The news broke this evening that Vincent Tabak has been found guilty of murdering 25 year old Jo Yates. The case had, we are told, a sexual dimension but it was Tabak's use of porn - which was not admissible in the case - that has set the twitter and blogging world alight. Julie Bindel - the ever controversial feminist was quick (amazingly so - almost as if it was pre-written) to get her copy in to the Guardian. She has written a piece which - for me at least - is pretty much astonishing in its ill-thought out proposals and analysis. It is based on misunderstandings and misapprehensions and these are dealt with in the extensive comments to her post that have already appeared. Rather than repeat them here, read her piece, read the comments and decide for yourself.
Showing posts with label hate crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hate crime. Show all posts
Friday, 28 October 2011
Monday, 19 July 2010
Hate Crime, Public Sex and a Failure of Policing
Sometimes the police are like a schizophrenic lover. One minute, they want to chop up your trousers and throw you out the house and the next minute they want to jump your bones. At least that's how it seems when it comes to public sex environments.
Different police forces take different approaches to public sex but even then, they can send out mixed signals. On the one hand, public sex can be treated as a bad thing with the police recording license plates, stopping and asking questions of cruisers and sometimes even arrests. On the other hand, all police forces seem to talk of their concern at homophobic crime. Hate crime is bad. The police are there to protect you. The trouble is when you have hate crime in a public sex environment it all gets a bit, well, to want for a better phrase, it all gets a bit fucked up. The police find themselves protecting people they are simultaniously trying to stop, maybe even arrest for another crime. It cuts to the heart of the difficulty of policing PSEs and the police understanding their role and explaining it clearly to cruisers.
So, when, as the Pink Paper reports, a series of hate crimes appear to be taking place in a public sex environment, the apparent inaction of the police ( because the attacks have not been formally reported) is a result of years of failed policing and bad law. Read about these developments in Kent here.
Different police forces take different approaches to public sex but even then, they can send out mixed signals. On the one hand, public sex can be treated as a bad thing with the police recording license plates, stopping and asking questions of cruisers and sometimes even arrests. On the other hand, all police forces seem to talk of their concern at homophobic crime. Hate crime is bad. The police are there to protect you. The trouble is when you have hate crime in a public sex environment it all gets a bit, well, to want for a better phrase, it all gets a bit fucked up. The police find themselves protecting people they are simultaniously trying to stop, maybe even arrest for another crime. It cuts to the heart of the difficulty of policing PSEs and the police understanding their role and explaining it clearly to cruisers.
So, when, as the Pink Paper reports, a series of hate crimes appear to be taking place in a public sex environment, the apparent inaction of the police ( because the attacks have not been formally reported) is a result of years of failed policing and bad law. Read about these developments in Kent here.
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