Thread by @newsandpics

Women have a right to gather peacefully in a public place to talk to each other about the challenges they face. They should not have to do so
surrounded by a hostile mob of men facilitated by Police Scotland. No other situation would be policed this way. 🧵
#LetWomenSpeak

It is not progressive for men to shout down female speakers and to drown them out with amplified music and rhetoric.

In Edinburgh today police allowed groups of demonstrators right up to the edge of the pen in which the women were allowed to congregate, even affording them a protective cordon. Those allowed to disrupt the event did so noisily and with signs many of the women found offensive.

I went along to observe as a journalist and to try to understand a bit more about what is going on in these confrontations. I could have done without some of the stereotypical male aggression on display from the demonstrators and the interference with my work.

But what was most striking was the way in which police facilitated the disruption of the event. It’s hard to think of another scenario in which police would put up with the level of abuse being directed towards a peaceful public speaking event.

This was poor policing. It came across as partisan.
People have a right to demonstrate. They can do so offensively.
But on a subject as divisive as the conflict between the rights of women and trans rights, police need to be seen to be impartial. Police Scotland failed today.

Had this been a pro-Palestinian event, would police have allowed hardcore Zionist protesters to set up a sound system to drown it out and allow protesters to set up within a couple of feet of the crowd? They would not and a reasonable person would not expect them to.

This matters. In a week in which the Hate Crime Act came into force in Scotland, ministers - including the first minister - have repeatedly stressed that the decision on what’s legal and illegal rests with the police. People from both sides have to trust them.

But they also need to trust their politicians. Policing generally reflects the will of the government: you see this around the world. If police are facilitating those on one side of a debate it’s usually because senior officers have been told that’s what the politicians want.

I’d like to have been able to give this lady the last word, but I couldn’t hear a word she was saying because she was drowned out by a man showing off and speaking over her.

Could we get the name of the speaker here and what was said? Anyone know?