The inevitable has come to pass. I’ve just heard from the Cambridge policeman handling the Cambridge milkshaking incident, in which I – along with Natty Kadifa and Jordan – were the recipients of uninvited milkshake on our clothes. Neither the woman who threw the milkshake, nor her (male) photographer accomplice, will be facing charges. I never expected any other outcome. Both admitted their involvement (the pub CCTV video footage, and Natty Kadifa’s video, made this a meaningless gesture). Mitigating factors were that both were contrite (yeah, right!) and have no previous convictions (the relevance of which escapes me). Both are said to have been humiliated by Natty’s video which, if true, is one positive thing to have come out of this.
A Detective Sergeant in Cambridge police has decided, in his infinite wisdom, on a “community remedy”. The matter wasn’t referred to the CPS because, in the words of the PC, they would have decided prosecutions were not in the public interest (it’s only in the public interest to bring prosecutions when it’s women who are assaulted). The two people will be required to:
- pay Natty, Jordan, and myself, £25.00 each (i.e. each of us will receive £50.00)
- write letters of apology to us (they should be entertaining, if nothing else)
And that’s it. Would the same have happened if the main target for the milshaking had been the leader of, say, the Women’s Equality Party? Somehow, I doubt it. Cambridge police were nowhere to be seen when student protesters (members of the Cambridge University Noisy Twats Society, CUNTS) spent 3-4 hours blocking people from trying to enter the building before and during Elizabeth Hobson and I giving our talks. They did nothing to disperse them, when their noise was disrupting our talks. And over the 90-minute period in which Natty and others detained the assailant, not one policeman turned up to question or arrest her. If you’re an MRA, the police don’t give a rat’s a*** (N. America: rats a**) about your rights, a position also adopted by the rest of the criminal injustice system.
I could appeal the decision, but it would be an exercise in utter futility. I could seek to take out private prosecutions, but a judge could block that, as a judge did when I tried to launch a private prosecution of Dr Balvinder Mehat, a Nottingham-based Known Genital Mutilator. Even if a judge permitted the prosecutions, the CPS could take over the cases – and almost certainly would – only to then drop them.
If nothing else, the decision to not charge the assailant and her photorapher accomplice only adds to the PR triumph of the Cambridge event. A list of blog pieces in relation to the event is here, while Wonder Natty’s video of the asssailant and photographer is here (4:33).
