Today is brought to you by the word entitlement. Yesterday an anonymous account from a supposed serving officer decided to instruct me on how I am meant to follow “accepted protocol” before I publish criticism of the Met Police. And yet cited her human right to privacy when I suggested she publicly leave comment with her name and rank.
One of the biggest problems that the Met Police face is that they think they are untouchable. They are not required to play by the rules that the rest of the world are subjected to; but simultaneously think that they are owed absolute deference and trust.
They continually treat women’s safety like it is a PR exercise; and given my line of work, I just don’t comprehend with the budgets that they have how they are possibly so so bad at it. Who the hell told them shutting down a vigil for a woman killed by one of their own was wise? Had they not antagonised us and let it go ahead; we would have gone back to our normal lives on Sunday. Instead they forced us into court; manhandled women at the vigil and created a beast and were found to violate our human right to assemble. Cressida Dick trying to silence us has gone really well for her. The last 24 months of my life have been an episode of the Thick of It.
Yesterday was the finale of Series 2.
Let me set the scene, in the past 18 months, the Met has refused hundreds of right of reply opportunities on the news and on BBC Radio, TimesRadio and LBC opposite me to respond to my vociferous criticisms. They have not acknowledged my existence publicly and Commissioner Mark Rowley has refused any media appearances opposite me. His team has made no outreach to me at all. On BBC Radio London last week Salma El-Wardany asked me what I would have said to Mark Rowley had he agreed to come on opposite me and I answered “Nice to meet you.”
I reached out to request a meeting with Louisa Rolf when Pregnant then Screwed was struggling with permission for their march and she met with me. That was the one and only time I was invited to Scotland Yard. Nothing came of the meeting.
The Met has denied over 17 FOI requests to admit how much public money was spent fighting Reclaim These Streets;
instead they vindictively prosecuted some of the women that attended the vigil on the night AFTER losing to us in the High Courts and losing two hopeless appeals. I wrote a bitchy tweet about it being vindictive and they substantiated it to Tristan Kirk. No transparency, no apology, no accountability. All of those convictions were later reversed— more public money spent and wasted.
On Feb 1, The Times ran an article stating: “The Metropolitan Police has asked hundreds of retired officers with a history of misconduct to reapply for a job in an effort to boost numbers”
I tweeted angrily about it multiple times. No one from the Met responded; which is unsurprising as they have never responded to me in any official capacity for 2 years.
Susannah Fish is the ex-police chief of Nottingham and I’ve met her through campaigning work and she made misogyny a hate crime in Nottingham. She knows the system, its challenges and has more knowledge on what change is possible. I have immense respect for the work she did whilst in the police and since she left. I often get advice and input from Sue, Nusrit Mehtab and Shabnam Chaudri who are all former police. I want the change I advocate for to be considered, possible and constructive and respect and rely on their lived experience to inform my opinions and demands for reform.
On Feb 1, Sue Fish Quote Tweeted my tweet and specifically asked Dame Lynn Owens to explain.
Apologies for the boring level of detail I am about to go into– but it comes back to entitlement and arrogance and one rule for them and one for us.
In the meantime, I seethed. I wrote a blistering piece about how hard it is to actually face disciplinary action let alone get fired from the force. I published on Feb 3rd.
Also on Feb 3rd Dame Lynn Owens responded to Sue and not me. I was not included or tagged in the response.
I shared her response. Owens (first direct response from anyone at the Met to me in 2 years) said that is correct.
It is absolutely beyond me why the Met would not make an announcement or clarify that no sacked officers were rehired or that no one who was quietly able to retire during misconduct charges would be able to rejoin the force. Just tweeting me surely won’t do the trick? There is no transparency. Just like there is no transparency on what the vetting actually entails. Reminder- Carrick passed vetting and revetting. Vetting is the 2023 version of Run for a Bus.
From an anonymous account with a cat as their avatar the following exchange then takes place. I am including it in full.
I owe it to the Met to follow their “accepted protocol”? The Met that threatened me with £10,000 in fines and prosecution under the serious crimes act? The Met that violated my human rights and then appealed it twice and won’t release how much they spent trying to silence us? The Met where the former commissioner called us: naive young women that meant well? The Met that refuses to acknowledge their mistakes and actually bring critics in to hear the negative feedback?
The Met that employed Couzens? The Met that had Bastard Dave Carrick for 20 years and re-victimised his victims and didn’t even suspend him? The Met that shot and killed an unarmed Chris Kaba? The Met that sent racist, sexist and homophobic messages? The Met that photographed Bibaa and Nicole? Shall I go on?
The Met that has an officer currently that took a pic of a decomposing man and shared it- the people he shared it to are gone, but he’s had some reflective practice.
The Met that allows domestic violence by officers to flourish? The Met that acted as bouncers for parties for No 10 while threatening my livelihood for a vigil for a woman killed by one of their own? The Met who is in special measures. The Met who Baroness Casey eviscerated in her interim report?
The Met that apparently can’t do a mail merge. Nah, that’s a pass from me. I will not follow your imagined protocol. Sorry cat lady, your commissioner can come to me across open and appropriate channels if he wants to tell me how much they spent to fight us and what they actually plan to do to keep the women of London safe, but I won’t be sitting by the phone waiting for his call.