{"id":23067,"date":"2023-02-09T20:08:38","date_gmt":"2023-02-09T20:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=23067"},"modified":"2023-03-29T12:25:10","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T12:25:10","slug":"scrap-plans-to-give-cops-more-power-say-women-as-david-carrick-jailed-for-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2023\/02\/09\/scrap-plans-to-give-cops-more-power-say-women-as-david-carrick-jailed-for-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Scrap plans to give cops more power, say women as David Carrick jailed for life"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following article written by Anita Mureithi was firs posted by openDemocracy. <\/a>A Met officer has been locked up for dozens of rapes. Yet Suella Braverman\u2019s priority is clamping down on protesters<\/strong><\/p>\n

SCRAP PLANS TO GIVE COPS MORE POWER, SAY WOMEN AS DAVID CARICK IS JAILED FOR LIFE<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Protesters gather outside Southwark Crown Court for the sentencing of serial rapist former police officer David Carrick<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMark Rowley [the Metropolitan Police commissioner] is saying he wants the police to be publicly accountable, but the government is giving them more powers to be less accountable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a direct area of constant conflict and possible confrontation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those were the words of Lisa Longstaff from Women Against Rape and Crissie Amiss from Women of Colour Global Women\u2019s Strike, speaking to openDemocracy outside Southwark Crown Court where police officer and serial rapist David Carrick was today\u00a0jailed for life<\/a>\u00a0over 85 offences.<\/p>\n

Carrick\u2019s conviction less than two years after the rape and murder of\u00a0Sarah Everard<\/a>\u00a0by a serving officer from the same unit, Wayne Couzens, has piled pressure on Britain\u2019s biggest police force,\u00a0the Met<\/a>, which is already in special measures following a string of scandals.<\/p>\n

But Longstaff and Amiss and their respective groups were at Southwark to draw attention to something else. The\u00a0Public Order Bill<\/a>, currently making its way through the House of Lords, will give police officers like Carrick and Couzens even more power to crack down on protests \u2013 including protests against the police themselves.<\/p>\n

Images of cops violently detaining women in Clapham Common during a vigil for Everard in 2021 did little to halt the passage of the\u00a0Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act<\/a>\u00a0through Parliament, though a series of last-minute additions by home secretary Priti Patel were voted down in the Lords.<\/p>\n

The Public Order Bill restores the proposals that were stripped from the act, giving police more power to shut down protests, and the courts more power to punish protesters who cause \u201cserious disruption\u201d.<\/p>\n

Last week, peers in the House of Lords voted 243 to 221 to raise the threshold for what was defined as \u201cserious disruption\u201d. But strong concerns about the planned new law remain.<\/p>\n

Jurors at Southwark have heard harrowing details of how Carrick used his position as a constable at the\u00a0Metropolitan Police<\/a>\u00a0to carry out a series of brutal attacks, and prevent his victims from leaving or reporting him.<\/p>\n

Last month the Met announced that\u00a01,633<\/a>\u00a0cases of alleged sexual offences or domestic violence involving 1,071 officers and other staff are being assessed. The force has\u00a0repeatedly refused<\/a>\u00a0to give openDemocracy details of abusive messages shared inside WhatsApp groups, and last month\u00a0would not say<\/a>\u00a0how many officers in its own Sexual Offences Unit had been accused of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

For Longstaff and Amiss, new anti-protest laws will make it harder for the public to hold the police to account \u2013 which is vital as more victims of police sexual violence continue to come forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more [people\u2019s] voices are out there, they can’t just whitewash it or say it\u2019s not happening,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that the conviction rate for rape has gone to\u00a0below 1%<\/a>\u00a0is really an indication of just how all of this collectively builds up to stop any of us getting the justice that we’re entitled to. [We can] speak out and\u2026 make the case that this is not just the odd bad apple.\u201d<\/p>\n

As details continue to come out about Carrick\u2019s campaign of degradation and torture, rights groups, particularly those that work with victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse, say there is no one to safely report attacks to when the attackers are police.<\/p>\n

For Longstaff and Amiss, \u201cone of the things that\u2019s striking about this case is\u2026 he was clearly abusing his uniform, his gun, his\u00a0powers as an officer<\/a>, as they do, and\u2026 literally during the act of rape, saying things to women like: \u2018Who\u2019s going to believe you? I\u2019m a police officer.\u2019 When you\u2019re in that situation it is terrifying because you know it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really hard to report rape by a police officer, whether you\u2019re a policewoman or a civilian woman \u2013 it\u2019s really stacked against you because, until very recently, nobody would have believed you.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been emboldened to have the confidence that they can rape and commit domestic violence with impunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jurors heard how for more than 17 years Carrick had relied on his \u201ccharm\u201d to \u201cbeguile and mislead\u201d 12 victims before using his position as a police officer to intimidate and control them.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Tom Little KC reportedly\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0the court as his sentencing began on Monday that the former officer was \u201cno doubt aware that they would conclude they would be unlikely to be believed if they were to come forward on their own and claim that a Metropolitan Police officer had raped them\u201d.<\/p>\n

Despite Carrick being investigated by police in 2000 for allegedly harassing and burgling an ex-partner, no charges were brought against him, and he passed vetting checks when he joined the Met in 2001. Known by colleagues as \u201cBastard Dave\u201d, he would go on to be on the police radar again in 2002, 2004, 2009, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2021, yet he wasn\u2019t prosecuted for any of these incidents.<\/p>\n

Last month, Scotland Yard\u00a0admitted<\/a>\u00a0that it failed to spot Carrick\u2019s escalating pattern of abuse, leaving him free to carry out multiple violent sexual offences, including holding a handgun to one victim\u2019s head before raping her, and locking another victim in a cupboard after threatening her with his police baton.<\/p>\n

For Amiss, the issue of feeling unsafe while reporting abuse to police is far reaching. \u201cThere are whole sectors [of people] who have to weigh whether or not we can go to the police. You know, if we\u2019re women of colour, going to the police might end up with us being criminalised for something [if we are reporting] that violence to an officer who\u2019s a racist. And it\u2019s very clear just how many officers in the force are racist.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to think twice \u2013 can I really go and say that? Who will believe me?\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ones that we\u2019re supposed to report to are the same ones that are terrorising our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yesterday the court\u00a0heard<\/a>\u00a0that one of the victims, who was assaulted by penetration, did not report the attack because she \u201cdoubted anyone would do anything if she made a complaint\u201d.<\/p>\n

Anne Neale, of Support Not Separation, a campaign group that works to end the separation of children from their mother or primary carer, pointed out that the impact of police impunity is also felt in family courts.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the police don\u2019t take reports of rape and domestic violence seriously,\u201d she told openDemocracy, \u201cwhen women do report, it means that by the time they get to the family court, the fact that they haven\u2019t got a police report, or that the police haven\u2019t taken it seriously, is used to undermine their case.\u201d<\/p>\n

In light of the Public Order Bill, Longstaff and Amiss say that protests allow for \u201cpeople who are up against the police in so many different ways\u201d to find justice and community.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor [victims] to actually speak out, that takes a lot of courage,\u201d they said. \u201cAnd it also gives hope. The fact that there is a movement that is speaking out and ready to protect those of us who, too, are victims, or who are being turned into suspects or criminalised whenever we try and raise what’s happening to us \u2013 that really gives power to a whole set of other people to say: \u2018I’ve had that experience, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

7.2.23<\/strong><\/p>\n

______________<\/p>\n

also see:<\/p>\n

Belfast City Council must rename street named after alleged sex offender – Socialist Democracy (Ireland)<\/a><\/p>\n

Victoria Guiffre \u2013 no justice under the British legal system, \u2018the best that money can buy\u2019 \u2013 Republican Socialist Platform<\/a><\/p>\n

Clapham Bandstand: the birth of a new women\u2019s movement \u2013 Anti-Capitalist Resistance<\/a><\/p>\n

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The following article written by Anita Mureithi was firs posted by openDemocracy. A Met officer has been locked up for dozens of rapes. Yet Suella Braverman\u2019s priority is clamping down on protesters SCRAP PLANS TO GIVE COPS MORE POWER, SAY WOMEN AS DAVID CARICK IS JAILED FOR LIFE \u201cMark Rowley [the Metropolitan Police commissioner] is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1858,1859,1878],"tags":[9166],"class_list":["post-23067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oppression-liberation","category-womens-liberation","category-england-against-unionism","tag-author-anita-mureithi"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/mastodon.scot\/@rcfscotland\/109836587601826216","error":""},"views":1578,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23067"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23384,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23067\/revisions\/23384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}