Has Police Scotland misunderstood the purpose of policing? A recent crackdown on ‘controversial stickers’ appears to suggest as much.
‘On Monday 17th May we received a report of controversial stickers having been placed on lampposts,’ said a message on Kirkcaldy police’s Twitter feed, posted last week. ‘Should you come across stickers of this nature, please contact ourselves or Fife Council so that their removal can be arranged’.
So what did the stickers actually say? It transpired that they were emblazoned with the words:
‘Women won’t wheesht’
Baffling? Maybe. But is it really the business of the police to investigate such stickers?
Various hashtags, including ‘SexNotGender’ and ‘WarOnWomen’, were also included. But many women – who feel that their rights risk being forgotten given the relentless attention handed to the transgender rights movement – are concerned that there really is a ‘war on women’. Should they not be allowed to say as much?
A century ago, suffragists campaigned for the right of women to vote; women today are now fighting a rearguard action to keep hold of the word ‘woman’.
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