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

[existentialist]

I just worry how many women had a close call with this guy, how many were raped, how many he almost killed and how many women he's killed before her. I would not be at all surprised if there wasn't something like Operation Anagram set up to investigate the wider picture.

This was too slick, too practised, too obvious. It was done in Brixton ffs. There were other people about.

I really do think there has to be a societal change whereby the automatic assumption that a police officer arresting someone is somehow beyond question shifts to a position whereby any exercise of coercion or control should be up for question. And if the police don't like that idea, perhaps they'd have been better off keeping their own house in order, rather than allowing someone to get away with behaviour that brings the whole edifice into disrepute.

I mean, presumably, dialling 999 and saying "I saw someone who appears to be a policeman bundling someone into a car" ought to be enough for them to fairly quickly ascertain whether it's legit or not. This should have never happened, and I'd be interested what police forces around the country are going to start doing (they've had enough time) to ensure it never happens again.

 

[Pickman's model]

The whole orchard is rotten

 

[danny la rouge]

I really do think there has to be a societal change whereby the automatic assumption that a police officer arresting someone is somehow beyond question shifts to a position whereby any exercise of coercion or control should be up for question.

I very much hope that shift has just happened.

 

[existentialist]

I very much hope that shift has just happened.

I do not share your optimism. I think, if anything, they'll close ranks even more.

 

[Pickman's model]

I very much hope that shift has just happened.

I admire your optimism

 

[equationgirl]

I don't blame the couple who drove past and assumed it was a legit arrest by a plain clothes person. But what would have given me pause would have been a) a lack of a flashing dome light on the dashboard and b) his lack of partner, with possibly c) a lack of any police markings on his clothing, such as an over jacket or hiz viz, or even police written on a baseball cap.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, of course

 

[danny la rouge]

I do not share your optimism. I think, if anything, they'll close ranks even more.

Oh the cops will. But I hope society at large has just had a wake up call.

 

[Pickman's model]

I do not share your optimism. I think, if anything, they'll close ranks even more.

This

 

[Athos]

I'd say that it was a very likely potential consequence of training people "to keep their emotions in check". Because, when you encourage - or coerce - people to repress their emotions, some of those feelings are going to emerge in less-expected directions. For example, people with a strong desire to control or coerce others are often people who have experienced emotional difficulties around control elsewhere in their lives.

Flinging labels like "compulsive psychopath" at people serves no good end - if we want to prevent stuff like this happening, rather than merely froth at the terribleness of it all, we need to step back from glib conclusions and labelling, and start looking at underlying causes, early warning signs, etc.

My point was more that impulsiveness/poor self-control is recognised as a part of psychopathy, whereas it seems all the more creepy when it's someone who appears able (possibly through training) to control themself, but chooses not to.

 

[existentialist]

My point was more that impulsiveness/poor self-control is recognised as a part of psychopathy, whereas it seems all the more creepy when it's someone who appears able (possibly through training) to control themself, but chooses not to.

 

[equationgirl]

I watched an interesting documentary a while back about women in the Met and one described how she'd gone for a drink with several colleagues at the police social club after shift, and one known for sexual harassment picked her up and slammed her onto the snooker table. She said she was praying she wasn't raped there and then. She also never reported it.

That was the 1970s and I know things are supposedly different. But are they really?

 

[SpookyFrank]

I can't imagine anything worse than life in prison with no chance of ever getting out.

How about life in prison with no chance of getting out and you're stuck on the nonce wing.

 

[equationgirl]

How about life in prison with no chance of getting out and you're stuck on the nonce wing.

Solitary. For the whole sentence.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Solitary. For the whole sentence.

I don't give a shit what happens to him tbh. I want to know what will be done to make sure this never happens again.

 

[moomoo]

I feel really sorry for his wife and kids as well. They’ve probably had to change their names and go into hiding. And I bet he was an abusive husband.

 

[equationgirl]

I don't give a shit what happens to him tbh. I want to know what will be done to make sure this never happens again.

Never? Oh it will, somewhere. Maybe not in the UK but in the US there's a boatload of cases involving police offices.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Bearing mind any copper you see in uniform after this is one who didn't burn said uniform in shame.

 

[equationgirl]

I can't like your post, but I think you're right.

I feel really sorry for his wife and kids as well. They’ve probably had to change their names and go into hiding. And I bet he was an abusive husband.

 

[equationgirl]

Bearing mind any copper you see in uniform after this is one who didn't burn said uniform in shame.

That's..... unrealistic.

 

[Numbers]

I feel really sorry for his wife and kids as well. They’ve probably had to change their names and go into hiding. And I bet he was an abusive husband.

To think he brought his kids to the murder site in the days after.

 

[moomoo]

To think he brought his kids to the murder site in the days after.

That’s sick.

 

[trashpony]

Fine. Men like this.

It’s an important distinction. We can’t tackle male violence until we can name it.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

To think he brought his kids to the murder site in the days after.

That’s just weird and thinking back his wife was arrested early on in the investigation for aiding a crime and it was probably her visiting the scene that directly led to her arrest.

 

[ruffneck23]

To think he brought his kids to the murder site in the days after.

What the actual fuck ??? jesus

 

[sojourner]

To think he brought his kids to the murder site in the days after.

That is utterly shocking isn't it? Just when you think it can't get any worse.

 

[sojourner]

It’s an important distinction. We can’t tackle male violence until we can name it.

Absolutely. We have an epidemic of male-on-female violence, and only now are we starting to see tiny signs that it is going to be taken more seriously. I'm not holding my breath on it resulting in anything like a thorough examination of why some men behave in these ways, though. I only know of one academic study into 'family annihilators', a crime that is doubling every year.

 

[Poot]

It’s an important distinction. We can’t tackle male violence until we can name it.

This is so important. We need to know who the perpetrators are and why and there is still this big taboo about even saying the word.

 

[Orang Utan]

Absolutely. We have an epidemic of male-on-female violence, and only now are we starting to see tiny signs that it is going to be taken more seriously. I'm not holding my breath on it resulting in anything like a thorough examination of why some men behave in these ways, though. I only know of one academic study into 'family annihilators', a crime that is doubling every year.

although sadly, it’s not an epidemic as it’s always here and always happening

 

[existentialist]

although sadly, it’s not an epidemic as it’s always here and always happening

Endemic

 

[Chilli.s]

I think a copper committing this type of crime in this type of way should face a far far greater punishment than their crime normally incurs. Because a message needs to be sent to serving officers as a deterrent and spur for them to change their collective "us and them" view of themselves. Things have to change.