Katie Roche's Blog

Will Anything Stop the Thought Police?

Here we go again. The police have arrested yet another gender-critical feminist for hate speech. Jenni Swayne was arrested last week, on Monday 24th January. She had been placing stickers on street furniture in Newport city centre. The text on the stickers included: “only women have a cervix”, “3+ women killed by men each week: domestic violence kills” and “keep prisons single sex”. Gwent Police force has released a statement. Initial reports said that the stickers had broken glass or pins placed around them. They no longer say that. Yet, the police statement warns not remove stickers in case there are sharp objects behind them.

After arresting her, the police searched Swayne’s home. They removed unused stickers, and a book named “Transgender Children and Young People: Born in Your Own Body”. This book is a collection of academic essays. According to Swayne, the warrant said the police were to remove materials that could be used for a hate crime. The only way a book could be used for hate crime were if she planned to throw it at trans person. If that weren’t bad enough, she reports being mistreated in custody. Swayne has Bipolar 1 disorder (the most severe form of Bipolar Disorder) and she uses a mobility scooter for a physical disability. While she was in custody, the police didn’t let her take her medication. She also wasn’t released until the early hours of the morning.

Swayne has broken the law by flyposting. But she has been treated harshly. Perpetrators usually receive a fix penalty. (For non-UK readers, a fixed penalty is a small fine given for minor offences. The perpetrator doesn’t go to court as the payment is an acceptance of guilt. However, if the person feels they are not guilty, they can refuse to pay, and the case will go to court). Perpetrators of flyposting aren’t normally arrested. Their homes aren’t usually searched either. Also, notice how pro-trans activists who put up stickers never get in trouble for flyposting.

Swayne isn’t the first gender-critical feminist to be treated like this. But weren’t things supposed to be changing? There’ve been two important legal developments in the past few months relating to the right to freedom of expression. The most notable being Harry Miller’s case against the College of Policing. (Despite its name, the College of Policing doesn’t do any teaching. It sets policing policy). Miller is a former police officer who challenged the recording of “non-crime hate incidents”. Non-crime hate incidents are records of acts that people from certain protected groups find offensive. The definition was very broad and could include literally anything. Miller had tweeted and liked some “transphobic” content on Twitter. Including this joke: “I was assigned mammal at birth, but my orientation is fish. Don’t mis-species me.” A police officer came to his current place of work to “check Miller’s thinking”. The Court of Appeal ruled that recording non-crime hate incidents breeched human rights legislation. On the back of this case, the home secretary, Priti Patel has asked the College of Policing to stop recording non-crime hate incidents.

The other recent key ruling is the Rita Pal case. Pal’s case received less publicity than Miller’s case. And it doesn’t relate directly to gender-critical feminism. But it’s still very important for freedom of speech. Pal is former NHS psychiatrist and medical journalist. In 2014, she had dispute online with person referred to as AB. AB is a barrister and journalist who ran pressure group. Pal wrote article criticising him and alluded to him on Twitter too. AB reported Pal to police for harassment and she was arrested. Eventually, the police dropped the charges. Pal tried to sue the Metropolitan police for wrongful arrest. The case failed. She then took the case to the European Court of Human Rights. Pal argued that even though the charges were dropped, the arrest itself had an adverse impact on her freedom of expression. The court agreed. This same principle likely applies in other cases too. Including of gender-critical feminists. So why did the police arrest Swayne?

That’s difficult to answer. Are the police especially passionate about transgender rights? Or are they seizing the opportunity to punish women. It’s striking that most police action around trans rights is taken against women. Indeed, since the death of Sarah Everard, sexism in the police has come to the fore. Including within Gwent Police force. Just two months before Swayne was arrested, Gwent police force were criticised for failing to deal with an officer who was accused of domestic abuse. One victim (who herself was a police officer) described a “boy’s club culture” within the force.

Even if it’s not outright sexism, the police’s behaviour is still influenced by a lack of understanding of women’s needs. Women are most affected by the trans movement. Male-dominated police forces may not appreciate these harms. For instance, single-sex spaces exist to protect women. To a man, it might seem bigoted to say “I am not comfortable sharing a space with a transgender person”. But the same risks aren’t involved as there are for a woman in the same position.

Sometimes, I suspect the police mean well. But so often, what feels like the right thing to do initially turns out not to be the right thing to do. There is a saying that “The path to hell is paved with good intentions”. The transgender movement exemplifies that perfectly. The police see women who want to protect their rights as “evil TERFs” and want to keep us quiet. They only have one side of the story. The trans side. Not the woman’s side.

It’s not just freedom of expression that is suffering from the police’s zeal for arresting people for hate speech. By pursuing speech crimes over other offences, police have less time to deal with more serious crimes. Consequently, the public are losing faith in the police. Yougov polls show that public confidence in the police is declining. Only 4% of respondents say they have a lot of confidence in the police’s ability to solve crime. Although the impact of Sarah Everard’s murder should not be overlooked, the data shows public confidence in the police had been steadily declining before she was murdered. Most people don’t know who Jenni Swayne, Marion Millar, Kate Scottow or the countless other activists who’ve been arrested are. But they will notice the police don’t seem bothered about fighting crime. And every time the police deal with a Twitter dispute or someone putting up stickers, they are losing time and resources that could be spent dealing with other crimes. Like sexual assault or violent crime.

When I read about incidents like this, Britain feels less like an open democracy and more like a totalitarian regime. The police priorities are increasingly at odds with the public’s priorities. The Police aren’t supposed to be arbiters in culture war. There’s been a lot of talk about root and branch reform within the police force. That reform should include purging the police of niche political influences.

Please donate to Jenni Swayne’s legal defence at: https://democracythree.org/campaign/justice-for-jenni-swayne/

See previous post
See older posts

If you enjoyed this article, please consider making a donation to support the site.