Sarah Everard vigil: London police under fire for "unacceptable" response

Brut America

"She was just trying to get home..."   A vigil for Sarah Everard turned violent after police clashed with mourners in London. Her murder has caused an outpouring of women calling out the police for victim-blaming.

Transcript

00:00Hey!

00:01Arrest Scholar!

00:03Arrest Scholar!

00:05Who do you serve? Who do you protect?

00:07Black Caucus! Black Caucus! Black Caucus!

00:41We're not safe and it's not like it's not her fault and we're consistently told like

01:01take self-defense classes, learn how to do this.

01:05This morning, one of the MPs was saying how she changes her shoes so she can be in shoes

01:09that she can run in.

01:10Those type of things and like that we're supposed to protect ourselves and we don't really finish

01:14that sentence.

01:15Who are we protecting ourselves from?

01:34She did everything that you're told to do.

01:37It's like she's walking down, it's a real, it's a quite a main road that road next to it.

01:41It's not like she was walking down a little back alley anywhere.

01:44It's a busy road, it's well lit, she was on the phone to like on the phone to her boyfriend,

01:50like wearing bright clothes.

01:52It was like half past nine at night, it's not even late.

02:07She was just trying to get home and then to have the original guidance be like not go

02:12out after dark and like this is not okay.

02:16We're adults and we deserve to be treated with the respect we like we should be able

02:19to go home, we should be able to jog when we want, we should be able to live our lives

02:22fully and not in fear.

02:38You're looking at Twitter and you're seeing so many women talk about their stories and

02:45just how they've had to change their whole way of living for years and it literally goes

02:49back years and years and years and nothing has changed.

03:07It's the women getting blamed for what they're not doing, the things they're doing wrong,

03:12what they should have done, what they could have done, rather than looking at the actual

03:16causes of the rapes and the murders, which is the men raping and murdering them.

03:21It's not the women, is it?

03:34The one thing that I have seen that has been really good is the amount of men who have

03:37come out and said, I never even considered this, like I should learn about it, I think.

03:42And I also think a lot of people don't realise not to walk behind somebody or not to, not

03:48that they're doing it on purpose, but I think people just genuinely don't realise that someone

03:51else could be quite scared by that.

04:07The fact that the man who's been arrested is a serving Metropolitan Police officer is

04:18both shocking and deeply disturbing.

04:21I recognise the significant concern this will cause.

04:33I think it's sad that something that could have been really beautiful and peaceful and

04:37respectful was allowed to turn into this violent kind of mess that didn't help anyone

04:43and was completely unnecessary.

04:44I think the Metropolitan Police have woefully mishandled it.

04:47They should have sat down with those women's organisations who are not exactly a lawless

04:52mob.

04:53They are just women who want to call attention to this awful situation.

04:57We need proper action taken and we need it taken now.

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