Jan 24, 2022·edited Jan 24, 2022Liked by Graham Linehan
As fly posting is only a summary offence (i.e. can only be prosecuted before a magistrate), it is not serious enough to enable a police officer to obtain a search warrant.
This means that, if a search warrant was given, it would have to have been on the basis that there were reasonable grounds for believing that an indictable offence had been committed. Presumably some sort of hate crime.
If there were no such reasonable grounds that a hate crime had actually been committed, then this may have been an illegal search of her property. And a particularly serious one if motivated by her perceived political opinions.
It's the alignment with terrorism that troubles me. As in equating women speaking up about women's rights being the same as extremist terrorist activity. What am I missing here?
Isn't that what that specious organization came up with? That women fighting for women's rights are domestic terrorists and a threat to national security?
What you're missing is that Western governments (and I include Australia and New Zealand) label anyone who diverges from the acceptable party line terrorists. People don't even know what the word means, and it means terrorizing civilians. The U.S. with the help of Western European nations does it every day, modeling ourselves on Nazi Germany from whom we learned a lot.
There are various hate crimes in England & Wales. In my comment, I am just speaking very loosely though - that the police would have to come up with some sort of indictable offence that this is somehow threatening violence.
I guess it could be criminal damage if the actual street objects were damaged by the posters. But it seems a bit Gestapo-like to raid somebody’s home for low level fly posting.
Once again I’m just stunned at what they can get a warrant for. Think about it. Would you grant such a warrant to the police for a) telling the truth on a sticker and b) in the light of the poor police record in protecting women?
As a straight happily married man for over 60 years I can see some men would find the poster offensive as it seems to implicate all men. Perhaps it should have been worded more tactfully including the number of rape attacks and convictions in the Newport area. But given that, the Gwent Police actions were over the top. A friendly daytime visit to ask the lady to tone it down would have been the appropriate action
I find it hard to believe you read that entire article and on the murder of women and the detention of someone vulnerable by a police force acting outside their powers, and yet oddly have brought this and attention back to you. Oh of course you did. You appear to be a perfect illustration of perpetual and deliberately ignorant misogyny. You being 'straight' is utterly irrelevant. So is the fact you are married happily or otherwise. How does that affect the murder rate?
So shall we have a sticker that says 'Men kill women at a rate of about 3 a week (oooh apart from those that don't because some men are nice and fluffy and shhh some men don't like anyone talking about this or trying to bloody stop it).' Like that sticker better Eric? I guess it'll be a bloody enormous sticker.
Do you take 'no littering' signs as personally? If it doesn't affect you, or your actions, it's not personally directed at you, but is informing you of the reality many others live. In a society. Perhaps try listening to that. Are you aware you share the planet with others?
I'd hope to think that Eric having someone disagree with him online is an infinitesimally minor ego bruise compared to the actual real harm and incredible damage being done every hour by men who think they can do and say what they like to women.
You know what is sad? That when all this stuff arose in my consciousness, and I was getting so angry and anxious, my husband never once got defensive. The sad part is that I was grateful to have a decent man by my side.
That he didn't get defensive is testament to him, you and both of you. I am delighted that you had that decent man by your side and that support. That's not so sad is it? We all seek support where we can find it. Woohoo to decent men and women! :-)
To Thought She but little. I have done more than 'think' or 'talk' about 'domestic violence'. For over 40 years I have been making available educational films on this subject. What have you done?
This isn't a competition and you cannot 'win' this one over me. I didn't mention domestic violence, but that too is gendered and sex-based abuse, so I can see how you might confuse terms. Rape, murder, domestic abuse and intimate partner abuse are all different but connected.
I have survived and witnessed appalling abuse.
I have supported others.
I have spoken up, written and helped others.
I have educated myself and helped others to educate themselves. I have spread the word and kept asking questions.
I have not turned away.
I have been resilient, patient, pragmatic and refused to shut up.
I have given time, money, skills, energy and my dedication. Then more.
I have met with, worked with others and committed to improving things in my professional life.
I have worked towards better understanding, more research, great priority and lobbied to get laws changed, working alongside those in charities, professions and Parliament to get those changes made.
I have learned then learned some more and been in a position to advise others.
I have made many mistakes and try to improve myself.
I have sought and listened to the opinions and experiences of others.
Yet you tone police women on this again and again and again and drown their voices out. You clearly think you are better, and have done more than me. You seem to portray yourself as some kind of expert and white knight yet many of your comments show how ignorant and lacking in compassion you are. Think what you like but that's your delusion.
Oh, you’ve been making “educational films on the subject,” yet you think a woman making factual stickers to raise awareness deserves a visit from the police to tell her to “tone it down.” I guess only you are allowed to talk about it, then? In the hushed tones of “educational films.”
Do fuck off. You epitomize sea lioning AND the liberal feminist canard of mansplaining here. Your genteel misogyny is offensive.
Women swearing is but a minor thing compared to rape and murder. Maybe many of us are a little fed up with the rape and murder? I think a little swearing is suitable and appropriate with regard to this.
By the way, I consider you to be an enabler of men killing women. I hope you understand that.
Any man who objects to stickers which name an objective reality such as “men kill women at the rate of 3 women a week in the UK” because “not all men this hurts my feelings wah,” much less supports the fascist notion of SENDING POLICE to the house of the woman who made such stickers to tell her to “tone it down,” is a man who is enabling and obfuscating other men’s violence.
Maybe you should make some “educational videos” about men like yourself, who like a bit of rug sweeping now and again to obscure the reality of male violence- that is to say, most of the rest of the male population, who deny male supremacy and male violence because it makes them feel uncomfortable. Maybe make some educational videos about how it’s all the men who sit by admonishing women to speak more politely about men murdering us who are just as responsible for the crimes committed by the minority, hmm? Make a film about that.
The AK47 got a laugh from me! And this is the problem with bourgeois morality, it wants us all to be polite as we live in a world where every day people are bombed, raped, murdered, where women live in fear and tension, where children are harmed. I don't feel very polite much of the time.
Men is a collective noun and it is men who commit domestic violence against women. Please tell me how else a sticker could state this. Rather than criticise the message, criticise the men that beat their wives and partners. Wording it more tactfully is just, once again protecting mens feelings at the expense of women.
How are you still criticising the way in which she didn't in your opinion criticise Gwent police - or let's face it any other police area - in the right way? Do we we have to keep reprinting stickers daily with the updated stats? How do we record those who don't report? How do we state the point in the criminal justice system that those who report are dissuaded or drop out, sometimes after years? Have you spotted the flaw in your plan yet?
But somewhere in there Eric had a point. Still not sure what it was as he appears to agree with the substance of what the woman who was arrested was doing and much of us here. If only she'd done so in the exact way Eric preferred. Nicer, more femininely. Politer. Less brash. Less uppity. Maybe a well-constructed and erudite letter to add to the piles of other letters she may have written and had no response to. Maybe she felt she had no other way.
Maybe we should all check and get him to preview everything we think, do or say in case he has a suggestion for improvement.
He just couldn't help himself. Now where have I heard and read that before. Oh yes, in court proceedings.
It refers to men who do kill women, not men who don't, there is nothing to answer here other than that reality. Drawing attention to it is not a hate crime, it is stating a fact that should appall everyone, including the police who, presumably, have a role investigating these deaths.The hate crime being committed is the indefensible and brutal way this woman was treated by them. In the words of N.W.A - Fuck Tha Police.
Nearly all violence towards women is committed by men. That is not the same as saying nearly all men are violent. If you are not one of them, no need to take umbrage. You will get abrasive responses here because women are a bit tired of reassuring men that 'we didn't mean you'.
Exactly that. I am so fed up of being made responsible for mens bruised feelings when women talk about the violence, threats and hate against them. Every time. Every time some bloke will pipe up "not all men".
Your “honest opinion” is exactly why headlines read “500 women were killed this year,” “woman raped and murdered,” etc., instead of “500 women killed bu men this year,” “man rapes, kills woman”- it sanitizes it for the public, by making it seem like a problem that “just happens,” as if wow! Rape and murder just befall women sometimes, you know? Acts of God.
Headlines regularly don’t name the actor, obfuscating the pressing issue of male violence so that men like you don’t need to feel uncomfortable for a even a second while reading the news over breakfast.
Your “honest opinion” is also why headlines say such things as “man alleged to have killed family the ‘kindest guy you’d ever meet;’ friends and family say he must have snapped.” Headlines trip over themselves to fawn over men who commit familicide, to avoid sounding too harsh toward men in general. The implication is that we can sympathize with them because what man hasn’t wanted to kill his entire family at one point, aww, poor guy.
You NEVER see headlines about this about women. Women who step out of the feminine role by killing their husbands (usually in self-defense), or who kill their children (usually during post-partum depression) are regularly monstered in the press. “Woman kills husband of 29 years via shotgun blast while sleeping; sleepy town reacts in shock,” “woman who drowned her children in bathtub, told police she ‘sent them to heaven’ purportedly bought plane tickets right after doing the dirty deed” and other such bullshit.
We need to call men out MORE, not less. It is MEN who commit nearly all violent crime, and almost all crime against women, and yet men are regularly treated with far more sympathy by the press, because violence is expected of them; and the criminals who commit crimes against women and children are regularly either absent from or sympathized with in headlines.
We need to call out men CONSTANTLY, because we rarely do, as a society. Men as a class are responsible for almost all violence and hierarchy in the world, yet they are treated with kid gloves, and you are literally asking for this circumstance to continue.
We need to speak specifically about MALE VIOLENCE. Not the constant litany of male violence, but actually talking about the subject in general. And you make me thankful I live in a state where abused women may kill their partners and it is considered a legitimate defense, including the woman who shot her husband while he was sleeping.
Eric is implicated by wanting to shield such men. He represents the kind of man who wants to ignore and sanitize other men’s violence so that he feels better, i.e. an enbaler.
He's done it a few times and then it's always nasty others, people assuming and making up motives. Bad language and oh isn't social media awful. He's 'just' being honest. Social media is a reflection of all of us. Yes, skewed, and to hit the outrage meter and clicks but it constantly astonishes me that many are purely and unwilling to engage in why.
Why a woman might swear and use language that some find challenging. Why a man would. Is it her language or her argument? Many men cannot bear to be bested or to lose to a woman. It's somehow emasculating. That will not do. Is it ok if a man uses those same words? Is it her refusal to back down and kowtow? What is it? Is it that the little thing thinks she has the right? Why does a man feel he has the God-given right to denounce a woman thus and pour judgement on her. Then act the poor put upon victim in all this. It is a traditional and boring old tale that no woman is permitted to say no to a man, or they get what for. And everyone cheers her 'being put in her place'. No thank you.
It surprises many people that some of the most vicious people online are women in their middle years. It doesn't surprise me at all. There is a lot of anger and pain sitting within many people, many women, many disenfranchised people and many have every right to want their voices heard.
“3 women a week are killed by men” implicates all men?? Police should visit a woman making stickers about this abomination to tell her tone it down- polite society doesn’t want to know about how men murder women, and all that? What the hell is wrong with you?
I want to say that I'm sorry I was so nasty to you. People use each other as an outlet on the internet to vent their anger, and I'm sorry I did that.
If you're curious why, it's because this article shocked me. I've been a feminist for twenty years (since I was a teenager), and it's only recently that having feminist beliefs (or even simply spreading feminist messages, as "men kill 3+ women a week; domestic violence kills" isn't a belief, but a statement of fact) has become absolutely anathema to the public, and in fact criminalized. I could never have imagined they'd criminalize feminists again, with the "long arc toward justice" of history, but wow; and then I thought, okay, it must be just because this particular new ideology is so powerful, they've found a way to demonize the women who actually want to help women, while calling the people who want to harm women feminists...but now they're quite simply criminalizing *all* feminist activity.
This article really, really scared and shocked me. They arrested this disabled woman with a serious mental health condition over stickers about domestic violence. That has nothing to do with trans anything. I don't even understand what is happening anymore; I thought the left at least pretended to care about the class of people now known as "cervix havers" or "cis women." I don't understand how this offended anyone- who? Men (like you? Who feel absurdly called out- who else should we say is killing these women? Should we just sanitize it by saying "3 women a week are killed; domestic violence kills" that obscures the problem, no)? Was arresting this woman an explicitly anti-feminist action? Or is because the words "men" and "women" themselves are now hate speech? (Should she have said "3 AFABS are killed by AMABS every week in the UK")?
I found this SO disturbing, on SO many levels, but also, this is the one sane spot on the internet, so to see a person here saying the arrest was overboard, but the police should have gone to this woman's house to warn her that posters stating facts are offensive was just a bridge too far. (Posters are the very *beginning* of what we need to do to combat male violence. All of society needs to be talking about this, so something can be done about it; silence is collaboration. Certainly no one should ever have the police sent round to their house for a putting up a poster stating facts about an unpleasant social reality which Great Britain is ignoring).
But I'm sorry for speaking so rudely to you.
I hope you'll reconsider your position. We absolutely MUST name the actor- it's an enormous problem that media normally doesn't, because it draws attention away from the reality that it's men who commit the vast majority of violence, and that it's not excusable because "boys will be boys;" we- our society- we are the ones who manufacture the excuses, we grow the boys who grow up to be as boys will. We can't possibly change this reality until we reckon with it as a species, so we must continue to be firm in naming the problem.
You might be interested in that I was slightly involved in what is classed as the seminal founding event of the feminist movement. UK’s first Women’s Liberation Conference at Oxford in February-March 1970. This was a landmark event in the genesis of second wave feminism in Britain. 600 women and a few men – a much greater attendance than expected – crowded into Ruskin College at Oxford for three days of debate and discussion. For many of those who attended, it was an exhilarating, indeed a life-changing, moment. I released a short film showing just a little of it. It’s a pity we didn’t have video in those days to record the whole of it.
I have been involved in protest movements of one sort or another, although always left of centre, since the age of 12. In fact by co-incidence, my 12 year old involvement was raising funds to support the ‘Milk for Spain’ campaign on the side of the Spanish government in 1937 was mirrored by my future wife’s mother and aunt. The aunt drove an ambulance at the start of that war whilst my wife’s mother was imprisoned later in Franco’s prison and interrogated as a spy.
This what you wrote really shocked me when I read it again.
Mórrígan
Jan 24
Eric is implicated by wanting to shield such men. He represents the kind of man who wants to ignore and sanitize other men’s violence so that he feels better, i.e. an enbaler.
Reading back what I had written I just could not see what had given you that impression.
As I wrote that the police should have gone to the woman’s house etc then I phrased it badly. What I meant was 'IF the police felt they had to do something then they could have just made a visit etc’. In fact in my opinion they should have done nothing. This whole situation had got out of hand. Somehow Stonewall and Mermaids seem to have brainwashed so many at the top and this has become such a litigious world that the authorities have, in my opinion lost their common sense on this. Police Scotland for example. However I do feel the tide is turning. But strident language to people who don’t seem to be committed 100% doesn’t help. I agree that sometimes extreme actions are needed to wake people up. My wife spent a week in Birmingham Prison with 70 others when they blockaded a nuclear base at Waldingfield and I have been arrested for being at a forbidden meeting on Trafalgar Square. Let’s all work together!
PS. Just noticed The Free Speech Society of Bristol University cancelled one of the speakers because he had said women don’t have penises. This is the 'Free Speech Society’ for god’s sake. You couldn’t make it up!
Your passion is completely understandable. What I want to point out to people is that the police would not be engaging in this horrific behavior if it wasn't desired by the class which tells the police what to do. The police are just the thugs carrying out their orders, and from what they are currently doing it sometimes seems that the paddy wagons aren't far behind, you know to ship women's rights advocates to concentration camps where they'll be required to cook and clean and wipe men's bottoms.
Dear Morigan, Thank you very much for your from the heart text this morning. I have to go out soon and so will reply more fully later. But thank you again. You have done me some good! Eric
I'm going to be a bit nicer, Eric, and suggest to you that you think carefully before you comment online. Women don't care about tactful wording when it comes to the violence that so many women experience every day. I am very blunt and frank and I think carefully about what I say when I comment, and I reread what I have written. I'm not fond of the kowtowing to "good trans" on this site and sometimes have to bite my tongue, but I like reading the comments and have a year-long sub (which I probably won't renew).
I don't get that at all, and it takes some serious twisting to get to the interpretation you put on it. If - and I doubt it very much - any man saw that and felt offended, then I'd say that the old saying about only those who feel guilty run when there is no pursuit applies.
Fancy a spot of RAPING? Well pop over to Gwent, where the police seemingly turn a blind eye, instead busying themselves harassing and mistreating disabled feminists. 99% chance of not even being charged! Is Gwent perhaps the rape capital of the UK?
What is it with these moronic cops? Are they not ashamed? Harassing a disabled woman for fuck's sake.
And none of this will get into the Guardian or the BBC. They have the gall to opine on feminism and yet they won't even report a feminist being treated like crap by the police, for making a feminist point.
When I read something like this it is clear to me that these men (and women if they were involved) are incapable of feeling shame. This is the mentality that arises among the fascistic elements of society who then like to say they were only doing their jobs. As though they have no discretion, no responsibility, NO SENSE OF SHAME.
In their effort to comply with the New Woke, Gwent Police seem to have reverted to 1970s behaviour. This is a new low even for them, I hope this woman sues them into penury. Pigs.
Everything wrong with the “trans” ideological movement is encapsulated in this one situation. Truth cannot be tolerated. Reality is offensive. Speaking truth about reality is a hate crime. Women don’t count. The so-called vulnerable and “unsafe” trans ideologues, and their ideology, are seemingly invulnerable and eminently safe. And, as always, we sense there’s something insidiously rotten behind the scenes. Who is making these decisions, and why? Why are they so confident that they will get away with them? There’s a lot we don’t know YET.
Our county police are having a public consultation. I suggested they take the side of Police Commissoner Lisa Townsend ( and JK Rowling ) and not that of Crispin Blunt M.P.
Mr Blunt has earnt my complete contempt for his harassment of Lisa Townsend. He is lucky that I am not one of his constituents as I would have been actively campaigning against him at the next election. I can only hope he is de-selected.
I hope any people who read this and are in Blunt's constituency will write or email him. Point out the stupidity of sending those transwomen who still possess pricks into women's prisons. There is more openess in USA about this insult to women who are already in a lousy situation, Find examples and send them to him. If you know people in his constituency get them, also to contact him. But don't insult him. Who knows from where he got 'facts' on which he bases his current views?
It wasn't aimed at you Bridget but just in general. I find on social media that often people ascribe ulterior motives to people when that is not the case. They then use abrasive language which further alienates people from their cause. I am getting a lot of that stick!
If we stick these posters and stickers on criminals, will it make them easier for you to find?
@GPNewport
Can you tell me more about ‘safely’ removing posters and why it can only be done by ‘authorities’?? Is there specialist training for this?? There are some posters in my child’s bedroom I’d like removed …
@GPNewport
You don't have enough resources to protect women. But you have plenty of resources to remove "dangerous" stickers pointing out that women are not safe. Got it.
This 'safely' bollocks is perhaps a nod to the completely-invented-by-trans rights-activists lie that women put razor blades beneath stickers. When I stick stickers I make sure they are the ones that peel of easily; no residue. Never mind razor blades, I don't want the person who cleans them off to break a fingernail...
Good question there at the back. Ohhhh let's have another training session and pay Stonewall or some other lobby group to tell us what they think the law is on this. Not what the actual law is. Let's check the updated guidance.
Police Scotland were explaining that it's hard for a 20 year old police officer to know the complex nuance of 'hate' crime/law/flimflam and they are struggling so would like extra time to figure this out. It appears the Gwent police are ploughing ahead with bizarre behaviour too. And the PSNI. It's all a bit strange and I hope someone, somewhere thinks this is worth investigating as it's paralysing them, creating fear and confusion, using resources they don't have and further eroding any remaining trust much of the public, who they police by consent, have in them. They are farcical.
Indeed. Who would be a police officer now? I am, by nature a bit of a trusting soul. I do my duty by reporting affray or other crimes to the police in my neighbourhood. But now? How naive I was.
Woman held down by three officers, handcuffed behind her back and her ankles fastened; her clothes cut off her and CCTV shows both male and female officers speaking about her body hair and her 'smell'.
All the cops involved in this should have been fired. It is utterly disgusting and people in the U.K. should be as ashamed as I am of living in the U.S. and what goes on here.
I wonder if this case went all the way to prosecution & trial by jury, she’d be treated with the same ‘understanding’ that was apparent in the Colston 4 case, or the Ext Reb case? (Both were deemed by the Juries to be justifiable actions.)
Any bets?
My bet would be she’d be found guilty of fly posting and a hate crime ; fined and given a criminal record and a conditional discharge.
Women being killed = not offensive
Stickering about women being killed = offensive
Sounds about right. Fuck's sake.
As fly posting is only a summary offence (i.e. can only be prosecuted before a magistrate), it is not serious enough to enable a police officer to obtain a search warrant.
This means that, if a search warrant was given, it would have to have been on the basis that there were reasonable grounds for believing that an indictable offence had been committed. Presumably some sort of hate crime.
If there were no such reasonable grounds that a hate crime had actually been committed, then this may have been an illegal search of her property. And a particularly serious one if motivated by her perceived political opinions.
It's the alignment with terrorism that troubles me. As in equating women speaking up about women's rights being the same as extremist terrorist activity. What am I missing here?
Isn't that what that specious organization came up with? That women fighting for women's rights are domestic terrorists and a threat to national security?
What you're missing is that Western governments (and I include Australia and New Zealand) label anyone who diverges from the acceptable party line terrorists. People don't even know what the word means, and it means terrorizing civilians. The U.S. with the help of Western European nations does it every day, modeling ourselves on Nazi Germany from whom we learned a lot.
It's easy for me to say because I live in the whitest state in the U.S., but even our cops aren't this far out in space.
I know there’s a hate crime bill in Scotland, but I thought the rest of us on this island didn’t have such a thing?
There are various hate crimes in England & Wales. In my comment, I am just speaking very loosely though - that the police would have to come up with some sort of indictable offence that this is somehow threatening violence.
I guess it could be criminal damage if the actual street objects were damaged by the posters. But it seems a bit Gestapo-like to raid somebody’s home for low level fly posting.
Once again I’m just stunned at what they can get a warrant for. Think about it. Would you grant such a warrant to the police for a) telling the truth on a sticker and b) in the light of the poor police record in protecting women?
As a straight happily married man for over 60 years I can see some men would find the poster offensive as it seems to implicate all men. Perhaps it should have been worded more tactfully including the number of rape attacks and convictions in the Newport area. But given that, the Gwent Police actions were over the top. A friendly daytime visit to ask the lady to tone it down would have been the appropriate action
I find it hard to believe you read that entire article and on the murder of women and the detention of someone vulnerable by a police force acting outside their powers, and yet oddly have brought this and attention back to you. Oh of course you did. You appear to be a perfect illustration of perpetual and deliberately ignorant misogyny. You being 'straight' is utterly irrelevant. So is the fact you are married happily or otherwise. How does that affect the murder rate?
So shall we have a sticker that says 'Men kill women at a rate of about 3 a week (oooh apart from those that don't because some men are nice and fluffy and shhh some men don't like anyone talking about this or trying to bloody stop it).' Like that sticker better Eric? I guess it'll be a bloody enormous sticker.
Do you take 'no littering' signs as personally? If it doesn't affect you, or your actions, it's not personally directed at you, but is informing you of the reality many others live. In a society. Perhaps try listening to that. Are you aware you share the planet with others?
Oh and Eric? Tone it down.
Ouch. Fair enough though!
I'd hope to think that Eric having someone disagree with him online is an infinitesimally minor ego bruise compared to the actual real harm and incredible damage being done every hour by men who think they can do and say what they like to women.
You know what is sad? That when all this stuff arose in my consciousness, and I was getting so angry and anxious, my husband never once got defensive. The sad part is that I was grateful to have a decent man by my side.
That he didn't get defensive is testament to him, you and both of you. I am delighted that you had that decent man by your side and that support. That's not so sad is it? We all seek support where we can find it. Woohoo to decent men and women! :-)
To Thought She but little. I have done more than 'think' or 'talk' about 'domestic violence'. For over 40 years I have been making available educational films on this subject. What have you done?
This isn't a competition and you cannot 'win' this one over me. I didn't mention domestic violence, but that too is gendered and sex-based abuse, so I can see how you might confuse terms. Rape, murder, domestic abuse and intimate partner abuse are all different but connected.
I have survived and witnessed appalling abuse.
I have supported others.
I have spoken up, written and helped others.
I have educated myself and helped others to educate themselves. I have spread the word and kept asking questions.
I have not turned away.
I have been resilient, patient, pragmatic and refused to shut up.
I have given time, money, skills, energy and my dedication. Then more.
I have met with, worked with others and committed to improving things in my professional life.
I have worked towards better understanding, more research, great priority and lobbied to get laws changed, working alongside those in charities, professions and Parliament to get those changes made.
I have learned then learned some more and been in a position to advise others.
I have made many mistakes and try to improve myself.
I have sought and listened to the opinions and experiences of others.
Yet you tone police women on this again and again and again and drown their voices out. You clearly think you are better, and have done more than me. You seem to portray yourself as some kind of expert and white knight yet many of your comments show how ignorant and lacking in compassion you are. Think what you like but that's your delusion.
Hear hear!
Oh, you’ve been making “educational films on the subject,” yet you think a woman making factual stickers to raise awareness deserves a visit from the police to tell her to “tone it down.” I guess only you are allowed to talk about it, then? In the hushed tones of “educational films.”
Do fuck off. You epitomize sea lioning AND the liberal feminist canard of mansplaining here. Your genteel misogyny is offensive.
This thread is magnificent
And so is your language.
Maybe you should send the police round to tell me to tone it down, eh? I’ll be waiting for their knock!
Women swearing is but a minor thing compared to rape and murder. Maybe many of us are a little fed up with the rape and murder? I think a little swearing is suitable and appropriate with regard to this.
By the way, I consider you to be an enabler of men killing women. I hope you understand that.
Any man who objects to stickers which name an objective reality such as “men kill women at the rate of 3 women a week in the UK” because “not all men this hurts my feelings wah,” much less supports the fascist notion of SENDING POLICE to the house of the woman who made such stickers to tell her to “tone it down,” is a man who is enabling and obfuscating other men’s violence.
Maybe you should make some “educational videos” about men like yourself, who like a bit of rug sweeping now and again to obscure the reality of male violence- that is to say, most of the rest of the male population, who deny male supremacy and male violence because it makes them feel uncomfortable. Maybe make some educational videos about how it’s all the men who sit by admonishing women to speak more politely about men murdering us who are just as responsible for the crimes committed by the minority, hmm? Make a film about that.
The AK47 got a laugh from me! And this is the problem with bourgeois morality, it wants us all to be polite as we live in a world where every day people are bombed, raped, murdered, where women live in fear and tension, where children are harmed. I don't feel very polite much of the time.
"ask the lady to tone it down"? Why should she?
Women won't Wheesht, haven't you heard?
Also, tone what down exactly? The frightening truth?
Men is a collective noun and it is men who commit domestic violence against women. Please tell me how else a sticker could state this. Rather than criticise the message, criticise the men that beat their wives and partners. Wording it more tactfully is just, once again protecting mens feelings at the expense of women.
If the poster had stated number of rapes and convictions it would have been embarassing to Gwent Police for their ineptness
How are you still criticising the way in which she didn't in your opinion criticise Gwent police - or let's face it any other police area - in the right way? Do we we have to keep reprinting stickers daily with the updated stats? How do we record those who don't report? How do we state the point in the criminal justice system that those who report are dissuaded or drop out, sometimes after years? Have you spotted the flaw in your plan yet?
That would be a very crowded sticker and stickers are meant to draw attention to a cause, not provide detail.
But somewhere in there Eric had a point. Still not sure what it was as he appears to agree with the substance of what the woman who was arrested was doing and much of us here. If only she'd done so in the exact way Eric preferred. Nicer, more femininely. Politer. Less brash. Less uppity. Maybe a well-constructed and erudite letter to add to the piles of other letters she may have written and had no response to. Maybe she felt she had no other way.
Maybe we should all check and get him to preview everything we think, do or say in case he has a suggestion for improvement.
He just couldn't help himself. Now where have I heard and read that before. Oh yes, in court proceedings.
It implicates “all men” who commit violence against women. As a man, I do not find it offensive.
It refers to men who do kill women, not men who don't, there is nothing to answer here other than that reality. Drawing attention to it is not a hate crime, it is stating a fact that should appall everyone, including the police who, presumably, have a role investigating these deaths.The hate crime being committed is the indefensible and brutal way this woman was treated by them. In the words of N.W.A - Fuck Tha Police.
Well maybe I have got it wrong. Just gave my honest opinion!
Nearly all violence towards women is committed by men. That is not the same as saying nearly all men are violent. If you are not one of them, no need to take umbrage. You will get abrasive responses here because women are a bit tired of reassuring men that 'we didn't mean you'.
Exactly that. I am so fed up of being made responsible for mens bruised feelings when women talk about the violence, threats and hate against them. Every time. Every time some bloke will pipe up "not all men".
Your “honest opinion” is exactly why headlines read “500 women were killed this year,” “woman raped and murdered,” etc., instead of “500 women killed bu men this year,” “man rapes, kills woman”- it sanitizes it for the public, by making it seem like a problem that “just happens,” as if wow! Rape and murder just befall women sometimes, you know? Acts of God.
Headlines regularly don’t name the actor, obfuscating the pressing issue of male violence so that men like you don’t need to feel uncomfortable for a even a second while reading the news over breakfast.
Your “honest opinion” is also why headlines say such things as “man alleged to have killed family the ‘kindest guy you’d ever meet;’ friends and family say he must have snapped.” Headlines trip over themselves to fawn over men who commit familicide, to avoid sounding too harsh toward men in general. The implication is that we can sympathize with them because what man hasn’t wanted to kill his entire family at one point, aww, poor guy.
You NEVER see headlines about this about women. Women who step out of the feminine role by killing their husbands (usually in self-defense), or who kill their children (usually during post-partum depression) are regularly monstered in the press. “Woman kills husband of 29 years via shotgun blast while sleeping; sleepy town reacts in shock,” “woman who drowned her children in bathtub, told police she ‘sent them to heaven’ purportedly bought plane tickets right after doing the dirty deed” and other such bullshit.
We need to call men out MORE, not less. It is MEN who commit nearly all violent crime, and almost all crime against women, and yet men are regularly treated with far more sympathy by the press, because violence is expected of them; and the criminals who commit crimes against women and children are regularly either absent from or sympathized with in headlines.
We need to call out men CONSTANTLY, because we rarely do, as a society. Men as a class are responsible for almost all violence and hierarchy in the world, yet they are treated with kid gloves, and you are literally asking for this circumstance to continue.
We need to speak specifically about MALE VIOLENCE. Not the constant litany of male violence, but actually talking about the subject in general. And you make me thankful I live in a state where abused women may kill their partners and it is considered a legitimate defense, including the woman who shot her husband while he was sleeping.
I really don't think it does implicate all men Eric.
Eric is implicated by wanting to shield such men. He represents the kind of man who wants to ignore and sanitize other men’s violence so that he feels better, i.e. an enbaler.
I don't know if I agree with that, but I do think Eric is uncomfortable having the brutal truth spoken.
He's done it a few times and then it's always nasty others, people assuming and making up motives. Bad language and oh isn't social media awful. He's 'just' being honest. Social media is a reflection of all of us. Yes, skewed, and to hit the outrage meter and clicks but it constantly astonishes me that many are purely and unwilling to engage in why.
Why a woman might swear and use language that some find challenging. Why a man would. Is it her language or her argument? Many men cannot bear to be bested or to lose to a woman. It's somehow emasculating. That will not do. Is it ok if a man uses those same words? Is it her refusal to back down and kowtow? What is it? Is it that the little thing thinks she has the right? Why does a man feel he has the God-given right to denounce a woman thus and pour judgement on her. Then act the poor put upon victim in all this. It is a traditional and boring old tale that no woman is permitted to say no to a man, or they get what for. And everyone cheers her 'being put in her place'. No thank you.
It surprises many people that some of the most vicious people online are women in their middle years. It doesn't surprise me at all. There is a lot of anger and pain sitting within many people, many women, many disenfranchised people and many have every right to want their voices heard.
“3 women a week are killed by men” implicates all men?? Police should visit a woman making stickers about this abomination to tell her tone it down- polite society doesn’t want to know about how men murder women, and all that? What the hell is wrong with you?
I want to say that I'm sorry I was so nasty to you. People use each other as an outlet on the internet to vent their anger, and I'm sorry I did that.
If you're curious why, it's because this article shocked me. I've been a feminist for twenty years (since I was a teenager), and it's only recently that having feminist beliefs (or even simply spreading feminist messages, as "men kill 3+ women a week; domestic violence kills" isn't a belief, but a statement of fact) has become absolutely anathema to the public, and in fact criminalized. I could never have imagined they'd criminalize feminists again, with the "long arc toward justice" of history, but wow; and then I thought, okay, it must be just because this particular new ideology is so powerful, they've found a way to demonize the women who actually want to help women, while calling the people who want to harm women feminists...but now they're quite simply criminalizing *all* feminist activity.
This article really, really scared and shocked me. They arrested this disabled woman with a serious mental health condition over stickers about domestic violence. That has nothing to do with trans anything. I don't even understand what is happening anymore; I thought the left at least pretended to care about the class of people now known as "cervix havers" or "cis women." I don't understand how this offended anyone- who? Men (like you? Who feel absurdly called out- who else should we say is killing these women? Should we just sanitize it by saying "3 women a week are killed; domestic violence kills" that obscures the problem, no)? Was arresting this woman an explicitly anti-feminist action? Or is because the words "men" and "women" themselves are now hate speech? (Should she have said "3 AFABS are killed by AMABS every week in the UK")?
I found this SO disturbing, on SO many levels, but also, this is the one sane spot on the internet, so to see a person here saying the arrest was overboard, but the police should have gone to this woman's house to warn her that posters stating facts are offensive was just a bridge too far. (Posters are the very *beginning* of what we need to do to combat male violence. All of society needs to be talking about this, so something can be done about it; silence is collaboration. Certainly no one should ever have the police sent round to their house for a putting up a poster stating facts about an unpleasant social reality which Great Britain is ignoring).
But I'm sorry for speaking so rudely to you.
I hope you'll reconsider your position. We absolutely MUST name the actor- it's an enormous problem that media normally doesn't, because it draws attention away from the reality that it's men who commit the vast majority of violence, and that it's not excusable because "boys will be boys;" we- our society- we are the ones who manufacture the excuses, we grow the boys who grow up to be as boys will. We can't possibly change this reality until we reckon with it as a species, so we must continue to be firm in naming the problem.
Hello Morrigan,
Thank you for your detailed message.
You might be interested in that I was slightly involved in what is classed as the seminal founding event of the feminist movement. UK’s first Women’s Liberation Conference at Oxford in February-March 1970. This was a landmark event in the genesis of second wave feminism in Britain. 600 women and a few men – a much greater attendance than expected – crowded into Ruskin College at Oxford for three days of debate and discussion. For many of those who attended, it was an exhilarating, indeed a life-changing, moment. I released a short film showing just a little of it. It’s a pity we didn’t have video in those days to record the whole of it.
I have been involved in protest movements of one sort or another, although always left of centre, since the age of 12. In fact by co-incidence, my 12 year old involvement was raising funds to support the ‘Milk for Spain’ campaign on the side of the Spanish government in 1937 was mirrored by my future wife’s mother and aunt. The aunt drove an ambulance at the start of that war whilst my wife’s mother was imprisoned later in Franco’s prison and interrogated as a spy.
This what you wrote really shocked me when I read it again.
Mórrígan
Jan 24
Eric is implicated by wanting to shield such men. He represents the kind of man who wants to ignore and sanitize other men’s violence so that he feels better, i.e. an enbaler.
Reading back what I had written I just could not see what had given you that impression.
As I wrote that the police should have gone to the woman’s house etc then I phrased it badly. What I meant was 'IF the police felt they had to do something then they could have just made a visit etc’. In fact in my opinion they should have done nothing. This whole situation had got out of hand. Somehow Stonewall and Mermaids seem to have brainwashed so many at the top and this has become such a litigious world that the authorities have, in my opinion lost their common sense on this. Police Scotland for example. However I do feel the tide is turning. But strident language to people who don’t seem to be committed 100% doesn’t help. I agree that sometimes extreme actions are needed to wake people up. My wife spent a week in Birmingham Prison with 70 others when they blockaded a nuclear base at Waldingfield and I have been arrested for being at a forbidden meeting on Trafalgar Square. Let’s all work together!
PS. Just noticed The Free Speech Society of Bristol University cancelled one of the speakers because he had said women don’t have penises. This is the 'Free Speech Society’ for god’s sake. You couldn’t make it up!
Your passion is completely understandable. What I want to point out to people is that the police would not be engaging in this horrific behavior if it wasn't desired by the class which tells the police what to do. The police are just the thugs carrying out their orders, and from what they are currently doing it sometimes seems that the paddy wagons aren't far behind, you know to ship women's rights advocates to concentration camps where they'll be required to cook and clean and wipe men's bottoms.
Dear Morigan, Thank you very much for your from the heart text this morning. I have to go out soon and so will reply more fully later. But thank you again. You have done me some good! Eric
I'm going to be a bit nicer, Eric, and suggest to you that you think carefully before you comment online. Women don't care about tactful wording when it comes to the violence that so many women experience every day. I am very blunt and frank and I think carefully about what I say when I comment, and I reread what I have written. I'm not fond of the kowtowing to "good trans" on this site and sometimes have to bite my tongue, but I like reading the comments and have a year-long sub (which I probably won't renew).
Thanks Susan, I appreciate your comments
Hmm. Tell me sir, do you perchance watch porn?
I don't get that at all, and it takes some serious twisting to get to the interpretation you put on it. If - and I doubt it very much - any man saw that and felt offended, then I'd say that the old saying about only those who feel guilty run when there is no pursuit applies.
I accept that Jeremy. Maybe I was being too cautious
Maybe. The chances of it being an "ordinary" (yes, I know!) man making the complaint vanishes against the likelihood of it being a TRA.
As much as I hate ambulance chasing solicitors this seems like something they would surely jump on?? This is beyond f**ked up.
Fancy a spot of RAPING? Well pop over to Gwent, where the police seemingly turn a blind eye, instead busying themselves harassing and mistreating disabled feminists. 99% chance of not even being charged! Is Gwent perhaps the rape capital of the UK?
We need that on a sticker forthwith. Maybe 2-4-1 rail fares and big tourism campaign.
That wouldn't surprise me.
What is it with these moronic cops? Are they not ashamed? Harassing a disabled woman for fuck's sake.
And none of this will get into the Guardian or the BBC. They have the gall to opine on feminism and yet they won't even report a feminist being treated like crap by the police, for making a feminist point.
When I read something like this it is clear to me that these men (and women if they were involved) are incapable of feeling shame. This is the mentality that arises among the fascistic elements of society who then like to say they were only doing their jobs. As though they have no discretion, no responsibility, NO SENSE OF SHAME.
In their effort to comply with the New Woke, Gwent Police seem to have reverted to 1970s behaviour. This is a new low even for them, I hope this woman sues them into penury. Pigs.
Newport is not a posh area. Life on Mars and 70s vibe fits. Even so surprised they are being so energetic about this. Bullies
Gwent police cover a larger area than Newport city and there are some more affluent areas under their "care".
Everything wrong with the “trans” ideological movement is encapsulated in this one situation. Truth cannot be tolerated. Reality is offensive. Speaking truth about reality is a hate crime. Women don’t count. The so-called vulnerable and “unsafe” trans ideologues, and their ideology, are seemingly invulnerable and eminently safe. And, as always, we sense there’s something insidiously rotten behind the scenes. Who is making these decisions, and why? Why are they so confident that they will get away with them? There’s a lot we don’t know YET.
BTW, Graham, you and sarah were excellent on Free Speech Nation (GB News) yesterday. A perfect complement to each other; packed a lot in.
I enjoyed it too.
I was escaping to Green Planet. Must catch up with this FSN episode!
This is seriously effed up. Gestapo style. I just cannot deal.
It seems to be anything connected to a woman, is fair game!
Our county police are having a public consultation. I suggested they take the side of Police Commissoner Lisa Townsend ( and JK Rowling ) and not that of Crispin Blunt M.P.
Mr Blunt has earnt my complete contempt for his harassment of Lisa Townsend. He is lucky that I am not one of his constituents as I would have been actively campaigning against him at the next election. I can only hope he is de-selected.
I hope any people who read this and are in Blunt's constituency will write or email him. Point out the stupidity of sending those transwomen who still possess pricks into women's prisons. There is more openess in USA about this insult to women who are already in a lousy situation, Find examples and send them to him. If you know people in his constituency get them, also to contact him. But don't insult him. Who knows from where he got 'facts' on which he bases his current views?
I don't insult people. I can usually express myself well enough not to resort to abusive language.
It wasn't aimed at you Bridget but just in general. I find on social media that often people ascribe ulterior motives to people when that is not the case. They then use abrasive language which further alienates people from their cause. I am getting a lot of that stick!
Some of the comments on the police tweet.
https://twitter.com/GPNewport/status/1484547350580318219
452 comments 11likes
Replying to
@GPNewport
If we stick these posters and stickers on criminals, will it make them easier for you to find?
@GPNewport
Can you tell me more about ‘safely’ removing posters and why it can only be done by ‘authorities’?? Is there specialist training for this?? There are some posters in my child’s bedroom I’d like removed …
@GPNewport
You don't have enough resources to protect women. But you have plenty of resources to remove "dangerous" stickers pointing out that women are not safe. Got it.
This 'safely' bollocks is perhaps a nod to the completely-invented-by-trans rights-activists lie that women put razor blades beneath stickers. When I stick stickers I make sure they are the ones that peel of easily; no residue. Never mind razor blades, I don't want the person who cleans them off to break a fingernail...
Question: if you put a sticker over another sticker (perhaps one that says 'Die TERFS', is that also criminal damage?
Good question there at the back. Ohhhh let's have another training session and pay Stonewall or some other lobby group to tell us what they think the law is on this. Not what the actual law is. Let's check the updated guidance.
Police Scotland were explaining that it's hard for a 20 year old police officer to know the complex nuance of 'hate' crime/law/flimflam and they are struggling so would like extra time to figure this out. It appears the Gwent police are ploughing ahead with bizarre behaviour too. And the PSNI. It's all a bit strange and I hope someone, somewhere thinks this is worth investigating as it's paralysing them, creating fear and confusion, using resources they don't have and further eroding any remaining trust much of the public, who they police by consent, have in them. They are farcical.
Indeed. Who would be a police officer now? I am, by nature a bit of a trusting soul. I do my duty by reporting affray or other crimes to the police in my neighbourhood. But now? How naive I was.
Aaaand I just read this...Stoke Newington (Met Police):https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/24/met-apologises-to-academic-for-sexist-derogatory-language
Woman held down by three officers, handcuffed behind her back and her ankles fastened; her clothes cut off her and CCTV shows both male and female officers speaking about her body hair and her 'smell'.
All the cops involved in this should have been fired. It is utterly disgusting and people in the U.K. should be as ashamed as I am of living in the U.S. and what goes on here.
'Guidance' puts me in mind of how sheepdogs herd Groupthink sheep into pens.
Ha. Just looked at Gwent Police twitter presence. First thing they tout about themselves is the phrase “Protecting and reassuring.” Whom? I wonder ...
Unbelievable ! Gwent police should be ashamed of themselves !
They won't be, not until the madness is over and they've stopped kissing arse for gold stars from women hating MRA's.
THEY ARE MRAs.
I wonder if this case went all the way to prosecution & trial by jury, she’d be treated with the same ‘understanding’ that was apparent in the Colston 4 case, or the Ext Reb case? (Both were deemed by the Juries to be justifiable actions.)
Any bets?
My bet would be she’d be found guilty of fly posting and a hate crime ; fined and given a criminal record and a conditional discharge.
Standing up for women’s rights is not ‘in’.
Women claim police involvement over GirlGuiding gender policy emails: Free Speech Nation discuss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1L_NNclTlw
Your "critics" at it again...a nice reply from Sarah (basically why were you on there?!).
on Twitter)
Sarah Phillimore
@SVPhillimore
@emwijessie
and
@andrewdoyle_com
And so is one woman and a man. I don’t give a damn who speaks, only that we are speaking.