On Saturday women from across London converged on Clapham bandstand
to mourn their sister Sarah Everard
Everard's remains were found this week in a wood in Kent a police officer has since been charged
with her murder, but this protest against police violence has been met with further
police violence as officers battered, cattled and arrested grieving women
the policing bill that goes to the Commons this week will allow police to shut down protests for
causing even a serious annoyance but today may be the end of that police power trip.
Refusing to be afraid by what happened last night people have come out today to say no more.
I'm here outside the houses of parliament to ask protesters why they're here and what they want to happen next.
Looking at the violence against the protesters at Clapham Common yesterday i think it's quite
disgraceful I mean a lot of people said that more police on the streets was the answer to make women more safe
and actually i think
the violence displayed against the protesters yesterday at the vigil just shows that actually
the police and the system don't have any real interest in actually trying to stop sexism or
making women feel more safe if anything their only interest is protecting you know the people at the
top of society who are creating this sexism. It's the same that we saw with the black lives
matter movement i think people are starting to realize that these oppressions are institutional
so we've got to come out and protest against it.
just keep hearing about violent attacks on women
unfortunately most the people i know including me and my mum
violence was within our lives and it's kind of like
it feels like it keeps going on and nothing changes and i think last night as well when the vigil took place
and then the police also attacked the people who were protesting
that also made it even that made me even more frustrated and determined to try and come to this protest
because they're also challenging our democratic right to kind of take part in protests
the fact that they started to kettle it and then attack people showed that there's a difference between words and actions and people want to see actions that take place
I can't stop thinking about Sarah Everard and every other woman whose life has been cut short by male violence so
I'm here with protesters in solidarity against male violence against police violence against
Priti Patel who this week is rushing through a bill in parliament to try and curtail our rights
how do you feel about Labour's u-turn on the bill and deciding to oppose rather than abstain?
I was always going to oppose the bill and vote against it so i'm glad that i don't have to break the whip again.
The vigil last night on Clapham Common should never have been banned
and women shouldn't have been told to stay at home and the police violence that we saw towards women was haunting.
Increased policing isn't the answer to male violence we need funding for our domestic
and sexual violence services we need to ratify the Istanbul convention we need material change and we
need we need social change we need to dismantle the patriarchal structure that we live in.
We're really tired of feeling scared like i'm a trans feminine person
who has been followed home who has been sexually assaulted, physically assaulted and i'm very tired
of it and I'm tired of accepting that as a norm
Seeing the way it was police was just you know it didn't make sense for a vigil
we wanted something peaceful and we wanted to show that we cared
and today we got to do that peacefully in the way that we wanted to do yesterday
and i'm really happy about that
when we speak about defund the police it's something that we've had to say quite often recently
because at the end of the day they don't just take care of gender-based crimes they take care of all crimes
and the way that they handle it the way that they treat people of colour when they're being apprehended
even when you're just walking down the street you can feel the difference
like it's it's just something that needs to change at the end of the day and that's why we're here you know
from feminists to anti-racists to people who simply don't want to live
under authoritarianism
the people i spoke to today come from different political traditions
but are united in their resistance to state terror
the people in the palace behind me won't be able to ignore them much longer.