de Jongeren van Britse Harrass van de Politie
Door Paul Lewis | Het team van het politietoezicht had hun doel bevlekt: een 12 éénjarigenjongen met freckles en gemberhaar. Hij was gekend om voor lastgedrag te controleren. Zij letten op aangezien hij langs een weg met vrienden in de afstand liep, alvorens onderaan een zijstraat te verdwijnen.
Toen de vier jongens uit het labyrint van het landgoed van alleyways te voorschijn kwamen, wachtte de patrouilleauto. „Is dit die verrichting, de heer?“ gezegd één jongen. „Ik wil niet op camera zijn.“ Hij was reeds.
De Luipaard van de verrichting is het recentste wapen in de bestrijding van asociaal gedrag om overheid steun te ontvangen. De weg bereid door ambtenaren die in Essex moeilijke landgoederen controleren, stelt het voorwaartse intelligentieteams (Pasvormen) op - eenheden die worden opgeleid om bewijsmateriaal bij foxhunts, protesten en voetbalgelijken te verzamelen - op gebieden die aan misdaad lijden.
De GESCHIKTE ambtenaren richten een klaplijst van individuen die „gekend om zijn te controleren en“, hen te onderwerpen aan herhaald toezicht. Vorige week werd de Beschermer gegeven een ongekende toegang tot de recentste verrichting op het landgoed van Vijf Verbindingen in Laindon, dichtbij Basildon.
Voor burgerrechtengroepen, is de verrichting een techniek Orwellian die individuen vervolgt die geen misdaad hebben begaan. Maar voor politie, werkt de „in uw gezichts“ benadering en, in tegenstelling tot heimelijk toezicht, vereist het geen speciale vergunning.
De politieeis van Essex is er een „100%“ daling in misdaad op doellandgoederen tijdens recente verrichtingen geweest. Hun onderzoeken wijzen op de zogenaamde „de jeugd“ strategie populair is in de gemeenschap kwel.
Vóór de vorige Luipaard van de Verrichting, vertelde 27.8% van ingezetenen op het landgoed politie zij onlangs misdaad of asociaal gedrag hadden getuigd. In de weken na de verrichting, dat gelaten vallen aan 8.5%.
De steun van het Bureau van het huis voor de tactiek komt als vertrouwen in asbos zodra het het vlaggeschiphulpmiddel van de overheid om asociaal gedrag te bestrijden heeft gedesintegreerd. Vroeger deze maand waren de overheid vrijgegeven cijfers om gebruik van de orden te tonen door 34% gedaald.
In een toespraak koos deze maand wijd ontvangen zoals merkend de daling van asbo, de Minister van Binnenlandse Zaken, Jacqui Smith, het initiatief van de kracht Essex voor lof uit. De „luipaard van de verrichting is precies de soort van het intensieve controleren die blijvende overtreders aan hun betekenissen kan brengen,“ zij zei. “It creates an environment where those responsible for antisocial behaviour have no room for manoeuvre and nowhere to hide, where the tables are turned on offenders so that those who harass our communities are themselves harried and harassed.”
Essex police, who have scheduled 12 more operations this year, have since been approached by police forces across Britain for information on their techniques.
Troublemakers
Last week’s three-day operation began with officers hunched over laminated mugshots of 14 “targets” on the Five Links estate. Sergeant Simon Mathias, in charge of neighbourhood policing, briefed two community support officers, two special constables and a team of FIT officers on the individuals he had identified as troublemakers. All were male, and most were under 18. One was just 11. Between them they had convictions for robbery, battery, criminal damage and carrying weapons.
Mathias explained that officers would work in shifts, roaming the estate in search of the targets. Occasionally, he said, they should visit the targets’ homes. Officers were instructed to film “any individuals” seen associating with them. All footage would be kept for “evidence and intelligence” purposes. “We’re going to be more proactive, more intrusive,” said Mathias. “But it’s going to all be in the public domain, and all in the interests of preventing crime and antisocial behaviour.”
Nicknamed Alcatraz because of its fortress-like appearance, the Five Links estate has high levels of crime. It is also notoriously hard to police when confronted, suspects easily melt into a web of backstreets that police call “the rat run”.
During the first afternoon, two youths were reported on the roof of a school and, after a chase, were caught. They were in a group filmed earlier in the day for associating with a target. “It shows that we’re stopping the right people,” said Mathias.
Although officers claimed targets could choose not to be filmed, none of those stopped in the presence of the Guardian around 15 suspects and associates were given that choice.
“It winds me up. I can’t go nowhere without them following me,” said Michael, 18, after what he said was his fourth stop. “I got back from work and as soon as I got out the van they were just taking photos of me straight away zooming in on all the patterns I’ve got in my hair.”
Michael’s mother complained to police that he was being harassed. “You can understand the parents,” an FIT officer remarked later. “But, you know: tough. You won’t control them we will.”
By the third day the group actively began to evade police. They spent time indoors, playing computer games, or ventured off the estate on to a nearby patch of grass to play football. Some lifted their hoods every time they saw a patrol car.
Lee, 19, said he had been stigmatised. “I admit I was a little shit back in the past, but who ain’t?” he said. “I’ve grown up now I’m chilled these days. The old bill don’t let us move on. They keep on classing us as criminals.”
For civil rights groups, which have complained about Operation Leopard, this is precisely the problem. Some activists have launched a counterattack, subjecting FIT officers to surveillance. Turning their own cameras on FIT, activists have started posting officers’ names, faces and badge numbers online.
Adversarial
Back at the station, the officers logged on to one of the websites, Fitwatch, and vented their frustration at “revenge attacks”. One said being filmed felt “unnerving”.
During patrols the adversarial nature of what one FIT officer called “the hunt” was on show. Some officers developed derogatory nicknames for the teenagers they were stopping. But when talking to their teenage targets, the officers strove to build a rapport. They joked about the situation, and told the teenagers to rest assured they had done “nothing wrong”.
Sergeant Gavin Brook, who helped devise Operation Leopard in January, was the only FIT officer who agreed to be named. He acknowledged there were civil liberty implications, but added: “You have to weigh up causing a bit of annoyance to 12 or 14 youths, against the 2,000 or 3,000 residents whose lives have been improved.”
Many Five Links residents backed Brook’s argument, saying any initiative that put large numbers of police on the street would deter nuisance behaviour. But others, particularly long-time residents, were sceptical about it working when the cameras were off, or felt the method would make teenagers more hostile.
See More:UK NewsHave Your Say: UK Police Harrass Youths
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This entry was posted on Friday, May 30th, 2008 at 6:18 am and is filed under Surveillance, Civil Liberties & Human Rights News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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Pathetic fucking bunch of cunts. What are you, cops or commando babysitters?