Police officers form a cordon as participants at a vigil in honor of Sarah Everard raise their lighted phones, on Clapham Common, south London on March 13, 2021 (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images) 

The case of Sarah Everard, a London woman found dead after going missing, has sparked protests on two fronts: against violence toward women and then against the police tactics used on those attending a vigil.

Sarah Everard. (Family photo) 
Everard, 33, was abducted as she walked home in south London on March 3. A week later, her body was found in a woodland in Kent, 50 miles away.

A police officer has been charged with her kidnap and murder, provoking a national debate over how British society deals with male violence against women.

But the political focus shifted onto London’s Metropolitan Police after officers trying to disperse a Saturday vigil for Everard that breached COVID-19 lockdown rules scuffled with mourners and dragged women away in handcuffs.

Patsy Stevenson – who was pictured being pinned to the ground by male officers in dramatic images that became a lightning rod for anger against the police – said on Monday she was dismayed at the turn of events.

“I accidentally went viral. I didn’t want this to happen. This happened like a whirlwind,” she said on Sky News.

“I’ve been thrown into the public eye and the only way I can make this not in vain is to not make it political, not against the police. It’s just about the safety of women, and we need to talk about it,” she said.

On Monday, the media focus was on whether the head of the Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick, should resign over Saturday’s ugly scenes.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday that he had full confidence in London’s police chief.

“The fundamental issue that we have to address as a country, as a society, as government, is that women must feel … that when they make serious complaints about violence, about assault, that they are properly heard and properly addressed,” he said.

Since Everard’s disappearance, many women have taken to social media to recount their own experiences of harassment and assault on Britain’s streets and to demand change.

This court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook shows police constable Wayne Couzens, center, in the dock at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, in London, Saturday, March 13, 2021. (Elizabeth Cook/PA via AP) 
One of the factors that turned the case into a rallying cry for women was the fact that police advised women near the spot where Everard went missing to stay at home for their own safety. This angered many women who said the onus should be on men to change their behavior, not on women to give up their freedom.

Everard, who worked as a marketing executive, went missing after leaving a friend’s home in the Clapham neighborhood of south London around 9 p.m. on March 3, a Wednesday. While walking home to Brixton — a 3-mile route that should have taken about 50 minutes — she spoke briefly on the phone with her boyfriend and made plans to meet him the next day. At 9:30, shortly after she hung up, she was caught on surveillance video about a quarter-mile east of Clapham Common. It was the last known sighting of her.

When Everard did not show up to meet her boyfriend on March 4, he reported her missing.

On Tuesday, March 9, Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, 48, was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping.

The following day, human remains were found in a bag in a woodland near Ashford, Kent. When they were identified as Everard’s, Couzens was charged with her murder.