On Twitter, still mostly on
#crime
,
#police
, prisons criminology. I say what I think. Sometimes it might not be what everyone else or my employe does.
So with a lot of discussion of crime against business and its impact, here is an article
@SecuritySheep
, me and and colleagues at
@StaffsUni
#criminology
and
#policing
have been working on, and my first time ever in in 'Policing and Society'.
I don't want to be in a Britain where a young boy headbutts and chokes a younger Syrian child. But I also don't want to be in one where social media names him, gives out his address and encourages retributive violence. Children are awful sometimes, yet some adults are far worse.
Yesterday I tweeted something to
@Jgicriminolg
about Gender Self ID. Been amazed at the engagement so thought I would say a bit more. For a short while I was Probation Officer in a Multi Agency Public Protection team. I met a lot of sex offenders.
It isn't about trans people, it's about bad people who will exploit the law from self interest and work within a legal framework (that could protect women's spaces) to do as they want and get what they want. You think that won't happen, you don't know how many sex offenders act.
Ok to hell with it. I have been told by my employer
@StaffsUni
albeit only verbally that I am being investigated for Transphobia after formal and official complaints about my Twitter conduct. Read my tweets. Go figure. It's a good job cancel culture is just a myth though, right.
Right, I am gone again. Do not feel I can say why now, but I expect some may guess. I am available through email or to those who have my number. Meanwhile keep valuing rationality, freedom and reasonable debate, its supposed to matter. Bye all. This time I may not be back.
The idea that sex offenders are manipulative individuals who would exploit systems and laws could only be unreal to those who do not know how manipulative sexual offenders can be. All groom, seek to exploit and control. It's different, They have different plays, but all do it.
Some academics suggest there is little (if any) support for the idea that Trans protections facilitate cisgender preditory offenders who then feign a trans identity to perpatrate assaults in women only spaces. This is unbelievably naive. Staggeringly so.
My experiences are limited, but I have met and dealt with a lot more nasty, violent and dangerous preditory male sexual offenders than most people have. That is the group driving my concern. What I know of them as a group, there is NO rule or opportunity they will not exploit.
I came across sex offenders who converted to Islam or Christianity and tried to change names or exploit weaknesses in legislation. Who posed really significant risk to Women, Girls and Boys. I think I should talk about gender self ID, and why I have concerns
then there is a need to address concerns head on, and not simply claim they are not real, not empirically grounded or merely anecdotal. To me the issue here is the danger that Trans identity is used as cover for harmful individuals. That is in no one's interest.
Some.academics say concerns over "supposed" threat of trans identities reveal lingering anti-trans sentiment. Do they? No. I know Trans people face massive abuse, I see that too. Both can be true. Yet still I am not sold in any way that Gender Self ID is as simple as some suggest
Least of all Trans people. No community is made stronger internally or externally by association, real or implied with the most selfish, narcassistic, harmful and individuals, many of whom get off on causing pain to others around them. Who wants those people in their group?
I sat across from sex offender who swore to me he wasn't working, he left my office to attend a children's charity disco his was supposed to be DJ at. A child rapist, "It is my right to practice my Bhuddist faith, and I should be allowed to travel to Thailand". (Hmm, no)
"What kind of future does a University have where intimidation determines what is said or taught?"
@Docstockk
is absolutely right. Like others today I will speak up for her right to express her views and to be heard, and for her right to feel safe and secure in the workplace.
Bad law happens, bad legislation without consideration does have risk, and in this instance of Gender Self ID to me, the concern is also understandable. Of course some views may come from predudice. But not all. In my view if those who support Gender Self ID want to see change...
My last ever thread. I still face a complaint for being transphobic, oddly for saying exactly what the Observer and the EHRC now seem to say today! Strange times in Higher Education. Remember those who did speak up. I see many still being abused on here on Twitter for doing so.
"... enabling people to change their legal sex through self-ID could in practice have significant consequences for ... female-only spaces, on sex discrimination and equal pay cases, and on data collection."
I am angry and upset. Not only do I have no details of what it is alleged, I honestly have tried to be balanced and reasonable and promote fair debate. Lete be clear again, Trans people like all people deserve dignity and respect. Academics giving their personal views do too.
But a last thing, because this bit really matters
#academics
. If this can happen to me it can happen to any of you. It can certainly happen to younger ECRs and others at the start of their career. Universities want us on social media, but is your back covered? Who has it?
This is why I am gone from Twitter irrespective at the end of all this. I am only staying now and keeping this the account for now because I am anxious and fear a fight ahead, but I will not shut up and go down quietly. I've never backed away from bullies. I don't intend to now.
Been listening to the Nolan podcast on Stonewall. One thing that strikes me is, how badly informed people are about the Equality Act (and guidance on it). It shouldn't have been possible for a lobby group to play so fast and loose, but they did so because of general ignorance.
But we have entered a place where that isn't enough. Oddly literally nobody has approached me directly to debate my stance or views. They have clearly however gone to my employer wanting me sanctioned or sacked. Nice to know that this is how open and inclusive the politics is.
Been off twitter today, family time. But this is important, over half of female prisoners have experienced sexual violence and abuse. Many have been damaged by men time and again. I cannot see any case for now why we should do anything but
#KeepPrisonsSingleSex
This is where we are at in debates now. This is the landscape academics operate in. I am a pretty legally savvy one who tries to act respectfully and decently. Hell yes I can be brusk, opinionated and stubborn. But I respect anyone's right to disagree and hold a different view.
Well said Jamie. It's because I have been around and worked with some of the most manipulative, preditory male sex offenders this country has to offer that I know the harm well intentioned progressive idealism can do. It needs to stop.
Such complaints, the third set. I have been complained about for denying the reality of Satanic Ritual Abuse, have a huge impact on family life and stress on those around me, some of whom today heard the call I was to face an "official investigation". They hear, might lose job.
Right, I am gone again. Do not feel I can say why now, but I expect some may guess. I am available through email or to those who have my number. Meanwhile keep valuing rationality, freedom and reasonable debate, its supposed to matter. Bye all. This time I may not be back.
A few more observations on sex offenders, a topic that is very much in the public eye at the moment. Yesterday I watched
#FourLives
. Stephen Merchant was excellent as Port, a very limited and mediocre man, yet one who still ran rings around the ineptitude of the authorities.
Spent a few mins reading tweets on
#ShameOnSussexUni
feed this am. I didn't use hashtag myself, but I am struck by how few academics actually used this platform to speak up for academic freedom. Most are hiding or saying nothing. Martin Niemöller's words of warning anyone?
The mess of Twitter today.
#police
arrested him. Police Divers found her phone. Police Family Liason officers comforted her family. Police Detectives kept their composure as he sat in front of them lying. The
#police
are not him. You think they are, you don't have clue.
The path to hell is paved with good intention; the naive and kindly are often easier to exploit. It's also easy when you convince people you are not a threat. it's stigma, a moral panic, a non existent threat, a predudice of others. That is grooming and conditioning right there.
Speak truth to power they say in academia and many academics in social sciences are seemingly all for that (well except when it really entails any independent thought or personal risk to them. Very brave). I have learned a lot. About who is decent and who isn't.
Saw this. The Ethical standards expected of public office holders. I think academics should follow these too.
Selflessness
Integrity
Objectivity
Accountability
Openness
Honesty
Leadership
I try. It's a reason I use this platform. It is why I spoke up.
This thread. I now really wish I had gone to the bid/away from Twitter. Utterly bleak. Puts the drive for men being able to use women's spaces into some perspective. Women are often held secondary to men, and these are issues we should know about.
Ok, let's get this started! I'm trying to raise awareness of issues that only affect female bodies. I'll bring links to more info on each issue. I will start from what are considered big issues that barely anyone seems to care at all. Let's do it!
Stonewall declined to comment to
@BBCWomansHour
on
@JoPhoenix1
win. It seems they are not an organisation conducive to education and debate. Should they actually have power and a role in informing staff in Universities in the UK?
A lot of people have been kind and supportive. I appreciate it. Again the stress of complaint and how it impacts on family is massive. People on here see a profile, there are real people attached to those profiles and the abuse and goading is awful.
I am off to delete the Twitter app, enjoy life and fun with people who really matter. Shame that far too many people on Twitter are exactly the sorts Van Maanen's cops described in the 1970, and they are now far too dominant. Perhaps Twitter ought to, I don't know, police them?
The Letby case is a great insight into management today. Not just in the NHS, but across all sorts of sectors. Careers built mostly on talk of successfully delivery and track records of working with stakeholders. But moral and ethical principals, anywhere in sight?
A new prison officer is kind enough to post the letter outside for 'nice guy' Dave off the wing. The letter, a card to Dave's daughter. His victim, on her Birthday. Huge trauma and hurt. The officers job, over. Being kind, I d say some progressives here are the same level naive.
Would some male sex offenders game the system? I have literally seen how sex offenders operate. Some will take your progressive idealism and naive nature and exploit it, ruthlessly. Anyone remember the subtle video that was used in
#prison
anti-corruption training? The letter?
Twitter is now a vile forum, it isn't a place for discussion and debate, something I have tried to use it for. Agree or not, all is fine, if you are understanding, respectful, tolerant and fair. Something many on twitter are just totally and utterly incapable of doing.
Academics if you are on any social media, and whatever your politics I would join
@SpeechUnion
. What you think is all fine might not be, even if you go out of your way to be fair, reasonable and measured. It's the world we are now in, and good academics don't avoid controversy.
This has nothing to do with my employers, as I say, as far I know the complaint is still ongoing, as is the stress for my wife and kid. It isn't great when first thing you see on any social media is articles featuring your name and "Transphobia". Thanks
@SpeechUnion
for support.
But what sex offenders have in common, so often is that they exploit vulnerability, any vulnerability. To them they see any weakness as opportunity. They see boundaries, rules and restrictions as a barrier, but merely there to be overcome.
I will try to get back to you all, but for now I am going to have to look after myself and my own mental health. Just please know in having my back a lot of you have really helped me at a pretty dark time and in a way it's hard to express or put into words. Thanks and Tara a bit.
I will leave the account up, if any of what I tweeted or said past is useful to anyone, then great. I may even come back occasionally to have a look. But personally I don't plan to be tweeting ever again after this. Tweeting my own views, shove it. It isn't worth the stress!
I leave you with the few good accounts still worth following (They are not the ones who toe the popular line). Thanks to those who engaged respectfully and decently, an ever smaller number it seems. Remember, Twitter isn't the real world, but it impacts in the real world.
I also think we ought to think a little about how academics are encouraged on here by university employers. When times are good, oh, they like the reach of an account with a big follower footprint (not that high a number in academia). What happens though when times get tough?
Right Twitter I am distracting myself from bid writing, so I bid you farewell and am going to go try put a few solid hours into that, undistracted. To all those supporting
#KeepPrisonsSingleSex
you have my support and I remain convinced it is vital.
Ok, so I it seems Sussex UCU have sought to kill the union movement in HE in one swoop. This is utterly unacceptable. How can
@Docstockk
draw any other conclusion? Unions are supposed to stand for our rights and against the bullies.
#shameonUCU
Wow, a thread about sex offenders and you jump in with Trans issues again, and you say GCs are fixated/ obsessive. Like I say, sex offenders, highly manipulative men and women who will exploit any vulnerability. Odd then you quickly read this as gender recognition reform though.
I cannot tell you how highly I regard the FSU, how much they helped me and I think everyone should be supporting them in their work, doing great things like this, that some Trade Unions just won't go near.
1/ THREAD: West Yorkshire Police Force has now dropped its investigation against an autistic girl arrested on suspicion of a hate crime for telling a female officer: "You look like my lesbian nana." Good. We wrote to the Force's Chief Constable today, outlining our concerns...
Even my bigoted critics deserve free speech
Whatever your thoughts on
@calvinrobinson
's politics, how he conducts himself deserves respect. He treats the critical race theory branch of identity politics folk with a respectfulness they've never shown him.
Against what is claimed here, I am pretty sure that opinion polling on the levels of public support for gender self ID policies do actually recurrently show that they are not very popular at all, but let's not let the facts get in the way of opinion eh.
"I want the viewers at home to really think about why it might be upsetting for a transgender woman" to have an MP "call them 'male-bodied people'" says Ellie Mae O'Hagan of the CLASS think tank
#PoliticsLive
I try to be honest, I don't pretend to know everything. I have lived a good life and had a lot of experiences others haven't. But I try to follow 'the rules' and to treat others with respect, and in a manner that I would expect them to treat me.
Making society safer and preventing victims not only includes the need for resources, but also requires a comprehensive understanding of accurate offense patterns and risk. Who victims are, how offenders act. A great deal is now digital, or has links to.
Watching
#GenerationGifted
angry. I want Anne-Marie to follow her dreams study
#criminology
, and not be in debt forever. I went to University before fees. Now I'd pay more tax so others can too. Those who benefited from free education shamefully kicked the ladder out behind them.
It would be easier not to. A quiet life on a decent salary, put your feet up, never risk upset. But that isn't selfless, and whee is the integrity in that? I have never hidden my identity. Why be anonymous? Speak the facts. Be honest. We seem to want it from our politicians!
Offenders will take steps to cover their tracks, they will not willingly face justice, they will lie, manipulate, mislead. What wasn't shown in
#FourLives
is Port used friends abroad of one victim to stay informed about how police were investigation was progressing.
Also the emails and messages and tweets suggest it. Most are kind. That a lot of good kind people on here and on email have taken the time to offer advice, support and kind words is just so amazing, and I really cannot thank you enough. Seriously. More than Thankyou.
In Great Britain it's only in recent years that sexual crime has been positioned into the Serious Organised Crime threat. It still isn't widely recognised sexual crime is often organised crime, as academics tend to equate the crime part here, with a narrow financial motivation.
You don't defend human rights by trying to set a police van with people in uniform inside it on fire. That's why he was convicted of Arson with intent to Endanger Life. This is utterly shameful reinvention of the truth.
#RyanRoberts
took to the streets last March with the intent to defend our human right to
#protest
, he is now being sentenced to 14 years in prison for exercising this fundamental right.
Solidarity.
#KillTheBill
@graceyswer
I am not taking any more virtue signalling shit on twitter. Let us talk about the realities. Women in prison are the poorest and most vulnerable, few speak for them, especially men. Many shouldn't be there, but they shouldn't be there with men.
#KeepPrisonsSingleSex
That is before we get near to elites like Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein and 'tThe other men' who have massive resources and protection. This also shows that sex offending has been globalised and crossing national borders for quite some time.
Or there is Ian Watkins, former singer of the Lost Prophets, who is still making significant royalties from music, and has already notched up a conviction for possession of a mobile phone in custody. I understand the authorities needed GCHQs help on his online passwords.
They also did this because people with power in senior managerial and executive positions who in their roles (and for their salary brackets) absolutely should have made it their job to know the Equality Act properly, yet, clearly in a lot of institutions just didn't).
No public policy or safeguarding law worth of those words is written on the basis of "what if everyone behaves themselves and everything works out fine". There would hardly be need of rule or laws were this so. Those who invite us to legislate based on a dreamworld are dangerous.
If you have seen Layer Cake, the armed robbers and the pot importers coming together. That is happening now with digital offenders, terrorists and sex offenders in
#Prison
and high security estate. Protection and VP status is not like it used to be. The world is changing quickly.
@Spinneyhead
What dogwhistle? I think the issues in the thread merits consideration, and how is this transphobic. How is it transphobic to be talking about FGM, men buying breast milk, and other issues covered here?
As
@bindelj
said yesterday, those that can speak out, should speak out. In her words "You've covered your arses for long enough". The more that do, the more ridiculous it looks to turn disagreement into hate. Incitement of hate speech is different, and needs to be seen as such.
These men will be being locked up with those involved in other significant forms of violent and sexually violent criminality. Drug dealers and importers violent gang members rape and sexually assault people. What of the links between terrorists and DV and Sexual Violence too.
@ClarkeMicah
The lines part refers to the mobile number or phone line attached to the drug dealing operation Peter, which is moved to another country. Best wishes, the criminology prat.
In all then an important thing in the current debate is to look at the law and what it actually really says. An interesting thing in the debate, especially around Trans rights is one side is emotive, the other is framed around concern with legislation and how it really operates.
In a world where some want to take the tents and sleeping bags off the homeless and/or force fines on them, I think these guys have done something utterly brilliant.
We ought to be having debates on law, asking if there any other routes to ensuring that individuals who are trans or gender non-binary are treated with dignity and respect, other than self-ID? And why does self ID matter so, given the existing protections in the Equality Act?
It is fair to suggest the Equality Act 2010 has been criticised for the inadequate protection it is perceived to offer to trans people, but because you do not like the law does not change it. Playing fast and loose with discourse on
the law or misrepresenting it also doesn't.
@JeanHatchet
I would put into male estate, because small number really do present a risk in womens estate. When put in mens estate, (as I have seen) it is not the end of problem, but most mens
#prisons
work hard to deal with any vulnerabilities that arise.
Now Port was a fairly limited man, he did not have several degrees up to PhD. He is no Matthew Falder, whose PhD thsesis 'Seismic imaging of thermohlaine structure in the Atlantic Ocean' is in the repository of Cambridge University.
Spent a lot of time in
#prisons
, as a drama,
#TimeBBC
was really class. It got a lot right, including the feel of prison. More than all else though, Jimmy McGovern is a legend, and these actors were brilliant.
They say you should go high when they go low, but we have seen some evidence today that might suggest that some people can just seem to have no concept of a wider system of values.
Do we want to be a society where a minority of selfish people can do as they please?
Wednesday afternoon is the best time of the week for Twitter engagement. This is important. Academia must stand for and support free expression
@JoPhoenix1
needs our help. you always stand up to bully's. It isn't selective, and there isn't an alternative.
Female governor transforms failing prison with new culture - and a football pitch, park runs and flower gardens'.
I've had a glimpse into what Pia (and her team) have achieved, it is remarkable. She is a real leader, which shockingly many 'females' are.
Thanks to everyone who came to my inagural lecture (me a proper professor, wow!) and all who sent good wishes and the like. Also massive thanks to professional services and all at
@StaffsUni
@StaffsResearch
@StaffsUniNews
who helped make it so well run and memorable.
This sort of line is clearly nonsense, few people could seriously believe that disagreement in views equates to extreme hostility of hate. But a minority of people know how to use that allegation to minipulate those who want to look virtuous, or, to just silence the majority.
@lwhb__
@StaffsUni
Just to be clear I do not hold
@StaffsUni
responsible. It may be that they must run an investigation, I would not have it another way in some ways. Misconduct IF it happens should be. But it would be nice to know full detail of allegations, and I don't.
@Docstockk
"These students are just enacting what they have heard their lecturers, newspapers, websites, and role models say for years"
Exactly, Universities and many of those in them can pretend the business hasn't embraced a woke corporatism, but behind this, it's often there.
@ariana_erbon
@Spinneyhead
Yep. I admit the thread shook me, because it's easy to think we have made massive 'progress' here in the UK. Yet hundreds of women and girls here and millions overseas know from bitter experience, still a long, long way to go.
While we debate what?
Transphobic I don't think.
The same now happens here. My employer is copied into an absolute stark misrepresentation of what I said and did. The tactic is one of shut down that would make a Sackler shudder. This is not the way to win support to the gender self ID cause.
Absolutely not what I was doing, at all. But like so many of those now coming to criticise, you seem to be incapable of reading what is written without substituting in what you think is written. You know, this is not a way to convince people to be sympathetic to your views.
As I get another year older, I remember my early 20s and how the staff of our wonderful NHS with surgery, care and chemotherapy got the cancer out of me, got me back to health and have given me another +20 years that I would not have lived. Thank you NHS.
Of course there are some speaking up, but twitter is full of academics, and the main tendency is "it's not for me, I won't get involved".
Partly that is due to nature of hate allegations, where we have so filtered down hate. "You take her side, you, clearly hate trans people!"
@ariana_erbon
@Spinneyhead
You really opened my eyes in that thread, it made for some uncomfortable reading. A reminder we all sometimes have to know when to listen. It is also clear that some people do not want that, so will attempt to silence. Allegations of bigotry are an easy way to try and do it.
Think
#prison
is going to be quite a shock for some who seem to want to deny what it can really be like when you put damaged and difficult men to live cheek by jowl, but even film can't capture the noise, smell and just the feeling that comes with violence in jails.
A rare tweet, but one I hope reaches followers. Remember when I got blocked a couple of years ago after
@DrJessTaylor
attacked me for pointing out her dangerous Satanic Ritual Abuse line? My ethics seem to have stood the test of time. Her conduct it seems, not so much.
Hardly a shock that when exposed as utterly reputationally toxic, Manchester Uni did right. Yet, how did this ever get published in the first place? As a side, my international student, struggling to get ethnographic paper on genocide in Myanmar published.
Today I also know I need to look after myself, and I really am not the strong person some people seem to think. It has been a hard couple of years, and we have all felt the impact I think. I have had a lot of kind messages and thank you all. Sorry I won't get back to most today.
If I am forced to pick a side here, and the issue is more complex than black and white, for sure, I would go with that one that is at least is more trustworthy on how the real law, i.e. the Equality Act currently frames Gender Reassignment Discrimination, which it does.
Amazing. I am pretty familiar with the sort of folk who buy 'burner' phones, and when and why they do it, I just don't really expect it as behaviour from an elected first minister...
Right this really is it. I am not in a good place. Sure, Ian, I really seem to disagree with you on some stuff, but if you respect me, please don't sh*tpost him or provoke. As I will say again, views can differ but please be decent and don't look to hurt or cause offence.