Why don’t men do something?

I’ve had it with crime shows revolving around dead women, invariably good-looking and young enough to pique the interest of the viewer, who thinks ‘‘what a waste’’, which they mightn’t, say, if she had less regular features.

Increasingly, it seems, one death isn’t enough, leaving a starring role for a male avenger/cop, and yet more gory deaths for attractive women, usually young enough etc.

Does nobody think about how these plodding, predictably grim storylines feed the story of women as natural victims whose Prince Charming/detective can’t wake them with a kiss but can at least get revenge? Yawn.

A real murder, though, is another matter. And what a savage twist to the plot when the accused killer is a policeman.

The killing of Sarah Everard in London has outraged women there, who’ve clashed with the police – what irony – as they protest about and mourn the 33-year-old marketing executive who tried to walk home through Clapham Common, a large city park, late one night.

The government reacted quickly, shelling out an extra £25 million for better street lighting and CCTV.

Also – don’t laugh – they’re setting up a pilot scheme to plant plainclothes police as lookouts in pubs and clubs for potential killers. Women have been warned.

The accused cop worked in more salubrious settings, in diplomatic and parliamentary protection.

That’s enough to make any diplomats and female MPs who had dealings with him cringe, and to make matters worse, a Yorkshire police sergeant was charged earlier this week with rape and sexual assault.

Another cop, acting as a scene guard for Everard’s body, sent an ‘‘inappropriate’’ graphic message to colleagues, who reported him, and he’s suspended. The graphic didn’t relate to the case. Slight comfort.

Police reaction to the fury of demonstrating women was inflammatory.

Having a female commissioner doesn’t seem to have meant more understanding and compassion. Just a hint of shame wouldn’t have hurt either.

I realise the women risked spreading Covid, but manhandling them wasn’t the best way to deal with an aggrieved crowd. It only infuriated them.

Women have a lot to be angry about in the constraints they have to live within.

One report says 97 per cent of women in the UK experience harassment, and why would it be any different here? Fear is closely linked.

Women have a lot to be angry about in the constraints they have to live within. One report says 97 per cent of women in the UK experience harassment, and why would it be any different here?

It’s the sound of footsteps behind you on a quiet street late at night. It’s the deciding to cross the road when you see one or more men loitering ahead of you.

It’s the never sitting next to the taxi driver in the front seat. It’s not getting into a car with a stranger or slight acquaintance. It’s any knock at the door late at night. It’s carrying your keys to defend yourself with as you walk home.

It’s the counting the distance between you and the door when things are turning ugly. It’s the never going alone into public parks at any hour, day or night, alone.

It’s the knowing there’s a good chance of your attacker getting away with it, so you won’t bother to report it, and anyway you don’t trust the police. It’s the attackers’ confident entitlement.

It’s being made a victim who’ll be invisibly scarred by attacks and near-misses, making you highly sensitised and alert for years because your paths accidentally crossed.

This may be true for all the many victims of crime – women are not the only ones – but whoever, sexual assaults make for specific, bitter memories, and they can end in an ugly death. All for no good reason.

What is this problem that men have, and why don’t they do something about it?