Monday, September 03, 2012

Harassment victim to sue police





A BLACK student who has been stopped around 50 times by police – but never found to have committed any crime – is to sue the Metropolitan Police. He says he has suffered almost four years of harassment and false charges, which he believes have been motivated by racism.
 Between the ages of 14 and 17, the college student says he has faced a series of charges of which he has either been found not guilty or which have been dropped before getting to court, as well as numerous stops and searches and two strip searches, none of which identified any criminal activity.
 He says he has also been detained several times in police cells after which he was released without charge.
 Last week the teenager appeared at Bromley youth court, south London, charged with assaulting a police officer. The case collapsed after CCTV footage contradicted the evidence in court of PC John Lovegrove, who claimed to have been assaulted by the youth during a stop and search.
 The youth had been stopped by police in Sidcup, south London, on 11th February this year, after reports on the police radio that a named white suspect had threatened his father with a knife and had then run off. The police description was later amended to black or mixed race male.
 The youth said: "I can't think of any other reason why the police keep doing this to me apart from racism. I've been stopped and searched so many times I've lost count, I think it's about 50 times."

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