According to The Guardian: ‘A 63-year-old grandfather is Tasered by police outside his home in Bristol on Saturday after officers apparently mistook him for a wanted man. Judah Adunbi, a race relations champion, has previously sat on groups working to improve links between the force and the black community. The police watchdog has launched an investigation.’
The attached shows the appalling state of Britain today. This guy refused to give his personal details and is tasered to the ground recently in Bristol. Some may say he should have just submitted and told them; ie nothing to hide nothing to fear. The poor guy just happened to be an ex police race relations advisor. Will she be prosecuted and jailed?
Question…. Why should he give any details? The public are under NO obligation whatsoever to reveal ANY personal information unless ‘there is suspicion that an offence has been or is likely to be committed’. In this case, absotutely none.
James Pulleine
Douglas James: My question is this. Would a white person, especially from a middle class background be intimidated and assaulted in this way? Admittedly they would have probably been more likely to be deferential to the officers and done everything asked. But I suspect the chances of them being expected to dramatically declines based on their social class and on their ethnic background. Police officers are notoriously working class people serving a middle class centric state on behalf of an establishment.
There is of course an exaggeration relating to the negative effect of the police upon ethnic minorities but not in relation to the working classes in which is it impossible to ascertain because the government refuses to collect such data.
The background to this incident of course is decades of right wing antagonism from politicians, the corporate media and significant sections of the police.
‘Many young black men believed police officers discriminated against them, particularly by use of the ‘Sus’ law under which anybody could be stopped and searched if officers merely suspected they might be planning to carry out a crime. In others words, you can be detained for no reason, just looking suspicious..Known as “Sus”, the law allowed police to stop, search and arrest anyone they chose as a crime prevention tactic.
But it was widely believed to have been abused by officers to harass young black, asian and other minorities.
Add in the mixture of high unemployment, deprivation, racial tensions and poor relations with police it’s a powder keg..
Since Lord Scarman’s report on the events in Brixton riots was published in November 1981, similar disturbances had taken place in a raft of other English cities, most notably Liverpool and Manchester.
A public task force report, stated that “no doubt racial disadvantage was a fact of current British life”.
But he concluded that “institutional racism” did not exist in the Metropolitan force. 18yrs years later Lord Macpherson would famously come to the opposite conclusion in his report following the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence.
The report led to an end to the Sus law, the creation of the Police Complaints Authority and police/community consultative groups as well as new approaches to police recruitment and training.
On April 2, 1980, police raided the notorious Black and White Cafe in St Pauls, Bristol, sparking the most serious riots on mainland Britain since before the Second World War. And after Met police stopped and searched 943 people – the vast majority black and law-abiding – and arrested only 118 during a blitz on robberies and burglaries in the spring of 1981 trouble flared again in Brixton. Complaints of harassment and racism soared and riots on the streets left police cars and properties burned out.
In July the same year Toxteth, Liverpool, was gripped by riots. Police were forced to withdraw as 150 buildings on a one-mile stretch of road were torched and 781 officers hurt.
The law was hastily abolished that year.
Since 1981 there has continued to be sporadic outbreaks of riots both in other major cities, most memorably in the north of England when white and Asian youths clashed during the summer of 2001. It’s about race..now disguised under anti-terror measures.
In January 2008 David Cameron, Leader of the Conservative Party, announced that he would, if elected, seek to return similar powers to the police. Under Conservative proposals, police sergeants would be able to authorise the use of stop and search of pedestrians and vehicles in a specific area for up to six hours—or 48 hours if permission is granted by a senior officer.
Enough said…’ (Democratic Underground)
Recently the police have been seeking public support to increase the use of tasers. I would be particularly interested to see a comparison between the yes vote from white middle class people and the yes vote from working class people, especially non white. The latter who vote yes should perhaps stick their finger in the mains every so often in preparation.
