One of the A-boards on Friday
(Picture: George Torode)Activists have erected fake police appeals in central London featuring quotes from a damning report into sexism, homophobia and racism in the Met to urge for an inquiry into police misogyny.
The action on Friday by the Women’s Equality Party comes after the IOPC police watchdog published shocking messages exchanged between officers primarily at Charing Cross police station in which officers joked about rape and hitting their partners.
Activists placed A-boards designed to look like Metropolitan Police incident appeals in busy London locations, with quotes taken directly from the report - urging those who are shocked by them to call Home Secretary Priti Patel and ask for an inquiry into policing misogyny.
The boards featured an exchange between officers in which one said: “Knock a bird about and she will love you. Human nature. They are biologically programmed to like that s***.”
It adds: “Police cannot stop violence and discrimination if they don’t recognise it in their own ranks”.
The party’s leader, Mandu Reid, said: “We are tired of being told that it’s a few bad apples. How much more evidence does the Home Secretary need that misogyny is baked into our police forces?
“Unless there is a proper inquiry, with statutory powers, the culture in our police forces will never change.”
Appearing before MPs at the Home Affairs Select Committee this week, Priti Patel said she did not believe a ‘Macpherson-style’ inquiry into police misogyny was necessary but said she would not rule out further measures.
“We have seen now too many instances where in policing we just see the most appalling behaviours, the most appalling conduct,” she said. “I also think it shows a failure of leadership in some quarters”.
The IOPC hit the Met with 15 recommendations to totally overhaul its culture and processes after the messages came to light, including one in which a male officer told a female officer: “I would happily rape you”.
Dame Louise Casey has been commissioned to conduct a review of the Met’s processes after the horrific murder of Sarah Everard, 33, by serving police officer Wayne Couzens in March last year.
A non-statutory public inquiry into whether police officials missed red flags about Couzens before the murder is also being led by Dame Elish Angiolini QC.
However, activists say these probes do not specifically investigate misogyny and how they impact on officers’ ability to serve the public.
Sadiq Khan earlier this week put Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick “on notice” in a “furious” meeting about the force’s “return to the bad days” of the 1970s and 80s.
A spokesperson said he told the force’s top cop to urgently come up with a plan “to drive out the culture of racism, homophobia, bullying and misogyny” in its ranks.
