Search icon

News

13th Jul 2016

Police in the UK forced to issue apology after sexual consent talk goes wrong

Her

And now it’s time for your weekly dose of dumb shit authority figures have done to teens.

This major fuck-up is brought to you by the Avon and Somerset police in Bristol in the UK who have had to issue an apology for an educational event that they hosted last week.

The educational event in question was called ‘Only Yes Means Yes’ and was organised to create more awareness around sexual consent, among other things. To accompany the talk, the police issued out leaflets with the words ‘R U ASKING FOR IT?’ scrawled across the front.

R U ASKING FOR IT

Image courtesy of Eloise Mainstone (@EloiseMainstone)

Aside from the obviously awful text speak that the misguided officers thought would help them be ‘down with the kids’, the leaflet has come under criticism because of it’s blatant victim shaming.

Students and teachers at North Bristol Post -16 Center school in Bristol reacted to the leaflet as any sane person should. The teachers at the secondary school shut down the event, while the students took to twitter to vent their frustration with the officers. Eloise Mainstone, a student at the school made a pertinent point about how women shouldn’t be taught how to avoid rape, but rather that men should be taught not to rape.

@ASPolice We should be teaching people not to rape, not teaching us how to avoid it!!pic.twitter.com/WeTyDxVMda

— Eloise Mainstone (@EloiseMainstone) July 5, 2016

The police had this to say.

The Police station has since issued an apology over the incident, stating that the leaflet in question was over 8 years old.

The Chief Inspector Marie Wright, force lead for rape and sexual assault penned a statement about the incident on the stations website. She has this to say,

“Any suggestion that a victim of rape or sexual assault can ever, in any way, be to blame is totally unacceptable and it is the exact opposite of the message we’ve worked so hard to get across through our ‘This is not an excuse’ campaign”

Ironic.