The streets have never been a safe place to walk alone at night as a woman. Most women know that without being told.

Yet after a spate of attacks that occurred in Manchester city centre during the early hours between January and February, Detective Constable Steve Lowton said this:

“We are urging girls and women not to make their way home alone after a night out, please try and stay together with friends, and always use licensed transport to get home.”

Photo: Mike Kniec @Flickr

To anyone who reads the news occasionally, it’s obviously not the first time Greater Manchester Police (and other police forces) have responded to reports of sexual assault by telling women to curtail their freedoms.

Less than 6 months earlier Zoe Sheard, Chief Superintendent of Greater Manchester Police, urged women to: “…not walk the streets alone and always make sure people know where you are”, after…