Cressida Dick has failed to acknowledge misogyny in the Met – she must resign

Having women in positions of power is no guarantee of safety or progress, if their actions perpetuate and uphold the structures and systems that hurt marginalised people

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick has faced calls to resign (Getty Images)

In the wake of the whole life sentence for former Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens for the rape and murder of Sarah Everard, the Met released a statement which illustrated just how little they are doing to tackle misogyny in their ranks.

The statement read: “The full horrific details of Couzens’ crimes are deeply concerning and raise entirely legitimate questions. This is the most horrific of crimes, but we recognise this is part of a much bigger and troubling picture.” But any suggestion that lessons have been learned were dashed in the next sentence: “‘There have been other horrific murders of women in public spaces, including the killings of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry, and very recently of Sabina Nessa. All of these bring into sharp focus our urgent duty to do more to protect women and girls.”

With these words, the Met are trying to distance themselves from Wayne Couzens, unwilling to face the fact that Everard’s murder shone a light at the institutional misogyny at the heart of policing. Couzens was known as “the rapist” by other officers, and had a preference for extreme pornography. In addition, he was part of a group chat with other serving police officers, where they regularly shared racist and violently misogynistic content. This chat is not an aberration, as the Independent Office for Police Conduct is purportedly investigating others like it, including one such group chat that contained confidential details of Everard’s rape and murder, shared as jokes and memes.

The words of Christine Blasey Ford echo loudly and cruelly: “Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter. The uproarious laughter between the two, and their having fun at my expense.” The fact that serving police officers were laughing at the torture and pain of a woman killed by one of their own should be reason enough to launch an internal investigation.

And yet, the Met has said nothing on this, not even to acknowledgement that sexism and misogyny are a problem within the police force. In an interview on Good Morning Britain, former Met Chief Superintendent Parm Sandhu spoke of how female offices don’t always report their male colleagues’ behaviour because they fear not receiving back up when in danger.

She said: “What happens is that male police officers will then close ranks and the fear that most women police officers have is that when you are calling for help, you press that emergency button or your radio, they’re not going to turn up and you’re going to get kicked in, in the street.” How are women supposed to trust the police when female police officers don’t even trust their male colleagues?

Cressida Dick apologised for the fact that trust in the police has been damaged and spoke bland words on the need to tackle violence against women. It’s a particular cruelty of the patriarchy that women are some of its best enforcers. Cressida Dick is but one example.

The Home Office, the lead government department for policing, is headed by Priti Patel, whose harsh immigration policies disproportionately affect women, the most vulnerable of which often are left to languish indefinitely in detention centres and whose overhaul of the asylum process will have devastating repercussions for women feeling violence. Margaret Thatcher abhorred feminism, and under Theresa May, women disproportionately shouldered the burden of austerity. Having women in positions of power is no guarantee of safety or progress, if their actions perpetuate and uphold the structures and systems that hurt marginalised people.

While Cressida Dick said there was overwhelming fury and sadness at what happened to Sarah Everard, she did not say that fury and sadness was directed inwards. Not once did she acknowledge that it was one of her own officers who was responsible for the violence, and not once did she speak about her own female officers being afraid to report the behaviour of their male colleagues.

The Met has pledged a new strategy for tackling violence against women, but no strategy for tackling misogyny within. Women have been told to shout out to a passer-by or wave down a bus for help if they fear male police officers, advice that will certainly imperil minority women. Women have not been told how the Met intends to deal with police officers who use their powers to solicit sex.

The Met has announced that 650 new officers will be deployed into busy public spaces, but there was no announcement on how to ensure that none of these officers are engaging in group chats laughing at a dead woman’s pain. For her silence on this and her failure to acknowledge, let alone address, how deeply misogyny runs inside her own institution, Cressida Dick needs to resign.