Leicestershire police accused of giving trolls the green light to target politician's children

An extraordinary story from the Guardian:

The Labour MP Stella Creasy believes police have given online trolls "the green light to target the children of politicians” after she was subject to a baseless complaint to social services.

And sadly it is Leicestershire police who are responsible.

As the Guardian explains, a man who uses the alias Lance Jones contacted Waltham Forest council to complain that Creasy's "extreme views" would damage her children and said that they should be removed from her care. "Jones" has no personal connection to Creasy or her two young children.

Creasy, who is MP for Walthamstow, has been a prominent campaigner on misogyny, violence against women and her right to be allowed to bring her breastfeeding baby into parliament.

Parliamentary police investigated, Creasy explained to the newspaper, but when "Jones" was found to live in Leicestershire the case was passed to his local force.

Creasy told the Guardian what happened next:

"Leicestershire police, in their infinite wisdom, decided that this man was entitled - was the word they used - to raise concerns about my views.

"So they were very clear, because I’ve never seen the actual original complaint he made, it was entirely about my views and the risk to my children of me having what he considered to be extreme views and indeed what the police in Leicestershire said could be considered extreme views ... i.e. being a feminist.

"The consequence of it is that my kids now have a social services record because of this man’s belief that if you disagree with somebody, the thing you do is threaten to get their kids taken away."

When asked what she thought about the police response, the Creasy replied: "I think they've given the green light to targeting the children of politicians if you don’t agree with them."

The targeting of politicians' children in this way is unacceptable. If it becomes widespread it won't just be Leicestershire police who need to take a hard look at their policies and the training of their staff.