{"id":654,"date":"2026-08-04T04:38:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T04:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cityflowjournal.com\/?p=654"},"modified":"2026-08-04T04:38:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T04:38:01","slug":"does-the-force-fear-feminists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cityflowjournal.com\/?p=654","title":{"rendered":"Does the force fear feminists?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In February, Detective Constable Rachel Fletcher helped secure the conviction of the predatory pedophile Ross Jackson, who was jailed for 23 years for a catalog of child sexual abuse offenses. What no one outside court that day knew was that Fletcher had already been removed from public-facing duties as she was herself under investigation for gross misconduct. Northumbria police had nevertheless asked her to return to the case \u2014 \u201cthrough gritted teeth\u201d, in her telling \u2014 because without her the prosecution risked collapsing.<\/p>\n

Read more Burnham should beware dumbing down<\/a><\/p>\n

Six months later, she was sacked. \u201cI\u2019m now on the barred list alongside Wayne Couzens and multiple rapist David Carrick,\u201d she tells me.<\/p>\n

Her crimes, though, were of a rather different order: remarks deemed sexist and transphobic. Colleagues alleged that she repeatedly referred to men in derogatory terms, regularly stating \u201cI hate men\u201d, \u201cfucking men\u201d, and on one occasion, \u201call rapists are men\u201d. She also faced complaints for comments about transgender people. The allegations were upheld, and the career of a detective who spent 24 years investigating violence against women and children was summarily terminated.<\/p>\n

Critics will characterize Fletcher\u2019s remarks as straightforward misandry, and she herself accepts that some of what she said might be seen as offensive and inappropriate. Her defense, though, is not that the remarks were acceptable, but that they were made in the context of investigating repeated male violence against women, and that they have been judged by a disciplinary standard not consistently applied elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Indeed, at a time when policing is still grappling with institutional misogyny, Fletcher\u2019s case raises difficult questions about what misconduct forces choose to prioritize. Why was she deemed to be such a significant disciplinary problem?<\/p>\n

Partly, this was because Fletcher was an outlier in the force \u2014 a woman of low rank who nevertheless spoke out against self-ID and what she saw as dangerous practices within the police (including the controversial ruling on strip searches for transgender individuals). She was chair of Northumbria Police SEEN, an independent body set up by women in the force in order to challenge sex discrimination and uphold the rights and protections that relate to sex, as set out in the Equality Act 2010. Her forthright approach to these matters, she believes, set her at odds with the DEI squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the beginning of this process,\u201d she tells me, \u201cit has felt like they wanted rid of me. And mainly because I do not hold the views of the force about gender ideology. I have been very clear that I believe self-ID is a disaster, and that gender ideology in general is anti-women.\u201d<\/p>\n

Context is everything, though, and Fletcher\u2019s determination to speak out was all taking place as the entire police force embraced Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (EDI) policies and training. As Dominic Adler stated in his investigation for UnHerd<\/em>: \u201cFantasies of inclusion are colliding with the brick wall of reality\u201d. Indeed, Northumbria Police, in particular, has been criticized for taking its trans rights ethos too far, being seen to take a side in a highly politicized, deeply contested social issue, while internally admonishing those who refuse to toe the accepted line.<\/p>\n

Fletcher\u2019s first \u201ccrime\u201d was to express her views about how prevalent woman-hating is across society following Sarah Everard\u2019s murder in November 2021. Some male colleagues, we subsequently learned, became \u201cupset and offended\u201d when she said that the only way to stop night-time rape is to put a nine-o\u2019clock curfew on all men.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am upset that Sarah Everard was raped and murdered by a police officer,\u201d she tells me in response. \u201cIt happened because of misogyny, and that\u2019s the problem that they should be looking at, not me talking about it.\u201d It\u2019s worth recalling that police did suggest a curfew at the time \u2014 just one for women.<\/p>\n

The next time she ran into trouble was in March 2023, when she complained about online training materials that had been issued as part of the EDI force strategy. One was a TED talk by Sophie Cook, a trans activist and TV newsreader. \u201cHe was talking about how he transitioned and how when he was feeling suicidal, he went and bought some make-up, and everything was better after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more The \u2018Me Decade\u2019 \u2014 50 years later<\/a><\/p>\n

Fletcher sent emails complaining about the Sophie Cook material. In the emails, she stated that it was offensive and misogynistic for men to claim they know what it\u2019s like to be a woman. She explained in her complaint that she feared the force would \u201csleepwalk into self-ID, which would be a disaster\u201d. Of particular concern to her was trans-identified men arrested for rape being recorded as female. \u201cHow would this work,\u201d she points out, \u201cwith our research policy, and our crime recording?\u201d It would completely skew the data about male violence if these were deemed to be female crimes.<\/p>\n

Fletcher also complained about a presentation on \u201cThe power of pronouns\u201d, delivered by a trans man and another member of the DEI team. Attendees were warned that refusal to use preferred pronouns would cause harm. Again, these were sent by email. And each time, Fletcher says she received an acknowledgment promising to review her complaints and come back to her. \u201cBut they never did, they just reported me to Professional Standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she was finally told by her sergeant that there had been complaints made against her, which would be investigated, she said out loud, \u201cGod, this is ridiculous. I\u2019m getting done by the fucking rainbow unit!\u201d<\/p>\n

One complainant in the case who was in the room when she made that comment is PC Kevin Thompson, who is gay, and a passionate ally of trans people. In his statement for the tribunal he claimed that: \u201cAs a man working in that environment, I felt quite intimidated by her radical views.\u201d It is probably noteworthy that, at the time, he insisted he wasn\u2019t offended, and, indeed, continued to say as much until the gross misconduct disciplinary was being constructed. At that point Thompson, along with various others who had not felt moved to complain when offense was caused, suddenly decided to go on the record.<\/p>\n

Given that the police service is now recognized as one of the most institutionally misogynistic institutions in the land, it is ironic that a woman with previous exemplary service has been sacked for making off-the-cuff remarks about male violence and women\u2019s rights. As Fletcher puts it: \u201cWithout doubt, these trumped-up allegations came about because the entire force has been captured by gender ideology,\u201d says Fletcher. \u201cThey went on a massive fishing expedition to gather as much dirt on me as possible so they could get rid of the big-mouthed feminist.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue, then, is not whether Fletcher\u2019s remarks and complaints were appropriate, but whether they justified dismissal when allegations of far more serious misconduct by male officers have often been dealt with less severely. Of the almost 1,000 officers facing formal internal proceedings for police perpetrated abuse, over half had their cases addressed in standard misconduct meetings \u2014 rather than gross misconduct tribunals \u2014 and so were protected from dismissal. Indeed, Northumbria police seems to be a textbook study of misogyny in the force. We learned, in 2024, that 64 Northumbria Police officers had been accused of sexual or domestic abuse in the previous four years. And, back in 2015, the chief constable, after also being accused of \u201crudeness\u201d, claimed that she was treated differently because she was a woman.<\/p>\n

It was the same story with Fletcher. \u201cI was sacked because I challenged their unlawful conduct and their discriminatory conduct,\u201d she claims. And she goes on to describe how not one colleague reported her at the time. They were all spoken to later on by a senior officer who was collecting \u201cdirt\u201d, mindful of the fact that Fletcher was repeatedly raising the fact that Northumbria Police has a huge problem with women.<\/p>\n

If Fletcher sees her case as a witch-hunt, her fight is not over. She is preparing for an employment tribunal against Northumbria Police on the grounds of belief discrimination, and she will rely on the Forstater ruling, which held that gender-critical views deserve legal protection.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hardly a ringing endorsement for any women considering joining the force. As Fletcher puts it in characteristically robust fashion: \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve been in an abusive relationship with my employer for about the last five years.\u201d What woman would willingly sign up for that?<\/p>\n

Read more Why Farage will vanquish Lowe<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In February, Detective Constable Rachel Fletcher helped secure the conviction of the predatory pedophile Ross Jackson, who was jailed for 23 years for a catalog of child sexual abuse offenses. 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