Threatening or abusive writing
Femicide Census has written an open letter to Gwent Police.
Dear Chief Constable Pam Kelly and Superintendent Vicki Townsend,
Two women at the top, supervising cops who arrest and abuse a woman for posting feminist material.
We write from the Femicide Census, the UK’s only resource documenting the number of women killed by men. Our research has been used by the Home Office and the police, for example, when state bodies need to cite data on women killed by men. This is because the UK government and state agencies fail to collate this data.
Why? Why do they fail or refuse to collate the data? I’d be interested to know.
On 25 January 2022 we were alerted via Twitter to an incident where we understand a woman was arrested by Gwent police for ‘displaying threatening or abusive writing likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress’ after putting up posters, referred to by Superintendent Vicki Townsend as ‘offensive material’. In particular our attention was drawn to one poster that read ‘3+ KILLED BY MEN EACH WEEK – DOMESTIC VIOLENCE KILLS.’
It is unclear from communications from Gwent police why that particular poster that contains this statement constitutes ‘offensive material’ or is ‘threatening or abusive writing likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress’. However, it is of great concern to us if this statement has led to an arrest, both for the woman concerned and as well as our organisation and all the journalists and other bodies that use our data, which effectively states the same thing: that women are killed by men.
And you know what? It’s also of concern to us that Gwent police are being so cagey and evasive about it.
All of our data is based on FOI requests to every police force in the country including your own. Gwent police have responded to our request every time. This is why we know that 85 women were killed by men in Wales from 2009 – 2020, 53 killed by a partner or former partner and at least 16 women were killed by men in the area covered by Gwent police alone. We should also point out that thankfully, not one trans person has been killed in Wales over the past 12 years since our data set began.
We are at a loss to understand why the true nature of men’s fatal violence against women could constitute ‘offensive material’ by stating facts of that violence. And particularly given these facts have been used nationally by the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs’ Council in its own violence against women and girls delivery framework that Gwent police itself should be implementing.
I have a wild guess about why the police pretend to think the true nature of men’s fatal violence against women could constitute ‘offensive material.’ My guess is that they think, or pretend to think, that the next step is to remind us that trans women are men, and that thus trans women are potentially a threat to women if they’re allowed to share certain kinds of private spaces with women. In other words we’re not supposed to remind the world of male violence against women now because it might remind people that trans women are not automatically guaranteed safe in women’s private spaces. Don’t Mention The Male Violence lest it remind people that trans women are men. Men’s validation is infinitely more important than women’s survival.
It is crucial that women identify and name the violence than men perpetrate against us. It is women mobilising against men’s violence against women who have led the global movement against sexual and domestic violence and abuse, including prostitution, FGM, stalking, image-based abuse and femicide. Men’s violence against women includes harassment and causes alarm and distress to women. We ask you to focus your attention on the perpetrators of men’s violence against women rather than the women who campaign against it.
Do we think Gwent Police will respond? Nope. We think they’ll ignore it as they ignore all of us.
I will hazard a guess and say that there is a chance of a possibility that senior members of the Gwent police just might be (or even are) into violence against women themselves. Further, that the two women at the top of the organisation have found a reason (like say, their own career advancement) to shut up about it, and to not call for further investigation of it in-house. I know it looks ludicrous, but perhaps there is even a culture within that particular police organisation of male violence against women, and across all ranks, from the top down, and that the senior women are reconciled with it..
Somewhere in feminist news in the last few months there was a report about some organization that previously collected or provided data on the numbers of women killed (I think it was in the UK, but has stopped doing so, because the organization learned the information was being used by “anti-trans” or “transphobic” groups. I cannot locate the report at the moment, but maybe somebody here remembers, and maybe it involves the police department mentioned here.
Quote of the poster is missing a word:
“3+ WOMEN killed by men ….”
Re #3, good catch, especially since it is probably the word WOMEN that “constitutes ‘offensive material’ or is ‘threatening or abusive writing likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress’” in the eyes of the police. (The sticking point, one might say.)