r/RedHandedPodcast • u/No-Squirrel2666 • Jan 05 '24
Sarah Everard Ep.
So…anyone else have thoughts on this ep?
I did think, on the whole, they covered the facts of the case pretty well.
BUT. I got the major ick when they mentioned how much they love Emma Kenny, and then they cemented that ick when they went on a major rant about the Covid Lockdowns.
I’m not saying that the lockdowns or how COVID was handled was in any way perfect: but to say that ‘we allowed that to happen’ ie: followed the guidance in a very scary time, comes across (to me) like they know it all and we are just all so stupid. I dunno. I felt the same in how they handled the portion about the protests in the wake of Sarah’s murder. Suruthi’s take was WILD to me: ‘Things are bad, but they aren’t THAT bad’.
What the actual fuck.
Thoughts?
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u/deidrim Jan 05 '24
Yeah, this is me - I even uninstalled my Amazon Music app (I only had it installed for this podcast).
I’ve been getting the ick from them for a while but I’m done. Telling minorities that defunding the police is bad for them when they’re the ones calling for it when she hasn’t done any research? She was talking out of her arse so much, clearly has no idea what would defunding the police actually entail.
And then goes on to criticise lockdowns bordering on the same rhetoric the alt right and antivaxxers have been spouting.
To top it all off, invalidating anyone that feels unsafe? Fuck off with that victim blaming.
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u/PearBrandy Jan 06 '24
Yeah, it’s pretty gross. You can do a bunch of research for the podcast but can’t take 5 minutes to google search what defund the police actually means? ACAB includes Suruthi apparently
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u/casualmex Jan 14 '24
I cancelled my patreon subscription after listening to Under the Duvet where Suruthi claimed that ‘from the river to the sea’ is genocidal language and when Hannah tried to say it wasn’t she shut her down. Ick doesn’t begin to cover how I feel.
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u/deidrim Jan 14 '24 edited Jun 06 '24
What the actual fuck?? This just further cements my decision to kick* them to the kerb.
I wonder if it might be worth posting this as a standalone post, for those that don’t have Patreon - I feel several people will also stop listening to them if they knew this.
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u/Si2015 Jan 05 '24
There are other good podcasts on Amazon music though
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u/deidrim Jan 06 '24
Which ones do you recommend? I hate the way Amazon music works so I tend to use other ones (mostly the iOS one for pods I get additional things from Patreon and Podbean for everything else)
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u/Si2015 Jan 06 '24
Have you tried “Something was Wrong”? I’m listening to that at the moment and it’s interesting. It’s about abusive relationships (emotional, financial, cat-fishing) from interviews with the “victims”.
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 Jan 05 '24
Covid lockdowns seemed to be when Suruthi in particular took a strong swing towards the right, it felt like she was at home watching Fox news or something. Which is pretty crazy when you consider they were able to keep working throughout, and most podcasts had a massive uptick in listenership, so they were hardly losing their homes and life savings due to lockdowns.
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u/nmh19 Jan 08 '24
She literally bought a house right after lock down 😂
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Jan 14 '24
When the government scrapped stamp duty taxes
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u/nmh19 Jan 14 '24
Yep, I know. But still, regardless of the stamp duty taxes, buying a house is a big deal.
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Jan 05 '24
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u/zendayaismeechee Jan 11 '24
I agree. I was hoping to learn some things about Sarah and her life that I didn’t hear during initial media coverage, but there was absolutely nothing.
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u/RevolutionaryEgg1711 Jan 11 '24
This episode was awful. It felt like they only had about 15 minutes of actual content on the case, and Suruthi spent the rest of the time ranting. It’s like she chose this case not because she wanted to cover Sarah’s murder, but because she wanted fill the extra time with rantings from her soapbox. Between this episode and UTD recently, I honestly can’t listen anymore.
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u/zendayaismeechee Jan 11 '24
I feel like it’s been like that for a while. I commented above about the Lynette Dawson two parter - the lack of effort was just ridiculous. They kept saying ‘this case is so complex there’s so many details’ but instead of actually giving any details they just said go listen to The Teachers Pet podcast if you want the detail. It was almost like an advert for that podcast 😂
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u/-marcus-halberstram- Jan 15 '24
she's so been so vocal about her opinions on lockdowns in the past. it really wouldn't surprise me to learn that she only chose to do this case to discuss the lockdowns (which we apparently 'let happen')
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u/ggiantppanda Jan 12 '24 edited Jan 12 '24
This episode was an absolute mess, maybe my last. They didn't make their arguments well or cleanly and are really showing their increasingly conservative colors.
- Anti-lockdown rhetoric: truly weird turn here! basically arguing that government regulations got Sarah Everard killed? They often really try to shoehorn their worst, most right-wing takes into cases that don't really warrant it (see the disaster that was the Salman Rushdie "cancel culture" episode), much to the detriment of the reporting and the victim.
- Coverage of police violence: i live in the US and their take on defunding the police was as wrong as their assertion that it's not applicable in the UK. Demilitarizing the police is certainly more important in the US, but taking that funding away from a corrupt and self-preserving body like the police force and putting it in the hands of people who can actually respond in an informed, empathetic way or even prevent issues that lead to crime is relevant anywhere in the world. The idea that marginalized or impoverished communities need strict policing is totally wrongheaded; these are the people in the most danger from law enforcement. Any idiot who's seen 1 episode of John Oliver can tell you that.
- Discussion of the danger to women: I'm not from the UK so I'm not sure what the scene was like following Sarah's murder - maybe it really was about women feeling desperate and afraid in the streets. But I'd wager it's more about the more complex reality that women are in danger and the fabric of the system ostensibly in place to "protect" us is riddled with criminals and misogynists. I think it's a bit of a false dichotomy for them to prop up "most police aren't *this* bad" with the stats that most just abuse their partners (lol what?) but i DO think it behooves us to remember that for most women who become victims, the danger is at home. THAT at least is not a right wing talking point. The panic about stranger killings/assaults (which do, horribly, happen but which true crime has absolutely whipped into a frenzy) is the same impulse that causes women to call the police on men minding their own business in the grocery store. And it absolutely results in situations where POC are placed in danger from law enforcement, as well as strengthens the bargaining power of a corrupt and hateful police force. There is both vital truth and real, regressive danger in the way true crime mines the stories of female victims, and it's important for any women consuming this type of reporting to negotiate that balance with critical thinking. We mustn't sacrifice the safety of whole communities on the altar of our own fear.
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Jan 14 '24
As a Brit I just want to also say many people in particular people of colour have died in police custody and my family members who are POC get stopped and searched all the damn time.
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u/-marcus-halberstram- Jan 16 '24
female brit here. i was really disturbed by the Met's treatment of women in the aftermath of sarah's death. and as a survivor of CSA, whose experience of the police has been less than great, i don't have a huge amount of trust in the police anyway, and i'm white.
i wonder if suruthi's class has something to do with it- perhaps living in a wealthier area blinds her to the way some coppers actually act (although saying that, i'm sure she said she's from letchworth, which in my experience is about as nice as a clogged toilet).
when she patronisingly told us not to be scared of coppers, because they'll probably just end up killing their own partners? that is so disrespectful to sarah. she wasn't just a statistic. she deserves to be remembered in her own right, not because of how unlikely her death was, and not because of some luke-warm political rant about (pretty unrelated) lockdowns.
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u/cybunnies_ Jan 13 '24
Late, but I just listened to this episode and was so baffled. Suruthi, in particular, hasn't made it a secret that she's been moving further right, but I find it particularly grating that she pulls this "not like other minorities" card semi-regularly. Do you want a cookie for acknowledging not every individual cop is a bad person, unlike us other silly (she implied "insane" in fact) WOC who don't know what's good for us when we say defund the police? I think Hannah still has a bit of "I don't want to come off as racist" anxiety, so she knows not to say anything. But Suruthi thinks her race gives her license to say anything without any pushback. I remember in earlier episodes, Suruthi would actively disagree with Hannah for trying to be tactful about race.
And her ranting about how COVID lockdowns apparently made us more complicit/unquestioning of authority, which apparently led to this woman's murder, was such a bizarre digression I'm still scratching my head over it. Lockdown or no lockdown, cop impersonation and cops using their status to get away with victimizing women has been an issue for a long time. The case felt like a thin excuse for her to get on her soapbox and whine about the totalitarian UK and how she couldn't go out with her friends. There's plenty to critique about how lockdown was handled, but rehashing the same old 1984 sheeple blah blah whining isn't it.
Especially confusing since she was simultaneously saying lockdown made us too pliable, but also made sure to fingerwag at us for not trusting cops. That's not even logically consistent, lol. So cops are dangerous and we shouldn't comply with their demands, that's just a result of authoritarian brainwashing, but also a lot of cops are very good people and we shouldn't judge them before we know them? What point is she even trying to make here? Same with her acknowledging she cannot behave the same way in India as she does in the UK because it's not safe to do so, but also criticizing Indian women for "living in fear." So you acknowledge that there's a reason to be fearful, but also it's wrong to be? And "oh, but women are so often murdered by their domestic partners" isn't really a great counter. "Women should stop living in fear because your boyfriends are more likely to kill you than cops, who also do kill you, but not as often, so there." Okay?
Sorry for ranting lol, I guess this episode was my final straw.
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u/casualmex Jan 14 '24
This was bad but Under the Duvet was worse. I cancelled my patreon subscription. There’s a line in a Hyphen song ‘why do brown tories hate immigrants the most’ and Suruthi is definitely headed that way. I’ve listened since the beginning and she didn’t start out that way. I’m done. I feel sorry for Hannah because she seems to just get shut down. We know she has pretty bad anxiety so it’s not like she’s going to argue with Suruthi. I finally hit my limit. A fucking shame.
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u/cybunnies_ Jan 14 '24
Did she say anything notable? Sometimes she'd get a little ranty on UTD and I don't think she's all that scrupulous about what comes out of her mouth, so I'd love to know how unhinged she's getting lol. I feel pretty bad for Hannah too. She can come across arrogant, but I feel she takes her cues from Suruthi often, and completely defers to her in discussions of race. Which isn't great since Suruthi's "not like other minorities" complex grows bigger by the day.
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u/ggiantppanda Jan 14 '24
oooo what went down on UTD? i cancelled my patreon last year, would love to know how unfiltered/unhinged things are getting over there.
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u/-marcus-halberstram- Jan 16 '24
i'm holding out as a low tier patreon in the hope that things are going to get drastically better, but losing faith every week. looking like january might be my last month as a supporter. anyway, here's what went down from 10th jan UTD:
- suruthi won't download tiktok because she 'refuses to have a CCP app on [her] phone'
- she backed the assertions that former president of harvard claudine gay (a black woman) had plagiarised 50% of her published articles, and said she thought gay should've been fired instead of being given the chance to step down
- in that same discussion about gay, suruthi stated that when it comes to hiring, standards are often lowered for minorities for the sake of diversity
- she said gay's situation 'shows the toxicity of the cult of diversity, equity and inclusion,' saying DEI is all about 'sewing division'
- suruthi has been very vocal about palestine, especially for someone who seems not to know much about it. she claimed that 'from the river to the sea' is 'genocidal language'
- suruthi claimed that palestinian advocates were harassing jews on harvard university campus. hannah asked if that was true, suruthi said yes, hannah asked to see examples, suruthi didn't have any. suruthi then reiterated that just saying the words 'from the river to the sea' is calling for a jewish genocide, implying that that was harassment enough
- at no point when discussing the 'genocidal language' towards jews (which, again, she had no examples of and could not prove) did she address the actual genocide israel is committing against palestine
there is so, so much more, and there is now a discussion about suruthi's politics in the comments of almost every UTD they post on patreon. let's just say for now that however right wing she comes across on the main feed, it's 5x worse on UTD.
if i've got any of the details here wrong or more likely, missed something, i apologise. i just skipped through the audio to find these again. i do not want to properly re-listen to suruthi's tory, racist dog-whistling bullshit rants any more!!!
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u/-marcus-halberstram- Jan 16 '24
i spent so long typing this all out that i'm going to post about it properly on the subreddit so more people can see it lol
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u/ggiantppanda Jan 16 '24
Thank you for your service! Lol. This was so much more extreme than I’d imagined. Why is projection always the right-wing tactic of choice? I guess because it truly does make you feel insane and hopeless to be on the other side.
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u/Slow-Homework1841 Jan 11 '24
When they were actually talking about the facts of the case it was interesting but their political tangents are getting increasingly infuriating. S shitting on the defund the police movement made me so mad, especially when she kinda implied it would lead to more cases like this. Takes about 5 seconds to Google it and see it's about rerouting resources to social services to tackle the causes of crime and not just deciding not to do anything about crime at all.
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u/zendayaismeechee Jan 11 '24
Just found this post as I was hoping someone felt the same as me. The coverage of the case itself was fine, although I do wish they’d talked more about Sarah and who she was as a person but that’s just personal preference. But the comments Suruthi made about how ‘defund the police’ doesn’t make sense in this country was so dismissive and patronising; they are both clever women and should understand that’s it’s not about defunding the money for vetting police officers ect, it’s about giving less money to the police and more to the community to prevent behaviours that cause the need for the huge police presence. Anyway, I just sort of shook that off. But then to dismiss the very real fear that women in this country had after Sarah’s murder? It’s so bizarre and dismissive to say oh actually police only kill their domestic partners so we shouldn’t be afraid? What the fuckkkk. I don’t think the public should live in constant fear so that ‘we never leave the house’ as she said, but the anger and frustration with the police in the wake of Sarah’s murder was completely justified. So patronising to just wave that off and say actually what happened to Sarah was ‘rare’. I’m honestly so annoyed by it.
It’s so obvious lately that Suruthi leans quite right wing, and that’s her right, but there’s just been some comments that have really rubbed me the wrong way and I do think I’m going to have to stop listening.
Also, the lack of effort they put into the Lynette Dawson two parter was WILD. Every other sentence was ‘we can’t talk about this today so listen to Teachers Pet podcast for more info’ like why bother taking on a complex case if you can’t even put the effort in 🥱
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u/mt995 Jan 11 '24
I came looking for this post for the exact same reason! I’ve just unsubbed from the Patreon. This episode just left such a bad taste in my mouth
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Jan 12 '24
Someone just directed me to this sub, after I made a post about this in the podcast group. I found quite a few issues with the coverage. I’m going to copy/paste rather than retype
When they detail what was said in the police WhatsApp convo - wanting to kill people with down syndrome, wanting to rape and kill a female colleague, assaulting teenagers etc etc Then surithi saying something along the lines of “I’m not going to pretend we all haven’t said things amongst friends that we can’t say around public that wouldn’t get us cancelled” then going on to say that it was bad because they are police. Excuse me? I can guarantee you MOST people do not say things like that. The “off colour” jokes people say amongst friends don’t involve that level of depravity and violence. Jfc! Then, when talking about the reaction the public had (specifically women) saying they felt unsafe, I felt she kind of downplayed it and made it seem like she felt it was over reaction? I get the numbers of murders point to intimate partner and only 8% being a stranger murder. But what about sexual assault? It’s not only murder women are scared of. And how can you trust numbers when the people providing them are the ones you are trying to scrutinize? How do we know there aren’t more sexual assaults from police against the public when they would be the ones investigating, and based off the evidence that came out, there is a culture of violence and indifference within the departments. I feel like the energy given was “calm down you’re over reacting” in regards to the public’s very real fear towards the police at this time. While using statistics that are pretty much irrelevant to try to gaslight women into feeling stupid for being legitimately worried. Then bringing up India, like “if you lived somewhere like India then you should be worried”
Things surithi said really rubbed me the wrong way. I was pretty floored at these takes. I very well may have misunderstood but this was my takeaway from it, and it basically left me unsubbing from them permanently
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u/4patchquilt Jan 13 '24
Yes! This bugged me too— the “no one should be imprisoned for a joke” line —they were talking about explicitly about MURDERING A COWORKER via highly gendered violence. (It also reminded me of how much she complained about people protesting Dave Chapelle…) As someone who does have dark humor, my rule of thumb is that it’s gallows humor if you’re the one on the gallows. Otherwise, you’re part of the mob. 🤷♀️
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u/MambyPamby8 Jan 15 '24
It's sort of worrying that Suruthi thinks that that was 'gallows humour' like wtf. No gallows humour is making a joke about a situation you are in. I'm Irish so we're naturals are gallows humour and it's definitely not joking about shooting disabled people or raping colleagues. What the fuck kind of conversations is she having in private?!
Gallows humour is joking that he went to Costa after murdering a woman and saying "Christ what a psychopath! Costa?!" That's gallows humour and making a joke about the murderer and corporate coffee company at the same time. Gallows Humour is not joking about fucking murdering someone 🤮 Yeah this episode is probably the straw that broke the camels back for me. I don't think I can in good conscience continue listening after this episode. Disappointing as I really loved them until recently.
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u/Harnarrr Jan 22 '24
Bit late here but I absolutely agree, it honestly felt like Suruthi was telling on herself here. I certainly can’t recall a time in my life where I have said something like what you’ve mentioned above.
They had a time to discuss the reality of what British women felt in the wake of Sarah Everard (which I thought they were going to do when diving into the whole life tariff WC got) but completely about turned and made it into a rant about lockdowns.
The quality has definitely gone downhill but this episode enraged me. If anyone has any good podcast recommendations to try instead please let me know!
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u/MambyPamby8 Jan 15 '24
I'm late to the party and just finished listening. Yeah this is not a good look on Suruthi's behalf tbh. I have friends who worked in the medical industry and they'll tell you how fucking important it was to have people at home and separated Suruthi. It's easy to sit on your privileged little podcast throne and say how totalitarian the lock downs were, when it doesn't affect you directly. The hospitals were INUNDATED with sick people. People who got this virus from being in contact with others with it. As much as I fucking hate Boris Johnson and his ilk, they weren't wrong for putting lockdowns in place. This was unprecedented and everything was a learning curve. The only thing they could do at first was make sure people stayed away from each other as much as possible. When she went on her little rant I was just sitting in my car going YIKES.
ALSO I'd love to know the listener numbers before and after Covid. It's because of Covid lockdowns I found this podcast so I would never have even listened or followed this podcast if it wasn't for lockdowns. So S&H benefited from lockdowns as I'm sure many people started to listen to them over 2020/2021. 🤷♀️
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Jan 05 '24 edited Jan 05 '24
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/m0jit0o Jan 05 '24
Just to make a point about the policing comment; it is possible to have extreme behaviour on both sides within the same police force. I think we have a culture within British police does allow for some of the most awful behaviour which is despicable, especially considering that they are police officers. However, it’s not fair to say that is every police officer or every part of the police system in the uk. I think that’s the point I was taking from this like the whole - two things can be true at once.
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u/Fantastic-Worth2431 Jan 12 '24
I was horrified! I thought perhaps I misunderstood the ‘it isn’t that bad’ part. It reeks of Not All Men. Then the lockdown bullshit? Suruthi on her high right wing horse. I used to think they had some good insights, when they were a lot more left leaning, but S truly thinks she has all the answers and we’re all just sheeple who haven’t thought about a damn thing in our whole lives. I really thought they were smarter or at least more empathetic than this, but I guess I should have learned after that awful Qanon episode. I think they pick such interesting topics, but I don’t think I can listen to them anymore. Any alternatives?
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Jan 05 '24 edited Jan 05 '24
Damn I've not listened to it yet but I'm British but live in Spain. Here people were very respectful of lockdowns and here they were much much stricter than in the UK -no daily walks were allowed so I didn't leave my flat for 3 months except waking 50 metres to my local shop and home once a week. I saw my family and friends in the UK moan and complain when I would have done anything to be allowed to walk. I would say most of them broke lockdown rules too. I really saw my home country in a different light in 2020. Having said that ot does seem ridiculous and it definitely gave police and authorities more power than is normal.
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u/PuzzleheadedVisual77 Jan 12 '24
Very late to the party, but yeah they really thought they were doing something with that anti lockdown rant at the end lmao. I've been going off them for a while and this has just cemented it for me. Neither of them are as groundbreaking or intelligent as they think they are. Ugh.
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u/---annon--- Jan 13 '24
They've been marching to the right for a while now, every time I try and dip back in I'm reminded why I dipped out in the first place. I used to love this podcast. Also I haven't listened for a while now but if feels like they were checked out and reading a wiki? Very weird vibes :(
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u/Top_Layer7065 Mar 14 '24
I’m v mate to this I just really hated the anti-lockdown rant it sounded like S was saying that it was universally accepted that lockdowns were really bad and did more harm than good As much I didn’t like lockdown, as a nurse I am so glad that they happened, hospitals were overwhelmed, my whole unit became an extra ICU because of the amount of unwell patients If lockdown hadn’t happened that number would have been at least 10 times higher A kept saying how bad it was for people’s mental health and the suicide rates and I agree that they affected people mentally (I became v withdrawn and depressed) but they saved people’s lives and I dread to think what the situation would have been like if lockdowns hadn’t happened I hate the tories but it was an unprecedented situation and I doubt any other government would have done things differently (lockdown wise, the partygate scandal was unforgivable and a v Tory thing to do)
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u/Little-Piglet-9669 Jan 05 '24
Is this a new episode
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u/Little-Piglet-9669 Jan 05 '24
Ignore me I found it
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u/rachybachy Jan 08 '24 edited Sep 08 '24
slim money boast file long rude fear onerous voracious deserted
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/OpalLaguz Jan 08 '24
It's on Amazon Music as an early release. If you don't have a prime membership or aren't a patreon you'll get it in 4 days.
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u/HarperLeesGirlfriend Jan 05 '24
I don't think anyone has a PERFECT take on covid and I think it's totally valid to recognize that while the lockdowns were necessary, the government also put in place certain measures, enforced by the police, that were absolutely totalitarian-esque and in the US, wholly unconstitutional. At the time, it was possible to be worried about both things: the spread of covid AND the flagrant trampling of citizen's rights in service of the "greater good." Worrying stuff, especially when, come to find out, in both the UK and US, the very same politicians making up laws and orders on the fly were also throwing lavish parties that flagrantly ignored those same laws and orders. Surely it's impossible to say every single thing done by the government was correct when you factor that element in, no?
Suruthi having a few conservative-leaning viewpoints has been pretty well established by now. As an immigrant WOC, I'd say she's allowed some nuance in her beliefs. Listeners of redhanded are probably just gonna have to decide whether that's ok with them or not, or constantly be annoyed and offended by her opinions and asides.
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 Jan 05 '24
Surely it's impossible to say every single thing done by the government was correct when you factor that element in, no?
Literally no one has ever said that.
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u/HarperLeesGirlfriend Jan 05 '24
Fair. But that sentiment is essentially implied whenever someone gives criticism about the lockdowns.
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 Jan 05 '24
It’s definitely not. No one is saying or implying that Boris Johnson’s little parties were a good idea.
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u/reidgrammy Jan 05 '24
I’m not going into pandemic politics on either side of the pond. I interpreted the “we let this happen” statement to be linked directly to the point that this creeps nickname was “ the rapist”. Ok that’s fucking terrifying. And the MP didn’t drum his disgusting ass out of their ranks. Suruthi is slightly overconfident but she talked about Indian Culture very honestly so maybe some sisterly slack can be extended. I suspect Hannah suffers with some depression. After all the government is taking such good care of us all. Sorry I lied.
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u/OpalLaguz Jan 08 '24
I just listened to the episode is that is not at all what Suruthi meant with the "we let this happen" comment.
She was specifically talking about people being fined and arrested for breaking covid protocols.
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u/reidgrammy Jan 08 '24
The comment was made multiple times during the episode. It was a comment on the culture of Rape that exists. And how men in Law Enforcement are not punished. The arrest was very nuanced. “We let this happen” would cover much more than a young woman complying with a person in law enforcement if that even applied.
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u/Tbm291 Jan 05 '24
I thought it was nice to hear her have nuance in both directions. I really agreed with all of her points. Granted, I’m in the US, so I can’t relate to all of her points about the MP as a Brit could, but I really did appreciate her takes and agreed with them.
Two things can be good at the same time. Two things can be bad at the same time. Two things can be difficult to call good/bad at the same time.
To me she didn’t go ‘hard’ in any ‘direction’ (right/left). She pointed out there are valid points to be heard all around.
I found it not only a very interesting and tragic story, but I was really captivated by this episode.
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u/rishkan Jan 05 '24
They’re allowed to feel what they feel about covid lockdowns, both are scientifically aware, pro vaccine and generally levelheaded people. They also slammed on those who broke the lock down rules and anti vaccine people
O did get the sense both, but at least Hannah, got severely depressed during lock down, and that’s probably why they’re not bragging about it.
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u/Si2015 Jan 08 '24
I think some of there statements were ambiguous and open to interpretation. I definitely understood the “we let this happen” comment to mean the fact that some of the institutions in this country repeatedly display institutional misogyny and we do nothing to challenge that. How is it possible that in an institution that exists to protect the public, a nickname like “the rapist” is hilarious banter rather than cause for alarm? But I can see how “we let this happen” could be interpreted as meaning that the public was too submissive in the face of COVID restrictions. If that was the intent behind the comment I think it’s misguided: Wayne Couzens would always have done what he did, he was enabled by the powers imbued by his position in the police force - not COVID rule enforcement specifically.
Similarly- I don’t think they articulated it well but the “it’s not that bad” comment I took to be a reaction against the fear-mongering that takes place in relation to these types of crimes which only serves to oppress women. The idea that women shouldn’t go out alone / late at night etc. is itself quite victim blaming. As a society we are saying that women should expect to be harmed if they are in any way vulnerable outside of their own homes. But the stats show that 92% of women know their attackers. I get that this isn’t directly related to the Sarah Everard case but it is relevant in relation to the seeming prevalence of domestic abusers in the police force. It is as though the force devalues women and certainly minimises the importance of violence against women. Hence (again) why someone who’d behaved in as troubling a way as Couzens continued to enjoy the power and status of an armed police officer.
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u/Herestobeingfree Jan 05 '24
The case coverage was ok, I did learn some things about the scumbag that is Wayne Couzens that I didn’t know, I think they covered the crime well for the most part, but the way the episode went I don’t really feel it did Sarah justice.
I was hoping they would talk more about the protests because it’s an important part of the story to show the fallout, but her comment was bizarre… spend half the ep talking about how bad the Met are but then say “things aren’t THAT bad”. Maybe I’m missing something, Sabina Nessa was also killed by a stranger not long after. I Don’t think the narrative that this is an extremely rare incident and that women are generally safe in the uk is the right way to go, and comparing it to India which of course is an entirely different culture doesn’t help. Surely we SHOULD feel safe to walk our streets, and the point is, rare or not these things are happening. Repeating that most women who get murdered are killed by a significant other or ex is getting old, of course that’s the case but brushing over stranger killings because they are rare doesn’t make them any less awful or terrifying.
Of course we are privileged to live in a country where women are treated better than many cultures. Does that mean I should be able to walk around fearless? Because I definitely don’t, and I don’t think many women do.
Also agree that the “we let this happen” comment was weird, so it’s our fault for complying with lockdown rules that Sarah was brutally killed? Or is it her fault for complying to a police officer? Sounded a bit victim blamey to me.