I was talking to a policewoman

yesterday and I say "policewoman" and not "policeperson" quite deliberately. She has had enough of the demands being made on her to be "gender neutral". It is making her job more difficult.

I was surprised by her views. In my, admittedly limited, dealings with her she has been someone I would expect to happily go along with the demands made of her in her line of work. Yesterday though it was clear she had finally had enough. There had been an incident while she was at work. Someone who had openly broken the law insisted that they could not be arrested and, when they were arrested, insisted on not being placed in a cell with someone of the same sex as themselves. They claimed to "identify" as the opposite sex.

"Bit difficult to believe given their appearance," she told me. 

Nevertheless the "rights" of this person were apparently greater than that of the arresting officer. 

"And the next thing is that they are out on bail and they will use what happened to say that we are discriminating against them."

I do not envy the police officer. I felt guilty adding to her troubles by relating another incident. While I was apologising for telling her about it she kindly said, "No, you should report something like that. If she is still doing that sort of thing then someone needs to talk to her again. A trip to court might help."

Yes, they know her. I don't know how much good talking to her will do. This person is mentally ill, aware that what she is doing is wrong but still mentally ill. It is not normal behaviour to harass other people and beg because your own dole money goes on cigarettes and alcohol. I had observed her demand money from a very elderly woman yesterday. It was not the first time and it probably won't be the last but I happen to know the other woman is in her nineties and living on a pension. Taking ten dollars from her "Because five is not enough to get bread" was not something I wanted to hear or see. 

We left it at that but I watched her move on through the station car park and was glad when the train arrived. It is not an easy job.