Stop and search policy alienating a generation of kids
IN response to your report "180 kids a week stopped and searched" (Gazette, November 12), I am outraged at the
abuse of our children at the hands of adults who are supposed to care and the silence of the vast majority of others who shamelessly claim that civil and human rights are at the top of their agenda.
The figures published by the Gazette highlight the tip of the iceberg of the effect of discriminatory practices.
Islington police need to be reined back. Stop and search is the most powerful tool available to the police, invasive and corrosive, and left unchecked can leave one traumatised for decades.
We are destroying the childhood of children.
Chief Superintendent Mike Wise claims that the 250 per cent increase in stop and search since 2004 is based on intelligence-led operations.
As a Bunhill resident I sit on the board of London Crimestoppers, I am the chair of Trident (tackling London-wide gun and violent crime) and a trustee of the Children Society and I for one cannot support this agenda.
How can 180 stop-and-searches per week of those below 18 years in Islington ever be justified? Where is "the reasonable grounds for suspicion"?
How can we ignore the civil rights of children? Chief Superintendent Mike Wise claims to have the support of the community - he does not!
Instead of preventing knife crime, we are alienating a generation of young people who are innocently going about their daily business. There is more to be gained from working with young people to tackle the minority of offenders.
The vast majority of young people are law-abiding. They deserve a better childhood and adults have a duty to protect them. - Claudia Webbe, Moreland Street, EC1.
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