Intelligence-led stop & search can play a role in keeping us all safe but treating people like this is counter-productive & wrong.
The 14 year old in this video had just been bought a bike by his grandfather.
He wants to stay anonymous but did write this about his experience👇🏾
“I was on my way home enjoying riding my new bike that I had received and suddenly I was thrown off my bike and against a wall for no reason. 1/7
“My first thought was ‘I haven’t done anything wrong, why are they harassing me? Is it because I am black?’ 2/7
“Nothing was explained to me and I was made to feel like I had done something wrong, even though I knew that I had not. 3/7
“Nothing was explained to me as to why I had been stopped and I feel like they were abusing their powers, as normally they would tell you what you have done wrong. 4/7
“I was scared and worried because if there were no bystanders who knows what would have happened. I’ve never had any interactions with the police before. 5/7
“After this experience, I hope never to again, as I no longer believe the police are there to help, but more to harass young black boys for no reason. 6/7
“I have seen them doing this all the time, but for it to happen to me has shown that they enjoy harassing young black boys and expect that every young person is a gang member or carries weapons.” 7/7
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Dear @AlistairMcInto7, I have had enough of your campaign of harassment. If it continues, I will be raising it with the Party and considering other steps to stop it. This kind of conduct is completely unbecoming of a local Labour branch secretary. 1/6
For years now, you have felt it acceptable to troll me in this persistent, excessive and thoughtless manner. As you are a member of my local Party and as someone who does not shy away from criticism, I have let you. But this cannot continue. 2/6
If you’re wondering why I haven’t immediately blocked you, which I fully intend to do, it’s because I want you to see and understand the full extent and scale of what you have done and continue to do. 3/6
The #RefugeeBanBill is a deplorable, illegal & unworkable attempt to rip up the human rights of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.
It comes from a Tory Government desperate to divide & distract us during an economic crisis exacerbated by their policies.
🧵
1/21
Instead of offering safe routes to sanctuary in the UK, the Government is attempting to ban asylum and human rights claims from people who have escaped some of the worst horrors in the world and forcibly remove them instead, with sweeping new detention powers pending this.
2/21
It flies in the face of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, drafted in the wake of the Holocaust: “refugees shall not be penalised solely by reason of unlawful entry or because, being in need of refuge and protection, they remain illegally in a country”.
When it was introduced in 1983, this fee was £35 - about £120 in today’s money.
The reason it’s so expensive is because the Home Office is skimming £640 off each application, raking in a staggering £102.7m profit between 2017-2020 alone.
I'll be voting against The Covert Human Intelligence Sources Bill today.
This is the latest chapter in the attempt to wrest key scrutiny powers away from the judiciary, place British authorities beyond the law, and squash dissent.
A thread 👇🏾
1/8
This Bill would give legal sanction to a host of illegal actions - grave human rights breaches including murder, torture, sexual violence and a rafter of civil liberty violations. 2/8
To list a few covert operations & breaches: the shooting of lawyer Pat Finucaine in Northern Ireland, the SpyCops revelations of undercover officers having sexual relationships (and even children) with activist and the surveillance of left-wing MPs. 3/8