I'm 40. I'm a male copper. I'm from a left wing family. I've never used the term feminist to describe myself bcos... Well I've got male privilege to never need to think about it that much. It's only dealing with DA that's made me aware of the scale & brutality of male violence 1/ https://twitter.com/athornehere/status/1238027607427473408

The scale of male violence against women is mind blowing. I'm not going to c&p stats but it's a pandemic that's been killing women for millenia. There are anti DA campaigns and people wearing pins etc but nothing like the scale of mass mobilisation that this pandemic requires 2/

Response cops, the ones who deal with 999 calls, can sometimes spend their entire shifts dealing with DA and other forms of male violence. Specialist DA teams have been scaled down massively in many forces following the huge cuts in Police numbers 3/

Training for Police is rushed in general and particularly re DA. Police struggle to arrive quickly and then struggle to deal with issues due to having to move on to the next emergency and the CJS also being in paralysis, again largely due to cuts 4/

Even when arrests are made we know that cases are likely not to reach court as there is insufficient support for victims through an intimidating legal system, often against clever perpetrators who know how to play the system and to influence the victim 5/

After years of dealing with this I've concluded there is something inherent in men, presumably evolutionary, that so many men in "enlightened" society are so violent, so often. There needs 2 be ongoing response to this pandemic of violence from government similar to coronavirus/6

Anything else is rearranging deckchairs on the titanic bcos women cannot be safe and feel safe without state recognition of male violence and a state response to it 7/

This is why the extremist trans rights lobby that's taken over the Labour Party, Amnesty, the UN and other civil society bodies is so dangerous. It denies that women are oppressed and abused as a result of their biology 8/

And puts the feelings of biological men ahead of the safety of women. The idea that victims of rape and/or DA should share a refuge or rape crisis centre with biological men is a continuing abuse of these women 9/

As a cop who's dealt with these victims it makes me so angry to hear people like @lisanandy @dawnbutler @joswinson suggest that you need to find a "solution" that enables men to access these spaces. You are facilitating the mental if not physical torture of female victims 10/

As cops we can't speak out publicly because rightly we are not allowed to get involved in politics. But be clear the overwhelming number of cops don't accept TWAW. We want to protect TW like we want to protect the rest of the population. That's not done by undermining women 11/

You can have TW wings in prisons. There is no need for TW to be in with men. You can have TW take part in recreational sport with any sex and you can have trans specific competitive sport so not reducing opportunities for women and girls 12/

You can have increased availability of unisex toilets whilst still retaining women only facilities. Anyone advocating open TW access to women's facilities isn't a feminist, you're a men's rights activist. I've seen the ugly face of it all too much. Think again @UKLabour 13/

Listen to @K_IngalaSmith @SaveWomensSport @bindelj @Womans_Place_UK @LabWomenDec and come up with resolutions that work for everyone. 14/