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cops show no respect to youth at 'respect' festival

x | 18.07.2004 21:46 | Analysis | Anti-racism | Repression | London

copy of email sent to the Mayor of London: -


I was very upset to see, as I left the Respect Festival yesterday, a group of police swooping on a crowd of young boys and detaining them under S60 of the Public Order Act. The boys appeared to be aged 14-16 and I counted 20 black and 2 white boys detained by 30 police officers. Each one was photographed before being allowed to leave. I gather the pretext was 'a search for weapons' but there didn't appear to be any and it seemed to be pure intimidation, racist and not at all respectful.

x

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Weapons at "Respect Festival"

20.07.2004 08:56

Unfortunately there were weapons at the Respect Festival, and the woman who got shot is probably wishing the police searched more people. I haven't seen any reports in the media about what happened, but one of my friends heard the gunshots and one of my neighbours saw the victim afterwards. Rather upsetting for all those who went to enjoy a great festival and particularly those of us who took our young children.

Dawn Collyns
mail e-mail: dawn_collyns@mail.com