rear view window of a police van, while many others shouted "arrest your own" and "shame on you". Politicians from across the political spectrum found reason as they viewed the scenes of police action circulated online, to criticize the handling of the situation by the Metropolitan Police. Four people, according to police were arrested for "public order offences and for breaches of the Health Protection Regulations".

 

There were "many missed opportunities throughout the day for police to work with organizers to create a completely safe vigil so that people could go and have a moment of sorrow and a moment of resistance", remarked the opposition Labour Party's point person on domestic violence, Jess Phillips. A national outpouring of grief and anger resulted from the brutal killing of Sarah Everard, a young life lost, no less than at the hands of a police officer.  

 

She was seen last at 9:30 p.m. March 3, wending her way home from a south London home of a friend. Her killer, Wayne Couzens, 48, left her body in woods in Kent, where it was later found. He was charged with kidnap and murder. With the force since 2018 he was tasked with patrolling diplomatic premises of embassies. He had held posts at Downing Street and the Palace of Westminster.

 

Protestors marched from Scotland Yard to Parliament Square in London on Sunday, the day after police forcibly arrested several participants of a vigil honoring Sarah Everard. The 33-year-old London resident's alleged kidnapping and murder have prompted a national reckoning over street harassment and violence against women. Guy Smallman/Getty Images