A serving London police officer used his badge and handcuffs to detain a young woman (Sarah Everard), he then raped her, murdered her and set fire to her body.
Since this absolutely awful case caught headlines various changes have been made to police policy. Several hundred officers are being investigated for crimes that (for some reason) were not previously investigated [1]. And the government brought in new laws against street harassment [2]. I support the changes (as far as I understand them) and I really don’t understand why the police were not already investigating officers accused of serious sex crimes. But, it is still clear that the case of Sarah Everard is not a typical example of “street harassment” (its not an example at all), so mentioning her case in that discussion feels vaguely dishonest.
An example I think fits the pattern:
A serving London police officer used his badge and handcuffs to detain a young woman (Sarah Everard), he then raped her, murdered her and set fire to her body.
Since this absolutely awful case caught headlines various changes have been made to police policy. Several hundred officers are being investigated for crimes that (for some reason) were not previously investigated [1]. And the government brought in new laws against street harassment [2]. I support the changes (as far as I understand them) and I really don’t understand why the police were not already investigating officers accused of serious sex crimes. But, it is still clear that the case of Sarah Everard is not a typical example of “street harassment” (its not an example at all), so mentioning her case in that discussion feels vaguely dishonest.
[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63162881 [Police investigations]
[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65065154 [Street harassment bill linked to the murder]
[3] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/c8657zxk82wt?page=2 [A list of everything the BBC think links to the murder]