In the wake of the brutal murder of Sarah Everard, Boris Johnson’s government has fallen into the twin perils of modern conservatism in relation to policing: heavy-handed police tactics and promises of further spending. With the prime suspect being a police officer in the murder, UK confidence in state policing looks to drop even further than its current low standing.
The first response of the UK government was through the Metropolitan Police to attempt to stop the vigil that had been planned in remembrance of Sarah Everard. Under the guise of covid restrictions, the Met decided to ban even a socially distanced vigil.
When the vigil went ahead anyway, the Met decided to drag mourners away who were trying to place candles. This has caused an unfathomable outrage among ordinary people in the UK, with people at the vigil chanting “arrest your own.”
The government then played a game of pass the parcel, with Cassandra Dick (chief of the London police) saying she would have an inquiry, Priti Patel (the minister responsible for policing across the UK) saying she would look into it and the prime minister adding not much more to the proceedings.
However, it has now come out that the government’s real response is to have more police officers and have them in even more places. Therefore, not only does this serve as a massive insult to the memory of Sarah Everard, but at the same time it curbs civil liberties, increases the police force and places them in an increased position of power after a policeman was shown to have abused this power.
Remember that Boris was once hailed as a libertarian, but piece by piece, from military spending to what people eat, he has eroded this image to show us that he is nothing more than the same old authoritarian politician we have had for years.
If there was a true libertarian in No 10 Downing Street, their response would be something more like the following:
Firstly, the vigil should have been allowed to proceed as normal. Not curbing civil liberties at such a sensitive time, for such a small amount of people, would have been the sensible thing to do.
Secondly, in the wake of this murder, increased rigor in selecting police officers should have been introduced. As one of the most important jobs in any community, it’s essential that we have the best and brightest applicants on the force.
Thirdly, the ridiculous laws governing equipment for personal protection should be relaxed, and if the government wanted to spend money, maybe community-supported self-defence classes for young women would have been more appropriate than dragging innocent people off the street.
Women (and men) in the UK at the moment are in a precarious and dangerous position; few crimes are dealt with to the satisfaction of the victims but no real solution is ever posited. As I have discussed before, deregulation is now necessary to deal with this epidemic of crime.
The UK government needs to wake up to the fact that they are barely dealing with 10 percent of all reported crimes and that serious crimes are on the rise. The state-enforced lockdown has exacerbated this situation and ordinary working- and middle-class people are suffering daily because of it.
This needs to change and fast so that people can feel confident in the police force and safe on their streets and in their homes.
