More police racism
This is my friend Shaun (on the left) with Maxi Jazz from the dance group Faithless. I doubt I'll get such a nice photo this Wednesday – I'm going to Court to be a character witness for him. He appears to be in Court because he's black (and allegedly because a brake light on his car wasn't working).
First of all, I've also been stopped because my brake light wasn't working. I was also breathalised at the same time. It was quite a nice experience really - I'd never been stopped by the police in 12 years of driving and I was interested to see what would happen. They were friendly and polite, the breathaliser was green, they asked me to fix my brake light, they didn't ask for any information about my driving license, MOT or insurance, and that was that. I haven't been stopped since that incident 2 or 3 years ago despite my car being quite old and beaten up.
Shaun is not so lucky. In the last three months he has been stopped by the police on average once a week. Every time they stop him he is given a producer, which means an hour of his time the next day. He is often searched. He has lots of shocking stories. I should point out at this point that he is a musician, performer, dancer, and youth worker. I met him in 1997 when I was more involved in Unity Day and he was working for Pyramid of Arts and setting up Breakers Unify. He's a quiet and unassuming man, but he has a lot of respect from a lot of people and he gets a lot done in the community.
I want to mention some of the stories. I think it's bad enough that he is stopped every week as he is going about doing his community work, but the stories of what happens when he is stopped are much worse.
One time he was stopped in Leeds City Centre in front of loads of people and his whole car was searched for about 30 mins. A take-away meal was emptied out of its packaging onto the passenger seat and left there, and all the while a woman police officer was telling Shaun to 'calm down' and in his words 'grabbing me by the elbow' - as he was calmly trying to say the search was unnecessary. Shaun is such a calm person he wasn't in much danger, but he felt like the woman was trying to provoke him, her partner tipping his food out on his car seat was trying to provoke him, and the fact that this search was carried out in front of a crowd of people was also provocative. Of course they didn't find anything - and of course he was given a producer. This is extreme because it happened in the city centre and his food was searched, but in every other way it is what always happens, including the apparent attempts to provoke.
One time he got away without being given a producer, but it wasn't that cool. Shortly after he was pulled over a second police car arrived, blue lights flashing - it appeared the original officers had called for back-up, fearing this black man might be dangerous. One officer, getting out of the back-up car looked over at Shaun and recognised him ('Aren't you that youth worker?') They still followed procedure and searched him, presumably 'just in case', but he didn't have to go to the police station the next day.
Another time he was recognised again. The officer asked 'Didn't I stop you a couple of weeks ago?' Shaun: 'Yes, you gave me a producer and everything was ok.' The officer: 'Well, these documents could still be false so I'm going to have to give you another producer.' This was last year, back in the time when he used to always carry his documents around with him because he was stopped so often. But what's the point if you're not going to be believed anyway? Another officer said that 75% of the criminals they caught were black, so it's not surprising Shaun was being stopped.
They also used to claim that he had no insurance. He would show them his insurance certificate - and they still wouldn't believe him! They would say they had called the insurance company and they had no record of him. But he is and always has been insured - you have to be if you're stopped by the police every week.
Earlier this year Shaun was in court for failing to produce his documents. In fact he had produced his documents, but the police had failed to record that he had produced them. He went to Court with a pile of producers, counted them up in front of the magistrate, pointed out that he had always produced and everything had always been in order, and within 10 minutes the case was dismissed.
Since then he has been trying to collect evidence. He has a video recording of him going into the police station and the desk officer saying 'Not you again. I'm not even going to look at your documents - I know they're ok.'
But here we are in Court again...
- This is a terrible waste of public money...
- A waste of the Court's time...
- A waste of Police time...
- Most importantly, it can only be described as police harassment, and is a terrible way for anyone to have to live their life.
We'll have to see on Wednesday. I'll let you know.
Follow-ups: Undressed, humiliated and lied to (about our experience in Court, and about state violence), and Rather they convict me than abase myself (about our preparations for the next hearing). Also see my comments on Racism and discrimination which do relate. (This update, 15 May).
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