🧵People asking why a vigil was held for Sarah Everard and not Sabina Nessa. Incidentally a vigil has been called, but it's worth understanding why the Everard vigil was so prominent. @ReclaimTS called the vigil in defiance of police telling women to stay indoors at night.
This echoed cops advice re Yorkshire Ripper that women should stay indoors. The @ReclaimTS vigil ran in the Reclaim the Night tradition of women openly defying police attempts to place the responsibility for women's safety on women themselves by restricting their freedom
Although there was a lot more media attention given to the Sarah Everard case because she appeared white, part of the reason the vigil became so well known is because we were in lockdown, and the police went to great lengths to stop it. @ReclaimTS even took it to court
When the police still maintained they would not facilitate the vigil as legal, many still attended in defiance along with @SistersUncut, and the police response to crackdown on the vigil by beating and arresting women was what ended up on the front pages
Some critics said that the vigil wasn't really about Sarah Everard and in some ways they are right. The vigil and the circumstances surrounding it was about more than Sarah Everard. It was a power struggle between women and metropolitan police.
Yes race plays a massive role in how well known cases become. But if we keep making the point that Everard's vigil was only known because of race, we let the police off the hook, and strip the movement of its history and agency.
My thoughts are with those that loved Sabina and all those grieving the victims of gendered and state violence.
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