The Suffolk Strangler: same old

This article by Julie Bindel, written during the earlier part of the investigation, is worth a read. She compares the police investigation with that of the so-called Yorkshire Ripper (Peter Sutcliffe). So little has changed.

Five years after the Ripper's first murder, the only solution the police had come up with was to impose a curfew on women. We were urged to "stay indoors" and told, "Do not go out at night unless absolutely necessary, and only if accompanied by a man you know." (Sutcliffe himself gave the same advice to his sister.)

The women's movement responded by posting the following notice all over town:
"Attention all men in West Yorkshire, there is a serial killer on the loose in the area. Out of consideration for the safety of women, please ensure you are indoors by 8pm each evening, so that women can go about their business without the fear you may provoke." The cops tore the notices down and, in Ipswich last month, they adopted the same policy of a curfew on women. As Julie Bindel observes:

Police have not thought to advise men not to go out to buy sex in Ipswich, but they should have done, just as the police during the Yorkshire Ripper inquiry should have. Men need to be told that their presence can mask and protect men who go out in order to harm and kill.