UK: Woman hits man with ‘End Violence Against Women’ placard, man charged with Criminal Damage for breaking her placard

Following is a press release from Tom Martin of Sexism Busters:

The man claims several police officers and demonstrators witnessed him being assaulted but are all pretending he started the violence, in a case of mass deception - with the exception of one honest witness.

Tom Martin will appear in a central London court tomorrow, facing a charge of Criminal Damage following a fracas that took place at a Reclaim the Night rally in November 2014 on the Charring Cross Road, central London. Mr Martin, 44, explains: “I was window-shopping on Earlham Street in central London where I live, when I heard female screams coming up Charring Cross Road, so went over to find a women-only ‘Reclaim the Night’ rally in procession. As I object to their women-only domestic violence victim advocacy, and their use of inflated rape and domestic violence statistics, I approached the rally, informed a female police sergeant present that I was going to do “an impromptu counter-demonstration” and at a safe one metre distance, gave the passing crowd the thumbs down.

They looked a bit confused to be honest, so I started shouting “Stop sex-segregating. Stop sex-segregating”. One of the passing protesters hit me on the head with her “End Violence Against Women” placard, which I instinctively grabbed and tussled away from her. The female police sergeant shouted “Oi!”, immediately apprehended me, letting my attacker go, and then holding me in hand cuffs for one hour and 25 minutes, finally arresting and charging me with Criminal Damage because the flimsy handle fell off the placard in the struggle.

The arresting police sergeant, and three police officers present all claimed they didn’t see the protester hit me with her placard, only me grabbing her sign - even though I had alerted the sergeant 20 seconds before the incident that I was going to do an “impromptu counter demonstration”. When I got home, I checked http://twitter.com for tweets mentioning the fracas, and a few tweeters who had witnessed the event claimed that a man had run up and attacked them, and argued the incident proved the need for their women-only march ... https://twitter.com/HekateP/status/536251062785961986 ... https://twitter.com/oliviasinger/status/536240576069632000 ... so, everybody else had their story straight, except, I am very relieved to announce, for one tweeter, who had been marching that night and witnessed the event, and who tweeted in reply to a claim that I’d attacked the marchers, “not sure who u think was attacking whom for what?": https://twitter.com/roomso4own/status/536852784105406464

If the police persist with this false charge based on their wrongful arrest of me, then they can dig out the CCTV footage from the lamppost cameras either side of the fracas, which will further confirm whose lying, and who isn’t. So, ladies and gentleman of the media, we have a case of mob chivalry, and mass deception, by the police, and by the marchers (except one) - where a woman initiates violence against a man, but is given a pass for her violence, and where a man uses proportionate self defence against an assaulter - and is punished for it.

Here is the T shirt I will be wearing in court tomorrow: https://twitter.com/Sexismbusters/status/668563169300869120

The court case is at 10am tomorrow, Tuesday 24th November, 2015 - at Westminster Magistrates Court, 181 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5BR , in Court Room 8 - arrive at 9.30am to be assured entry. For further info on any of the above, email Tom: sexismbusters-at-hotmail.com.

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Tom Martin is the man who in 2012 sued The London School of Economics for ignoring men's issues in its gender studies Masters programmes. Tom is currently shooting a documentary series called The Free Model "about getting women to pay half". His twitter bio has been retweeted 1232 times, Mr Martin admitting in it he is "currently single": https://twitter.com/James_v_S/status/659638183383183360