The police banned our vigil for Sarah Everard and that was illegal – how can women trust them? | Anna Birley

A court found the Met was wrong to threaten us with arrest. The force may appeal, but it should really redouble efforts to tackle misogyny and violence

As one of the founders of Reclaim These Streets, I rarely get to talk about good news. As a group of campaigners concerned with women's safety, in the past year we have organised too many vigils for women who were killed by men and should still be with us. We have supported grieving communities such as those in Kidbrooke, where Sabina Nessa lived, and Plymouth, where an incel gunman shot seven people. And we've watched as violence against women and girls slips down a political agenda that thinks a centuries-old problem such as misogyny can be fixed with a few streetlights.

But this week, finally, we have a win. We beat the Metropolitan police in the high court. Our victory spells out, in no uncertain terms, that the police were wrong to block our attempt to organise a vigil in March 2021 for Sarah Everard on Clapham Common. At every stage, the ruling shows, the police's interpretation of the law and their decisions were legally wrong.

Anna Birley is a founder of Reclaim These Streets and a local Labour & Co-operative councillor in Lambeth