London – Protests against gender-based violence continued in London on Monday, as hundreds marched from outside parliament across the city shouting “united sisters will never be defeated”, “justice for Sarah” and “killing the bill” “.
“We don’t just want excessive politics and more police officers abusing their powers against women, but we want real actions,” said Jennifer, 25. and the fight against misogyny and violence. “
The rally comes after two days of protests over the death of 33-year-old Sarah Everard, whose body was found last week after she disappeared on her way home in the evening through the streets of London. illuminated. The man accused of killing Everard is a police officer who had been charged with indecent exposure a few days before Everard’s death.
Activists had initially called for a socially distant vigil on Saturday, but permission for the vigil was denied, as the UK is currently in a national coronavirus closure. This did not stop hundreds of people, mostly women, from showing up at a park near the site where Everard was last seen in south London. About an hour later, police moved into the peaceful crowd by force and ended up arresting four people, two of them teenagers.
The protests have also highlighted the actions of the London Metropolitan Police, which officials such as the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and the UK Home Secretary, Priti Patel, have criticized and expanded the requests for pending national legislation that civil liberties groups say would increase police powers to reduce protests.
Fear of not being able to prove whether the legislation passes prompted several people and groups to join Monday’s protest.
“It’s our last chance, potentially, to express our views freely,” said Haley, 19, who noted that Black Lives Matter and climate activists Extinction Rebellion were out on Monday.
“We try to say everything we can before they silence us,” he said.
Everard’s murder has sparked a national debate about violence against women and how it is treated in the UK. Britain currently has record levels of rape prosecutions, despite an exponential increase in rape allegations in recent years.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday convened a meeting of the government’s working group on crime and justice to discuss its strategy on violence against women and why rape processes are so low. British police officers were also to hold an emergency meeting on the issue.
Anger grew rapidly over police handling of Saturday’s demonstration and thousands of people took to the streets of central London on Sunday in protest.
“We learned one thing this weekend: the right to protest, the right to assemble, the right to have a voice are fundamental to our democracy and, in particular, to British democracy,” he told Peter Peter Fahy, former general manager at a local radio station. . “You have to be wary of promoting more legislation because certain politicians didn’t like certain demonstrations in the summer,” he said.
HANNAH MCKAY / REUTERS
“I find it outrageous that the police, the Metropolitan Police, who murdered Sarah (they murdered her) and told us they don’t allow us, we don’t have permission to come and show solidarity. They killed her.” Alexandra, 26, told CBS News at the rally Saturday night.
“We’ve all experienced some kind of sexual violence or some kind of aggression or a sense of security and enough,” Sarah, 32, told CBS News on Saturday night’s vigil. “This has to be a turning point because we don’t accept feeling scared, feeling intimidated and being able to live our lives freely like our counterparts can.”