Transgender activist and convicted attempted murderer tells police officer 'trans rights are human rights!' as she's handcuffed and arrested for 'incitement to violence' after telling cheering crowd at Trans Pride rally to 'punch TERFs in the face'
- Sarah Jane Baker was arrested following comments made at event on Saturday
This is the moment a transgender activist and convicted attempted murderer tells a police officer 'trans rights are human rights' as she is handcuffed and arrested after telling a cheering crowd at a Trans Pride rally to 'punch TERFs in the face'.
Sarah Jane Baker, whose spent 30 years in jail for kidnap and then the attempted murder of a fellow prisoner, provoked outrage over her inflammatory comments on Saturday against feminists who are critical of trans ideology.
She told fellow activists: 'I was gonna come here and be really fluffy and be really nice and say yeah be really lovely and queer and gay... Nah, if you see a TERF, punch them in the f****** face.'
She was reported to the police for inciting violence at the weekend, but a Met officer initially told a complainant it was not in the public interest to pursue the case, saying the call for violence was 'hypothetical' and allowed under free speech laws.
However, Scotland Yard subsequently confirmed that the crime report had been reopened. On Wednesday, Baker was filmed being handcuffed by an officer inside a house, in a video uploaded by a supporter and viewed more than 300,000 times on social media.
Baker was one of the speakers at the Trans+ Pride event in London on Saturday and used her speech to call for violence against those critical of trans ideology
Baker was filmed being handcuffed by an officer inside a house, in a video uploaded by a supporter and viewed more than 300,000 times on social media
When asked if there is anything she would like to say, Baker responds: 'Trans rights are human rights. One struggle, one fight'
When asked if there is anything she would like to say, Baker responds: 'Trans rights are human rights. One struggle, one fight.'
As the officer slowly ushers her down the stairs, she turns to the person filming the arrest and says again: 'Trans rights are human rights.
'They won't get rid of us, our existence is our resistance, you remember that.'
A Met Police spokesman told MailOnline today: 'A 53-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of incitement to violence. She has been taken into custody.
'The arrest on 12 July is in connection with an incident during the Trans Pride event in Westminster on 8 July. A video was widely shared on social media.'
Baker, a violinist and artist who is originally from Brixton in south London, was jailed for kidnapping and torturing her stepmother's brother.
Then, aged 21, she was convicted of attempted murder for breaking into a prisoner's cell and trying to strangle him to death. She later claimed the victim - an alleged child rapist - had bullied her.
Speaking to the Anything Goes with James English podcast in 2020, Baker described how she had always felt uncomfortable in a male body and, in December 2017, resorted to drastic measures by cutting of her own testicles.
'I hated my body and I reached out to the staff and said to them, ''if you don't help me, I will help myself'', and they just laughed,' she remembered.
'I said, ''I will remove my own testicles, that's what I'll do''... I am genuinely a person of my word, if I tell you I'm going to do something then I'm going to do it.
'I've also been diagnosed with a personality disorder and one of my risk factors is being impulsive. It was an impulsive decision that I made to take a prison razor blade at 2 o'clock in the morning and to remove my own testicles.'
Sarah Jane Baker provoked outrage for her inflammatory comments at the rally in London on Saturday
Baker - pictured prior to transitioning - was originally jailed for kidnapping and torturing her stepmother's brother
Baker in February this year at a vigil for Brianna Ghey, a 16-year-old trans girl who was stabbed to death
She admitted that this had been an incredibly 'dangerous' decision, but said it had felt 'important'.
Baker admitted to getting involved in drug dealing, phone smuggling and sex work while behind bars.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror from inside prison, she complained about being a target for violence after announcing her decision to become a woman. 'Prison is brutal and it's all about being the hardest and the most macho,' she said.
'If you tell a member of staff you feel threatened, nothing will happen until you are beaten up.
'People are not well educated or liberal in the way they think in jail and the rules are outdated.'
Baker was released in 2019 after being being given oestrogen hormones by the authorities and undergoing a controversial £10,000 taxpayer-funded sex change operation.
Baker learned to read and write in prison and eventually wrote a book: Transgender Behind Prison Walls.
She now campaigns on trans issues - sometimes appearing topless at marches - and is also a supporter of eco groups Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain.
The self-declared 'transanarchist' has also announced her intention to run to become MP for Richmond at the next election.
Her activism has included setting up the Transprisoner Alliance which organises visits to trans people behind bars and provides them with clothes, make-up and legal assistance.
She has also been active in calling for trans people to be moved into a prison that accords with their chosen gender.
Labour MP Lloyd Russell Moyle prepares to speak at a protest at Downing Street on January 18 where Baker (left) was in attendance. Later the MP said he had not known who the activist was
The Trans+ Pride event on Saturday saw thousands march through London in what they referred to as the 'biggest-ever' call for Trans rights
During a 2019 interview with the i, Baker - was previously called Alan Baker - described how she had been born in Brixton before growing up as one of 14 kids in a 'really good' Georgian house in Norwood.
She said her father became abusive after losing his business.
Baker recalled how she went into care before occasionally fleeing and working as an underage male prostitute.
The Trans+ Pride event on Saturday saw thousands march through London in what they referred to as the 'biggest ever' call for Trans rights.
Baker took to the stage wearing a red beret - which she is often seen with in public - and holding an Antifa flag.
A London Trans Pride spokesman said: 'Sarah and many others in our community hold a lot of rage and anger and they have the right to express that anger through their words.
'We do not condone violence, we do not back a call to arms for violence of any kind. We do condone righteous anger and the right to the free speech that was expressed yesterday. We have and will continue to march in peace.'
TERF is the acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist, a term often used to refer to critics of trans ideology.
Before Baker's speech, trans activists and supporters had walked past Piccadilly and Trafalgar Square with signs for the worldwide Pride celebration.
