For five years, a man was known to the police for sexual offences, yet he remained free until he murdered two women after raping and violently assaulting others.
This is a devastating failure. It reflects violence at every level of the system.
Streets Kitchen/HER stands in solidarity with sex workers and all women. We are outraged and so heartbroken, but really, we are not surprised. This is not an isolated failure; it is the constant reality of a system that repeatedly fails to protect women, especially those who are most marginalised.
Sex workers have long warned that policing practices undermine their safety by dispersing communities, increasing isolation, and pushing people into more dangerous situations where violence thrives.
WE DO NOT WORK WITH THE POLICE, NOR DO WE SHARE SPACE WITH THEM.
Streets Kitchen/HER has always been clear on this boundary.
These failings come despite decades of promises from police chiefs, senior prosecutors, the courts, and government that the criminal justice system would better protect women from male violence after scandal after scandal.
As the Casey Review—commissioned by the Metropolitan Police itself—made clear, the force was found to be institutionally misogynistic, racist, and homophobic.
What has changed?
This is not a failure of the system; it is the predictable outcome of a system that consistently fails women, particularly sex workers and other marginalised communities.
We are done explaining why we do not work with the police. The evidence is written in the lives that have been lost.
Local authorities and every institution claiming to care about women’s safety must stop defending systems that perpetuate violence. They must start standing with sex workers in the fight for justice, safety, and collective care.
Love and solidarity, always.
With rage, with joy, we keep going.
