Policing - new material (95)
01 October 2011
“Notre vie est en suspens:” Les familles des personnes mortes aux mains de la police attendent que justice soit faite (“Our lives are left hanging:” families of victims of deaths in police custody wait for justice to be done). Amnesty International, November 2011, pp. 28. This report casts light on five cases of people from ethnic minority groups who died in police custody in France between 2004 and 2007. These cases illustrate the frequent miscarriages of justice and the impunity enjoyed by the police force, leaving families in despair and with a strong feeling of mistrust against the police and the judicial system. To date, no police officer has been found guilty of misconduct or disproportionate use of force, despite the National Committee on Security Ethics having asked for disciplinary procedures to be taken against some of them. It confirms the discrimination and racial profiling faced by minority groups in France, and documented by research centres as well as Human Rights Watch (see: “The Root of Humiliation”: Abusive Identity Checks in France, released in January 2012 and available on Human Rights Watch’s website). Link to Amnesty International’s report: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/EUR21/003/2011/en and http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/EUR21/003/2011/en/9073e684-86cc-4e39-9951-fefbe67d6ce1/eur210032011fr.pdf
Brief History. I’m a Photographer not a Terrorist 2011, pp. 24. The I’m a Photographer not a Terrorist (Phnat) network grew from a small group of London-based photographers who covered political protests and found themselves under surveillance by Metropolitan police Forward Intelligence Teams (FIT). This pamphlet documents Phnat’s collective response to FIT harassment and the birth of a campaign to defend photographer’s rights. The campaign is supported by the National Union of Journalists, The Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, the British Press Photographer’s Association and the London Photographer’s Branch. Phnat’s website: http://photographernotaterrorist.org/
The Voices of Tottenham are being Marginalised, Stafford Scott. The Guardian 17.10.11. Stafford Scott was a co-founder of the Broadwater Farm Defence Campaign, launched in the wake of the 1985 riots on the Tottenham estate, which were provoked by the death of Cynthia Jarrett during a provocative police search of her home in 1985. Scott looks back to the role of former Tottenham MP, Bernie Grant, in preventing further disturbances through working openly with the local community, unlike the “kneejerk reactions from today’s politicians.” Citing Martin Luther King, saying that riots gave a voice to the voiceless, Scott observes that the voices of those who felt moved to take to the streets following the police shooting of Mark Duggan in August “are still very much unheard.” The Tottenham Defence Campaign was launched in October to provide legal support for those who have been arrested and the campaign has a website at: http://tottenhamdefencecampaign.co.uk/
European Police Science & Research Bulletin, Issue 5 (Summer) 2011. This issue of the Bulletin contains an editorial, two research reports, an essay, a conference report, and a selection of upcoming events. Perhaps of most interest is the essay, by Eduardo Ferreira from the Escola de Polícia Judiciára in Portugal, entitled ‘European Police Cooperation in the future – Reflections from the present’. It is concerned with two main issues – the presumption that “Europe is facing and will continue to face growing common transnational risks or threats”, and that “no one is 100% sure” how police cooperation in Europe can or will develop in order to deal with these. Three major obstacles are identified as standing in the way of European police cooperation: judicial issues, judicial-operational issues, and “the (apparent) irrelevance of international police cooperation results to a successful national police career”. It will be necessary to overcome these obstacles in order to deal with disasters, threats, risks and horrors – terrorism, crime, trafficking, smuggling, war, natural disasters, industrial accidents, epidemics, and so on. The author concludes tackling this long list of threats and risks will only be done successfully if rewards for successful international cooperation are more integral to the success of police officers in their careers. The article does provide a useful overview of the legal instruments that exist, and those that are under development, that are intended to enhance police cooperation in Europe. Issue 5 of the bulletin is available at: (http://www.cepol.europa.eu)