The evening in south London began in grief and silence, as hundreds gathered to remember Sarah Everard and call for changes that will keep others safe. It ended in anger and violence, as police trampled flowers and candles laid out in tribute to Everard and tried to silence women speaking out in her memory.
Tensions were high before the vigil, which had officially been cancelled after the Metropolitan police refused to give the organisers a permit. That compounded anger at the force, already high after a serving officer was charged with Everard’s kidnap and murder.
Police initially held back as hundreds of people streamed to the bandstand in Clapham Common carrying candles and flowers, although a helicopter buzzed overhead.
The gathering may have been called off, but the emotions that broke out in the wake of her killing could not be suppressed.
And so they came, to mourn Everard’s loss and share their fury, from a woman breastfeeding her two-month-old baby daughter, to protest veterans in their 70s, furious that after so many decades they still had to speak out against a culture of endemic violence against women.
“She was just walking home,” read one sign. “We are the 97 percent,” read another, a reference to a recent survey that found almost all British women had endured harassment.
Many said they were only more determined to come after police effectively banned the vigil. “The irony of it is so explicit – are you going to drag women off the street for protesting about a woman being dragged off the street?” said Deborah Bestwick, 62.
The answer to that turned out to be yes, even though it was clear that images and videos of the policing would only add to public outrage. There was already particular frustration among many women that the gathering, outdoors and largely socially distanced, had been banned on the grounds of health risks, when they were protesting another major threat to their lives.
“It’s dangerous for us to be out as women, regardless of the pandemic, so we wanted to be here,” said Ellie, who like many at the event didn’t want to give her full name because of fears of legal retaliation.
At 6pm, when the vigil was scheduled to start, a small number of organisers were gathered on the bandstand behind a cordon of flowers, candles and messages left in Everard’s memory. A drum prepared the crowd for a minute of silence, heads bowed. There was then a brief speech by a woman wearing a mask, like most in the crowd.
Without audio equipment, her voice could not carry far and she asked the front of the crowd to shout out each sentence after she spoke, a human amplifier carrying the message to those further back.
The woman called out to the crowd to say that they had all gathered because of their grief and anger at the senseless killing of Sarah Everard; the crowd repeated the call, so it rang out across the grass that Everard crossed just before her disappearance.
“We have come here today, because after Sarah’s disappearance the police told women that they should stay at home to avoid being attacked … women say no.”
As she spoke, police began pushing their way on to the bandstand, some of them trampling the tributes, and tried to push the speakers aside. After a roar of fury from the crowd, including boos and shouts of “keep your hands off my sister”, the speech was allowed to continue.
But officers then flooded the bandstand, told the crowd to disperse, even though the gathering had been peaceful and largely masked, and started threatening to arrest those who stayed.
After violent confrontations, with protesters shouting “arrest your own” and “shame on you”, at least one woman was handcuffed and taken away to a police van.
“We’re here to show solidarity and support, because we should be able to walk home alone and be safe,” said Sally, 25, after officers threatened her and a friend with arrest if they didn’t leave the area near the bandstand.
“Them being here and doing this – there was no need, people are wearing masks and socially distancing. They are showing brutality.”
• This article was amended on 14 March 2021 to clarify some text relating to the killing of Sarah Everard.
