Eleanor Neale

Or they said that you could flag down a car or a taxi or a bus to come and witness the interaction.

Or failing all of that, and this is the craziest one yet, you could just run off into the nearest house.

Genuinely, that was the advice that they gave women.

If you felt unsafe with a lone police officer, you should run away and close yourself in a stranger's house while you call for further help.

Now, surely that's actually grounds for resisting arrest.

Surely that police officer would chase you down.

Surely you would get into trouble for running away from an interaction.

And you know, as laughable as all of this advice is, it's actually really not funny at all because the burden was put onto women to keep themselves safe through the most ridiculous means possible in order to just stay safe from male violence.

It's just, it's batshit insane when you zoom out and you really take in the concept that this advice is being issued to women to protect themselves from police officers.

Like what the fuck is going on?

In the aftermath of Sarah's murder, everyone was terrified and enraged and they needed something.

They needed a movement.

And with that, Reclaim These Streets was formed.

They organised vigils and protests to challenge the narrative that women should just be more careful, be more streetwise, they shouldn't submit.

Instead, the movement demanded better protection and accountability.

But when these women tried to meet up in Clapham Common to show just how horrified and angry they were, the Met Police made everything as difficult as they possibly could.

Officers were literally seen getting physical with the women, restraining them and shoving them down to the floor, which led to even more outrage given the context of these protests.

Sarah had been murdered by a police officer using his powerful position over her.

And I think all of this is why Sarah's case became so much bigger than one horrific crime.

Because for a lot of people, especially women, it tapped into years of fear, frustration and anger that had been building long before March 2021.