The case of Sarah Everard taught us women one thing: our safety is now only in our hands. Otherwise, more brutally and in the words of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner of North Yorkshire, Philip Allott, women have been advised to become more ‘streetwise’. Though Allott eventually resigned, his point remains. The lack of safety provided to women walking alone at night is, to the police, our concern, one which women must be ‘wiser’ about.
On first thought, it is worth asking who was responsible for taking the life of Sarah Everard, who raped her, who the police must punish. Police found that it was, in fact, one of their own– PC Wayne Couzens, who had joined the MET Police in 2018 and, following his conviction for the murder of Everard, was formally dismissed after an ‘accelerated misconduct hearing held behind closed doors’, in which it was concluded that he ‘breached the standards of professional behaviour in respect of discreditable conduct’. His false arrest of Sarah Everard for allegedly violating COVID-19 restrictions, and her rape and murder – the ‘breach of professional behaviour standards’ in question – led to Couzens’ life prison sentence being decided on Thursday 30th September 2021. From this perspective, Sarah Everard was granted justice, but was this truly a moment of justice for all women?
FILE PHOTO: Signs and flowers are left under a tree near the Clapham Common Bandstand, following the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard, in London, Britain, March 17, 2021. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez/File Photo
Sarah Everard is one of many. Sabina Nessa, a more recent victim of femicide, is one of many. The hundreds at the Cardiff and Clapham protests in support of Sarah Everard on the 15th of March 2021 are subject to the risk of becoming one of many. Since March 2020, 207 women have been murdered, with one quarter of killings consisting of female victims. According to Research on Femicide Census, in the past decade alone, 9/10 murderers were men, with 57% of female victims being killed by someone they knew – most commonly a partner or ex–partner – which compares to the 39% of male victims in the same circumstance.
PC Wayne Couzens proved to all women in the UK, including Home Secretary Priti Patel, that women are no longer safe in the hands of the law. As an alternative to Philip Allott’s dismissive solution of suggesting that women ought to educate themselves on the dangers of the streets, a new phone service for women feeling unsafe has been planned – the 888 phone service. This new system, plans for which plans have been backed by Priti Patel, allows women who feel unsafe to have their journeys tracked, with an alert being triggered if they do not reach their destination on time.
On the surface, the proposed 888 phone line could ensure the temporary safety of women, or, as Philip Allott would consider it, increase how ‘streetwise’ women become. However, this new plan has been discredited by critics as ‘putting a plaster’ on male violence.
Samantha Billingham (from the Survivors of Domestic Abuse Support Group), for instance, tweeted: “Women could use the app to summon Police if they felt threatened. After the murder of Sarah Everard?”.
In fact, the murder of Sarah Everard indeed fuelled distrust in the law enforcement, for many women feel they cannot trust those who are paid to be trusted, to ensure that women are not at risk of becoming statistics in the Research on Femicide Census. The strategy of the 888 phone line is indeed a ‘plaster’ over a deep wound, obliging women to feel safe in the hands of those who they can no longer feel safe around. Instead of women adhering to conventional ‘streetwise’ behaviour, ‘streetwise’ measures should be implemented against male violence towards women, measures that would stitch and heal this wound, rather than simply ‘putting a plaster’ over it. Women’s freedom must not be restricted to accommodate male violence.
Edited by Ayla Samson
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