Inevitably, speculation has begun on who will take over from the outgoing Metropolitan Police Commissioner, following the recent announcement of Cressida Dick’s early departure from the most senior policing position in the country.
26 November 2020 — Netpol
PHOTO: Shutterstock
The Conservative government is planning to introduce major changes to public order legislation to crack down on protests, under a new “Protection of the Police and Public Bill” planned for 2021.
In September, Home Secretary Priti Patel denounced environmental campaigners Extinction Rebellion as “so-called eco-crusaders turned criminals” at the Police Superintendents’ Association conference and, at the Conservative Party conference in early October, accused Black Lives Matter campaigners of “hooliganism and thuggery”.
16 July 2020 — Institute of Race Relations
Police forces across England and Wales will no doubt vigorously defend their tactics during the forthcoming Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) inquiry into possible racial discrimination in use of force and stop and search. Leaving aside the question of whether the long-criticised IOPC is the right organisation to lead such an inquiry, arguments already deployed by the Metropolitan Police to justify their tactics are deeply concerning. Metropolitan commissioner Cressida Dick has implied that racial profiling in working-class multicultural neighbourhoods is legitimate on the spurious ground that disproportional stop and search leads to similar levels of ‘positive outcomes’ as between different ethnic groups. The implication of her argument that black people are more frequently involved in crime than other ethnic groups is fallacious, as the Guardian, building on previous research, quite rightly pointed out in a hard-hitting editorial.
12 October 2019 — Extinction/Rebellion
[I thought a note on police activities re Extinction/Rebellion is worth publicising to a wider audience. WB]
PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY
ARE YOU BEING STOPPED AND SEARCHED?
– Ask ‘Am I being detained or am I free to leave?’
IF you are told you are detained, this means you are being stopped and searched. OTHERWISE, you are able to walk away.
3 April 2019 — WSWS
Conservative Home Secretary Sajid Javid has handed UK police increased stop and search powers on the pretext of fighting the rise in knife crime.
The new powers follow a “knife crime summit” held at Downing Street Monday, overseen by Prime Minister Theresa May. They make it easier for officers to search anyone they choose within a certain area under a “section 60” check.
5 July 2014 — WSWS
A report by the House of Commons All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children has revealed that more than one million police stop and searches were carried out on children and young people under the age of 18 in England and Wales over the last five years.
6 February 2014 — WSWS
An unprecedented police and legal clampdown is underway in Scotland. Primarily directed against young people, an escalation of stop and search measures has been unearthed by a recent report from Edinburgh University. According to the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, the rate with which particularly youth are stopped in working class areas of Scotland is far in excess of comparable figures for London and New York.
8 January 2014 — WSWS
Early Saturday morning, police in the northern German city of Hamburg declared the entire district of St. Pauli and large parts of Altona, Eimsbuettel and Sternschanze to be a “no-go zone.” The announcement of such a broad “no-go area” is unprecedented in German post-war history. In such areas police officers are entitled to arbitrarily check and search any individual and demand they leave the zone.
21 February 2006
In actuality, running the risk of being thrown in the slammer for ‘Glorifying terrorism’ is the least of our problems as the ‘Prevention of Terrorism Act’ is already wreaking havoc on the citizens of this ‘cradle of democracy [sic].
From shouting out “nonsense” at the Labour Party Conference to attending film festivals or wearing a t-shirt that disses Blair, we are all subject to arrest and/or detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. And it’s clear that the police have been given orders to use it to intimidate and harass anyone who speaks out or behaves in a way likely to bring disrepute on our ‘glorious’ leaders. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 