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RIP Sarah Everard, who went missing from Brixton in March 2021

Turned out there was a vigil local to me but I didn't find out about it until this morning even though I went looking for the info. Presumably that means there could be a protest near me this afternoon too? I wonder if the best thing to do is just wonder around town at 4pm and see if I can spot one?
 
Ms Ordinary said:
There were some men there, they weren't unwelcome - especially the ones acting as observers & filming the police! (This included men & women of course).

But I agree, I think it was good that it was mostly women, so I am glad more weren't there.
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I hadn't for one moment thought I'd be unwelcome, and the all event info suggested it was an open event, so that was the least of my considerations around me going along. I had lots of thoughts, but not that one.
 
As others have said, it was peaceful and fairly well distanced, I was about to leave around 6.30ish as it was dark and cold by then, and other people were drifting away too; then the police moved onto the bandstand and everyone moved forward to see what was happening, and I decided to stick around to see what the Met were playing at. Im sure many others stayed longer, and bunched up closer for the same reasons.
 
After listening to LBC I’ve changed my stance.

Other police forces around the country agreed safe gatherings.
No problems occurred.

Protest are not illegal. There is no blanket against protests. The met were aware of this.

Met refused to agree any kind of gathering and made a conscious decision to arrest individuals at the scene.

The met once again act like scum though choice not circumstance.
 
Mr.Bishie said:
Not seen any evidence of that yet - though my earlier post wouldn’t be a surprise that they were waiting in the wings. Have seen a few unsubstantiated tweets that an agent provocateur was present, spouting covid guff, only to be nicked by one of his own plain clothed.
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Piers Corbyn pitched up, forced his way into the bandstand and raved for a bit, before a couple of policemen quietly removed him. Then we carried on calmly and respectfully for an hour before the police decided they fancied a bit of violence
 
Ms Ordinary said:
I was alarmed enough by what I'd seen the police doing - groups of 20 suddenly surging through a peaceful group of people - that I took a wide detour through the common to avoid going past them, hence having to cut back past the Windmill.

Really grateful to whoever the orange-jacketed 'observers' were, and to the people filming it properly.
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If you saw anything specific, write it down and send it to green and black cross. May be useful in court later x
 
Winot said:
OH said there were police officers going round the crowd from about 6.30pm with an obvious script along the lines of “you shouldn’t be here because Covid; go home or £200 fine” etc. Very confrontational.

An alternative script was available (e.g. “we are trying to balance your right to protest with the public health concerns; would you mind moving on once you’ve paid your respects”). The Met chose not to police it in this way.
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I heard one P.O. saying “I encourage you to start leaving now” as he and his partner wandered through the crowd but I could also hear the raised voices of other officers bellowing more confrontational stuff elsewhere.

I left as soon as I felt the mood shift. I’ve been at enough protests to be able to tell when that happens and I’m just not so strong and nimble as I was, so I decided to leave it in the hands of my younger sisters. I went to the quieter vigil (no cops at all) at Poynder’s Court and stayed there for a while. Passers by were stopping to pay their respects and read the messages, a couple of women with their fellas beside them, some of us just alone, holding vigil. Tears aplenty, very little chat. Numbers fluctuated from one or two up to eight or nine, down to just a few again. I stayed about half an hour.

Got home in time to put a candle lantern and a written sign for Sarah Everard on New Park Road, along where she would have walked had she gotten home safely.



As someone else said, it looked a lot as if the cops waited for nightfall before they got busy at Clapham. It was quiet and somber, very focussed on the matter at hand before the cops intervened. It felt private.

But then the cops stopped women from speaking. For me, that was the issue. Women were speaking without a megaphone, their words being repeated by the crowd so everyone could hear. But then police intervened somehow (I was too far back to see what they actually did ) and the cry went up “Let her speak!” It was the utter absurdity and pure hypocrisy in that, I think, that caused the mood to shift. That’s when the chanting started, the crowd calling in unison “whose streets, our streets, no justice no peace” (which seemed to be started by a Black man standing near me... it felt like he’d connected the BLM movement to this, and it felt like Brotherhood) and then “arrest your own”. Seemed to me like cops near me really didn’t like that, a bunch of women calling them out for hypocrisy, that was another little flip moment.




Please excuse the possible romanticism in my interpretation. I can only report what my own observation told me, and I was in an emotional state of mind.
 
Rutita1 said:
Utter tosh. All they had to do was let it go ahead and then weather any criticism with 'in the public interest' type statements whilst centering Sarah Everend and women's grief.

They chose the cause of action that suited them, as they often do and it involved more violence against women.
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Yup. And it was a weird, subdued event that was already petering out. There wouldn’t even have been any front page photos, just Kate and flowers from earlier in the day.
 
SheilaNaGig said:
I heard one P.O. saying “I encourage you to start leaving now” as he and his partner wandered through the crowd but I could also hear the raised voices of other officers bellowing more confrontational stuff elsewhere.

I left as soon as I felt the mood shift. I’ve been at enough protests to be able to tell when that happens and I’m just not so strong and nimble as I was, so I decided to leave it in the hands of my younger sisters. I went to the quieter vigil (no cops at all) at Poynder’s Court and stayed there for a while. Passers by were stopping to pay their respects and read the messages, a couple of women with their fellas beside them, some of us just alone, holding vigil. Tears aplenty, very little chat. Numbers fluctuated from one or two up to eight or nine, down to just a few again. I stayed about half an hour.

Got home in time to put a candle lantern and a written sign for Sarah Everard on New Park Road, along where she would have walked had she gotten home safely.



As someone else said, it looked a lot as if the cops waited for nightfall before they got busy at Clapham. It was quiet and somber, very focussed on the matter at hand before the cops intervened. It felt private.

But then the cops stopped women from speaking. For me, that was the issue. Women were speaking without a megaphone, their words being repeated by the crowd so everyone could hear. But then police intervened somehow (I was too far back to see what they actually did ) and the cry went up “Let her speak!” It was the utter absurdity and pure hypocrisy in that, I think, that caused the mood to shift. That’s when the chanting started, the crowd calling in unison “whose streets, our streets, no justice no peace” (which seemed to be started by a Black man standing near me... it felt like he’d connected the BLM movement to this, and it felt like Brotherhood) and then “arrest your own”. Seemed to me like cops near me really didn’t like that, a bunch of women calling them out for hypocrisy, that was another little flip moment.




Please excuse the possible romanticism in my interpretation. I can only report what my own observation told me, and I was in an emotional state of mind.
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I went to Poynders Court too. Blonde, green ski jacket. We probably saw each other and didn’t even know
 
Gromit said:
After listening to LBC I’ve changed my stance.

Other police forces around the country agreed safe gatherings.
No problems occurred.

Protest are not illegal. There is no blanket against protests. The met were aware of this.

Met refused to agree any kind of gathering and made a conscious decision to arrest individuals at the scene.

The met once again act like scum though choice not circumstance.
Click to expand...

I was just going to say this. Here is the statement from Reclaim the Streets



The decision to not work with the organisers is to be laid at door of Cressida Dick. Who should go.

Noticed she sent out someone else to give statement. She the overall person responsible has gone to ground.
 
Manter said:
Piers Corbyn pitched up, forced his way into the bandstand and raved for a bit, before a couple of policemen quietly removed him. Then we carried on calmly and respectfully for an hour before the police decided they fancied a bit of violence
Click to expand...

Ah, this makes sense of what people who were there earlier were trying to describe to me about the one bit of the vigil that made no sense to them - they had no idea who he was.

Manter said:
quietly removed him
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about the only sensible thing they did all night...
 
Ms Ordinary said:
Ah, this makes sense of what people who were there earlier were trying to describe to me about the one bit of the vigil that made no sense to them - they had no idea who he was.

about the only sensible thing they did all night...
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I had a conversation with someone I know after and we were like ‘ooh, sensible policing’ and then all hell broke loose
 
Manter said:
Yup. And it was a weird, subdued event that was already petering out. There wouldn’t even have been any front page photos, just Kate and flowers from earlier in the day.
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Was it petering out?
That’s not the impression I got when I arrived at about 6:00. There were certainly people leaving as I arrived, but also plenty of people arriving and the crowd seemed very focused.

I agree it would have thinned out and ended quite naturally as it got colder and darker, without the need for aggressive policing.
 
Manter said:
If you saw anything specific, write it down and send it to green and black cross. May be useful in court later x
Click to expand...

There probably isn't, as I was well mostly well back, just observing the mood (and like a few others, it was only seeing the uncomfortable mood that made me stay longer than I intended) - I arrived to hear "Let her speak" & it was a few minutes before I realised "get your hands off my sister" wasn't rhetorical, or referring to this weeks news, it was because of what police were actually doing that moment :(

But off to google green & black cross now, ta x
 
It's a myth that people like Cressida Dick and institutions like the met are particularly intelligent, because it lets people who are supposed to be defending us from them off the hook when they look the other way (eg Labour). And I suppose because the myth of mertiocracy is really engrained in our culture too. That's why stuff like this happens. It's because they're thick as shit.
 
Gramsci said:
I was just going to say this. Here is the statement from Reclaim the Streets



The decision to not work with the organisers is to be laid at door of Cressida Dick. Who should go.

Noticed she sent out someone else to give statement. She the overall person responsible has gone to ground.
Click to expand...

The comments below are, as ever, disappointing.
 
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