Police accused of overreacting to ‘transphobic’ sticker campaign

A POLICE force has been accused of “incredible irresponsibility” for treating the display of “transphobic” stickers around Oxford as a serious crime.

Some of the stickers, which have been dotted around the city, state: “Woman: noun. Adult human female” and “Women don’t have penises”.

Thames Valley Police has announced that those responsible could be charged with a public order offence and has appealed for witnesses.

It said: “Officers are investigating a large number of offensive stickers that have been placed across Oxford … containing transphobic comments.”

Pc Rebecca Nightingale, the investigating officer, added: “Behaviour like this is not acceptable and we take incidents of this nature very seriously.”

Michael Biggs, associate professor in sociology at the University of Oxford, suggested that the police overreacted.

“This is literally the Oxford English definition of what a woman is,” he said. “I can’t believe that needs any stance at all. To say that a dictionary definition is a terrible hate crime is extraordinary.”

Hundreds, or thousands, of the stickers have been put up around Oxford since March, the police have said.

Transgender supporters have been removing the labels and replacing them with pro-trans messages.

They contain messages such as: “Non-binary finery” and “trans women are women”.

Mr Biggs said: “If putting up stickers is a crime then it should apply to both sides. The police are taking one side in what is quite a heated political debate.”

Thames Valley Police did not reveal the content of the stickers when it issued a statement appealing for witnesses.

It reportedly said that the content and appearance of the stickers was “not suitable for sharing”.

Zayna Ratty, the chairman of Oxford Pride, said the stickers were “inducing hate crime”.

She told the Oxford Mail: “I’m not sure why this is being categorised as a public order offence instead of a hate crime. If it was a racist sticker then I think it would be classified as a hate crime. Why aren’t trans and nonbinary

‘Behaviour like this is not acceptable and we take incidents of this nature very seriously’

people being afforded the same protection as other people on this occasion? Everyone should be treated the same.”

Others responded to the police response with disbelief.

On Twitter, one resident wrote: “Oh dear. The police in Oxford don’t have much to do, do they?”

Official figures indicate there were more than 1,000 violent and sexual offence crimes in Oxford in the 12 months to August, an increase of almost 20 per cent on the previous year. Anti-social behaviour, theft and criminal damage had also risen.

The maximum sentence for threatening behaviour, the most common public order offence, is six months in jail plus a fine. A hate crime could attract a sentence of six months to three years’ imprisonment, or a fine.