Thread by @AsimCP

Bismillah.

A 🧵 on my latest stop by the police coming into the UK. I had just returned from a work trip and was stopped for 4.5 hours.

From the outset I was reminded that I was not under any suspicion, but that was only the start of what quickly descended into parody

For a start, I’m handed the information flyer under schedule 7 of the TA 2000, but one that had been used before, scuffed and had fingerprints all over it. Not hygienic or safe at all in these covid times.

I’m not happy and provide minimal responses to everything they say because why should I pretend to be ok with what is taking place? I refuse to make them feel comfortable about my difficulty

The police state that while I am not under any suspicion, the purpose of the stop is to determine if they should suspect me in any way. They remind me that I am obligated to answer their questions, refusing to do so would lead to my arrest.

The officers (one white and one who looked from the Far East) continue by saying they would like a conversation with me and hope to have me out quickly.

I refuse to take that and explain a conversation is where two people have equal power in an exchange, this can’t be a conversation because they will arrest me for refusing to respond. I explain that this is a pure case of coercion

They attempt to deny the coercive elements of what is taking place, and so I walk them through more slowly, offering that perhaps they should both read some Gramsci if they wanted to learn more

They begin to rifle through my things and pull out a book from my bag which they look at as if they’ve found the most damning piece of evidence against me. Yup, it’s Mike Marqusee’s book on racism, class and cricket. I had taken it with me before the Yorkshire report came out

The officers are very interested in the tabs that I keep in the book. Flicking through them as if they might indicate something of my mindset to them. The white officer sees this as an opportunity and asks if I’m reading this because what is happening at @YorkshireCCC

He starts to say, oh are you reading this because of everything that is happening in the news. A third policeman who is sifting through my luggage says, oh yeah, about Rashid.

🙄

I can’t quite control my look as the irony is written all over my face. @AzeemRafiq30 being confused with the England cricket player Adil Rashid only really served to highlight the absurdity of the moment I was in.

The officer asks why I look upset at the exchange he just had with his colleague and I just say this is between them. I didn’t raise the Yorkshire case and that he opened that door himself. I shouldn’t have to answer for something i didn’t even bring up.

Remember, the legislation permits the police to asks questions on whether I have been involved in the Commission, Preparation or Instigation of an act of Terrorism, but for some reason they became obsessed with Marqusee’s book.

The book took on monumental proportions as even their supervisor came in to remind me that I was required to answer their questions in any direction the officers deemed relevant. Cricket has never been so political in my life as it was at this moment

Eventually I do explain to the police the irony of confusing one Asian cricketer with another while they are trying to discuss a book on racism.

It’s not exactly a secret that I tab quotes in every book I read, but the police were closely scrutinising each tab as if it revealed something. FYI for them, i do this for every book from fantasy fiction to books on political violence, it’s really not that deep

Things got a little nasty at one point when then Asian officer said that they would take my biometrics. I said they had taken them all in the past and there was no need, but he retorted that they were still going to do it again anyway. I won’t lie, it felt vindictive

There were long period where they left me alone. It seemed needless. So I doodled the room on the information flyer they had given me.

It was the first time I had really looked around carefully to see what was in the room. Irony of all ironies, there was a Muslim prayer mat folded in the table In the corner, perhaps the most profound symbol of which community is specifically targeted by this legislation 😞

I wrote in much more detail about my experience of being stopped in 2019. It was a similarly vexatious stop and really only reminds me of how unnecessary these stops are: 5pillarsuk.com/2019/07/31/my-…