Posts Tagged ‘GMP’

Manchester Stands in Solidarity with Child Q and Calls for ‘No Police in Schools’

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Kerry Pimblott, Northern Police Monitoring Project (NPMP)

Hundreds gathered in St. Peter’s Square in Manchester on Friday to express solidarity and outrage at the treatment of ‘Child Q’, a 15-year of Black girl subjected to a strip-search by Metropolitan police officers at her school without the presence of an appropriate adult or parental consent. Organised by a coalition of local groups – including the Northern Police Monitoring Project (NPMP), Kids of Colour, No More Exclusions, Sisters Uncut, Kill the Bill MCR, and MCR Copwatch – the demonstration renewed calls for the removal of police from schools and the realisation of abolition in our lifetimes.  

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Description automatically generatedNPMP’s Zara Manoehoetoe addresses the crowd in St. Peter’s Square

In Manchester these demands are far from new. Following a series of complaints raised by young people in 2019, NPMP and Kids of Colour submitted a Freedom of Information request that revealed that Greater Manchester Police (GMP) planned to put twenty additional police in schools for the 2020/21 academic year. As the nation went into lockdown following the outbreak of Covid-19, grassroots organisers held forums, crafted an open letter to Mayor Andy Burnham, and launched an online survey to consult young people, parents, teachers, and wider communities about their views on the decision. The results of the survey provided the foundation for a subsequent report, Decriminalise the Classroom: A Community Response to Police in Greater Manchester’s Schools (2020), which, as NPMP member Siobhan O’Neill explained, revealed widespread opposition to police in schools and concerns that their presence exacerbates existing inequalities, foster a culture of low expectations and create a climate of hostility that leads to the criminalisation of young people, particularly working-class and racially minoritised students. Instead, respondents overwhelmingly called for funding to be spent on non-punitive alternatives such as youth workers, counsellors, and more teachers. 

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Description automatically generated with low confidenceNPMP’s Siobhan O’Neill describes the findings of the 2020 Decriminalise the Classroom report

During Friday’s demonstration, these concerns were echoed once again by parents, campaigners, and young people outraged by the account of sexuall abuse and trauma experienced by Child Q. Among the speakers was Lisa Eigbadon: ‘I felt compelled to speak today because No Police in Schools is a movement and campaign I’m very passionate about because I went to a school with a school based police officer,’ Eigbadon explained. ‘When I heard about Child Q I felt sick in my stomach, and I put myself in her position and her shoes because I’ve been subject to police confrontation […] in school’. 

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Description automatically generatedLisa Eigbadon describes attending a school with a school-based police officer in Manchester

Angela Henry of the Manchester branch of No More Exclusions and Eline Davies of Kill the Bill Manchester connected Child Q’s experience to wider systemic patterns of racialised surveillance, discrimination and violence in schools. As Angela Henry explained, ‘Child Q is not the first Black young person that finds themselves being dealt with disproportionately, aggressively, illegally and traumatically at the hand of police who are supposed to serve and protect, and she won’t be the last under current policing structures.’ All of the speakers insisted that ‘police have no place in schools’ and joined Henry in calling for non-punitive transformative justice interventions of the type outlined in the recent No More Exclusions report, ‘“What about the Other 29?”: Demystifying Abolition in the UK Education System’. ‘Abolition’, as NPMP member Zara Manoehoetoe explained, ‘is about putting love and care at the centre of our approach.’ 

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Description automatically generated with low confidenceKids of Colour founder, Roxy Legane, addresses the crowd in Manchester.

Kids of Colour founder, Roxy Legane, recounted some of the more recent developments in the local No Police in Schools campaign which through collaboration with young people, parents, and members of the National Education Union’s North West Black Members Organising Forum secured a landmark victory in July 2021 when Councillor Garry Bridges  announced that plans to introduce twenty additional officers were being scrapped. Despite these gains, Legane cautioned that police are still a presence in many local schools and that parents at a school in Trafford are currently embroiled in a battle to halt the introduction of additional officers. As Legane explained, such developments contradict the stated policy of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority that if a school does not want an officer, they will not be forced to have one, a reality that necessitates concerned parents, young people, and community members continue to push back. Pushing back, Manoehoetoe asserted, means identifying those schools that have, or are seeking to introduce, a police presence and contacting the board of governors and local councillors to express your discontent. Whether they are operating as ‘schools-based police officers’, ‘school resource officers’, ‘school liaison officers’ or by another name, if you are a teacher you should organise with your local union to pass motions opposing police in schools. And, you should join the more than 25,000 people that have already signed the No police in UK schools petition.

Withdraw your consent.

Abolition in our lifetimes. 

Open letter regarding ‘Project Servator’

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FAO Greater Manchester Police

 

We, the undersigned, are concerned about the implementation of ‘Project Servator’ in the city of Manchester. We are more concerned about the unwillingness of Greater Manchester Police to justify this practice, or to respond to the legitimate concerns of the community.

 

In a statement on Project Servator, the Northern Police Monitoring Project drew attention to a  video tweeted by Greater Manchester Police (@GMpolice) which showed uniformed officers handing out leaflets in the Manchester Arndale shopping centre. In the video, Superintendent Chris Hill stated that those who do not want to engage with leafleting officers would be ‘watched’ by plain-clothes officers. He has also urged the public not to worry about more ‘checks’ taking place.

 

We echo the contention of the Northern Police Monitoring Project that the public have the right to go about their daily lives without fear of state monitoring and surveillance. When individuals are not obligated to engage with the police, they have a choice, and choosing not to should not be grounds for suspicion. Whether in a rush or averse to leaflets, there are countless reasons individuals may choose not to engage with leafleting officers. Given the harm that over-policing has caused to many communities, we would even suggest that a direct desire not to engage with the police could be entirely justifiable and should not be grounds for suspicion.

 

Tactics like ‘stop and search’ have been shown to criminalise people and communities, without leading to effective crime prevention. ‘Project Servator’ is another example of police forces monitoring and imposing themselves upon individuals without any legitimate justification. ‘Project Servator’ presents itself as the police and community working together, but there can be no true partnership when individuals who do not participate are deemed potentially criminal. Given that GMP seek to present itself in this way, we are particularly disappointed that there has been no response to concerns raised and no attempt to justify this practice.

 

We hope that the public will continue to question this practice and believe that policing cannot continue without accountability. We call upon Greater Manchester Police to respond to our concerns and to end Project Servator.

 

Signed:

  1. Northern Police Monitoring Project
  2. Dr Remi Joseph-Salisbury, (Northern Police Monitoring Project; Racial Justice Network; University of Manchester)
  3. Dr Laura Connelly (Northern Police Monitoring Project)
  4. Dr Tanzil Chowdhury (Northern Police Monitoring Project, Queen Mary University of London)
  5. Ilyas Nagdee, NUS Black Students Officer
  6. Dr Asim Qureshi, Research Director, CAGE
  7. Ewa Jasiewicz, Writer and Union Organiser
  8. Jas Nijjar (Brunel University London)
  9. Roxy Legane (Kids of Colour)
  10. Zita Holbourne, National Chair BARAC UK & National Vice President, PCS union
  11. Dr Meghan Tinsley (University of Manchester)
  12. Dr Kate Hardy, Associate Professor, Leeds University Business School
  13. Dr Patrick Williams (Sites of Resistance, Manchester Metropolitan University)
  14. Scarlet Harris (University of Glasgow)
  15. Lee Jasper, Former London Deputy Mayor, Blacksox Sponsor
  16. Hamish Reid, University of Nottingham
  17. Dr Lisa Long (Leeds Beckett University)
  18. Dr Adam Elliott-Cooper (King’s College London)
  19. Peninah Wangari-Jones (Racial Justice Network)
  20. Lowkey (HipHop Artist)
  21. Chantelle Lewis (PhD researcher, Goldsmiths)
  22. Dr Waqas Tufail (Leeds Beckett University)
  23. Dr Azeezat Johnson (QMUL)
  24. Jessica Perera (Institute of Race Relations)
  25. Yusef Bakkali (Birmingham City University)
  26. Katrina Ffrench, Chief Executive – StopWatch
  27. Dr Jamie Woodcock (University of Oxford)
  28. Dr Musab Younis, (Queen Mary University of London)
  29. Dr John Narayan (Birmingham City University)
  30. Hafsah Aneela Bashir ( Poet, Playwright, Co-Director of Outside The Frame Arts )
  31. Dr Leon Sealey-Huggins (University of Warwick)
  32. Dr Gary Anderson, Senior Lecturer Drama, Liverpool Hope University
  33. Dr Niamh Malone, Senior Lecturer Drama, Liverpool Hope University
  34. Dr Necla Açik (University of Manchester)
  35. Manchester Momentum
  36. Afshan D’souza-Lodhi (Northern Police Monitoring Project, poet and playwright)
  37. Dr Katy Sian (Northern Police Monitoring Project, University of York)
  38. Ian Allinson (former candidate for Unite General Secretary, Manchester)
  39. Kojo Kyerewaa, (Black Lives Matter UK)
  40. Guy Parker
  41. James Chambers
  42. Mea Aitken (Kids of Colour)
  43. Fowsia Cansuur (Kids of Colour)
  44. Clara Paillard (PCS union, President of Culture Group, personal capacity)
  45. Farzana Khan (Director, Healing Justice London, Fellow International Curators Forum)
  46. Right to Remain
  47. Dr Kim Foale (Geeks for Social Change)
  48. Liz Fekete, Director Institute of Race Relations
  49. Dr Kerry Pimblott (University of Manchester)
  50. Becky Clarke (Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Manchester Metropolitan University)
  51. Dr Karis Campion (University of Manchester)
  52. Dr Samantha Fletcher (Lecturer in Criminology, Manchester Metropolitan University)
  53. Dr Helen Monk (Lecturer in Criminology, Liverpool John Moores University)
  54. Isobel Cecil (PCS Union, youth engagement worker)
  55. Niamh Eastwood, Executive Director, Release
  56. Y-Stop
  57. Sharon Adetoro
  58. Opemiposi Adegbulu (Lecturer, University of Huddersfield)
  59. Dr Charlie Ingham (Clinical Psychologist).
  60. Ashli Mullen (University of Glasgow)
  61. CAGE
  62. Abigail Stark, University of Central Lancashire
  63. Dr Lauren Wroe, Social Workers Without Borders
  64. Rob Dawson
  65. Dr Philippa Tomczak, University of Nottingham
  66. Ryan Bradshaw (Solicitor, Leigh Day)
  67. Simon Pook (Human and Civil Rights Solicitor, Robert Lizar Solicitor)
  68. Sue Lees (retired resident of Greater Manchester)
  69. Paul Duggan (retired resident of Greater Manchester)
  70. Phil Edwards (Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Manchester Metropolitan University)
  71. Dr Sadia Habib
  72. Mx Dennis Queen, Disabled Activist, GMCDP (Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People) and MDPAC (Manchester Disabled People Against Cuts)
  73. Michael Etienne, Barrister
  74. Black Lives Matter UK
  75. Lara Datta
  76. Manchester Disabled People Against Cuts (MDPAC)
  77. Rose Arnold, Rising Up! Manchester Families
  78. Dr James Trafford (University of the Creative Arts)
  79. Max Farrar (Emeritus Professor Leeds Beckett University)
  80. Melz Owusu (Kinfolk Network)
  81. Tom Kemp (University of Kent)
  82. George Grace (Next to Nowhere, Liverpool)
  83. Sisters Uncut Manchester
  84. Dr Fahid Qurashi, Lecturer in Sociology
  85. Marion Dawson, activist, Smash IPP
  86. Anandi Ramamurthy
  87. Lani Parker on behalf of sisters of Frida
  88. Jan Cunliffe Co Founder JENGbA (Joint Enterprise Not Guilty by Association)
  89. SuAndi Black Arts Alliance
  90. Dr Rajesh Patel, Senior Lecturer Manchester Metropolitan University
  91. Sisters Uncut Leeds
  92. Dr Rizwaan Sabir (Liverpool John Moores University)
  93. Viji Kuppan
  94. Dr Jason Arday