Terror bans
12-08-2011
Calls for ‘robust policing’ show politicians are completely out of touch
David Cameron’s call for more ‘robust’ policing demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of policing issues on Britain’s estates.
Calls for ‘robust policing’ show politicians are completely out of touch.
http://networkforpolicemonitoring.org.ukDavid Cameron’s call for more ‘robust’ policing demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of policing issues on Britain’s estates.
The Network for Police monitoring extends sympathies to those who have lost homes and businesses, and especially to the families of those who lost their lives in Birmingham. However, we also reject the suggestion that tougher policing is the way to stop this happening again.
Tensions created by incessant stop and search operations and aggressive policing have undeniably contributed to the conditions which have led to widespread rioting. Young men from working class communities, especially black communities, have consistently taken the brunt of the ‘harassment style policing’ implemented by the Labour party and continued under the present government.
They have also taken the brunt of police violence. The experience of a police monitor from the Network, who was repeatedly punched to the face and head in the back of a Metropolitan police van after a stop and search, is sadly not an isolated one. What would help is not more ‘robust’ policing, but a police force that does not act in a disproportionate, vindictive or discriminatory way.
The Network for Police Monitoring opposes calls for more police powers in the light of the rioting. There is no justification for increasing existing powers, which are already extensive. Proposed measures, such as those to extend the rights of police to remove face coverings, have the potential to be misused, particularly in relation to political protest, and have significant civil rights implications.
The authorisation of the use of plastic bullets for public order situations is unacceptable. Plastic bullets can kill, and the long experience of their use in Northern Ireland has shown that there are particular risks for young people and teenagers. The use of such potentially fatal weapons against unarmed young people can never be justified.
The Network for Police Monitoring also rejects calls for ‘very long sentences’ for those involved in the riots, and for other actions that will harm families such as the termination of tenancies for households with convictions.
The causes of these riots are varied and complicated, but issues of unemployment, deprivation and social inequality are clearly involved. Despite Cameron’s assertions to the contrary, this is a political situation which requires a political not a criminal solution. Motives were varied, but for many young people this was an opportunity to kick out at a system they felt was letting them down. Locking them up in already overcrowded prisons can only prove they were right.