Police scrap party danger poster after Twitter fury
A CAMPAIGN warning young people of the dangers of accepting drugs and drinks at house parties has been scrapped following a social media backlash.
West Yorkshire Police were accused of victim blaming after promoting their ‘Party Animal’ campaign poster, which featured a controversial tagline.
The poster shows a young man and women accepting alcohol and cannabis from fellow party-goers, and beneath that image, a distressed young woman with three men standing behind her.
The tagline read: “Free stuff can come at a very high price. The price you pay could be rape.” This removed.
WYP teamed up with The Leeds Safeguarding Children Board and the West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner to launch the campaign in 2015, following consultations with teenagers and university students.
However, they have decided to stop promoting the campaign and have removed it from their website after the recent backlash.
Twitter user @clarissacortex said: “What kind of message is this sending?! If you go somewhere and get raped, it’s your fault so you paid the price. No wonder sexual assault is so woefully underreported with attitudes like this from law enforcement. Shouldn’t you be on the side of the victim?!”
While @maddy_woodman wrote: “This is disgusting victim blaming.”
And @DemiFlay wrote: “How about a campaign encouraging people NOT to rape people. This is victim blaming. Also, a lot of people get raped by people they already know. So that’s not really helpful advice.”
A spokesman for the force said: “It was launched to address a then-emerging crime type of young people, both girls and boys, being lured to parties through the inducement of free alcohol or drugs by people seeking to sexually assault them.
“Given the campaign is four years old and was launched to address a very specific issue at the time, it was felt it was reaching the end of its natural life.
“It has now been ended to make way for upcoming campaign work aimed at protect vulnerable people from current threats and crime types.”
The Metropolitan Police faced similar accusations in October 2018 when they urged women to stop using headphones and mobiles phones while walking alone in London, following a spate of sexual assaults there.