Displaying items by tag: police

PC Claire Boddie will face a misconduct hearing for shooting Judah Adunbi, a race relations adviser, in the face with a stun gun. Boddie did not warn Adunbi before she fired and his hands were by his sides at the time. In footage shown in court, Boddie is heard telling Adunbi: ‘You look familiar.’ Adunbi refused to say who he is, telling the officers: ‘I’m an African black individual living in my own city’. He fell to the ground after he was shot and told them: ‘I’m nearly 70 - here’s my **** ID.’The notice claims Boddie’s actions constitute a breach of the standards of professional behaviour for the use of force. Adunbi, also known as Ras Judah, has sat on Bristol’s independent advisory group, which forges links between the police and the community, and has worked with the Crown Prosecution Service’s local community involvement panel. Footage filmed by a passerby was widely shared on social media, making headlines around the world.

Migrant aid workers in Calais are being intimidated and harassed by French police, with Britons singled out in some cases, according to a report submitted to France’s independent human rights watchdog. Four aid associations on the northern French port, including the British group Help Refugees, published a report detailing 600 incidents against volunteers between November 2017 and July 2018, citing 33 testimonies, 37 incidents of physical violence, including police pushing aid workers to the ground, confiscating phones and forcing people away from food distribution points. Other incidents include repeated identity checks and ‘stop and search’, arbitrary parking fines, threats, and insults. British volunteers were singled out and prevented from giving out food and water.  Those with British passports or British vehicles were barred entry to an area near Dunkirk to distribute meals to the homeless refugees and migrants. Calais' sprawling ‘Jungle’ camp was razed in 2016 but hundreds have returned, with the figures officially at 350 to 400 people.

Drug deaths have reached their worst level in Scotland since records began, (934 in 2017). Statistics show Scotland's drug death-rate is roughly two and half times the UK rate and ‘massively worse’ than anywhere in Europe. The official ‘Drug-related deaths’ paper shows methadone, the heroin substitute, was present in nearly half of all deaths. Methadone is prescribed by the NHS to keep people off drugs! Annie Wells, the Scottish public health spokesperson, said, ‘ We need a radical and urgent drugs strategy, not one that waves the white flag in the face of drug-dealers and those who profit from this despicable industry, but one that gets tough on the issue. We need to help vulnerable people beat the habit once and for all, not park them on methadone just to watch them die from that very substance years later.’ Pray for God to inspire ministers to implement a successful, revitalised substance use strategy.

Many lives are being lost in car crimes and road accidents. Road deaths are a national crisis, with 134,000+ killed over 10 years. Vehicle crime hotspots are Johannesburg, Tshwane, Cape Town, and Durban. Cars are hijacked to commit another crime, or exported into neighbouring countries. In spite of 18,900+ police deployed countrywide over Easter to keep road users safe and a road safety campaign, 510 people died between 29 March and 9 April. A motoring magazine reported: ‘South Africans have bad attitudes towards safe road use; education and enforcement will not stop them playing by their own rules. Without a change of attitude among road users and respect for the law, efforts to decrease fatalities and crashes by a noticeable margin will fall flat.’ See

Migrants have clashed with Spanish police in Madrid after the death of a Senegalese street vendor who they say had been chased by officers. Protesters set fire to a motorbike and dustbins and threw stones. At least 19 people were lightly injured in the clashes, and ten police officers were hurt. Officials say Mame Mbaye Ndiaye, said to be in his mid-30s, was found unconscious and died of a heart attack. Protesters said he had arrived in Spain by boat twelve years ago. He reportedly worked as a vendor illegally and sent money back to his family. Last year it was reported that the number of asylum-seekers arriving in Spain had tripled in a year, because it was seen as a safer route into Europe.

On 6 February police arrested over 20 people across the UK in a huge operation to tackle a Kurdish gang smuggling hundreds of illegal immigrants into the UK for up to £10,000 a time. Over 300 officers coordinated by the National Crime Agency raided properties in Northumbria, Cleveland, Sussex and London to arrest suspected traffickers. Hundreds of Iraqi Kurds, men, women and children, are being brought into the UK in lorries and on ferries by the gang, paying up to £10,000 each. A number of car washes were also raided, in what is said to be a bid to shut down the gang's money laundering operation. Senior investigating officer Mark Spoors said all of the agency's targets had been arrested, and a significant trafficking network has been disrupted.

Police figures show offences up 14% in a year, with knife and gun crime rising even more steeply. Statistics also show the number of police officers in England and Wales has fallen by 930 in the same period, to the lowest since records began. Offences such as domestic burglary and car crime are also increasing: however, there has been a 15% fall in fraud and online computer misuse. Nevertheless the increasing levels of gun and knife offences, stalking, harassment, and robbery will set alarm bells ringing in Downing Street. God’s plans are for good and not for evil. Let us pray for our nations to experience peace, stability and justice, pushing back every plan and purpose of Satan for confusion, criminality or deception.

A recent surge of violence perpetrated with knives across Germany draws attention to the deterioration of security in the country. People armed with knives, axes and machetes have wreaked havoc across Germany; committing jihadist attacks, homicides, robberies, raids, sexual assaults, honour killings and other violent crimes. Knife violence occurs all over the place, and many people feel that danger lurks everywhere, with little or no public security. The police admit that they find it difficult to maintain order, day and night; they are being accused of not reporting many crimes, to try not to ‘disturb’ public opinion. However, reports indicate that in 2017 incidents of violence with knives and stabbings will reach record levels.

18 October was Anti-Slavery Day. 40 million people are trapped in slavery worldwide, and have no one to protect them. In many places laws against slavery are not enforced by police, so slave owners and traffickers can prey on the poor and vulnerable without fear of consequences. According to a report, UK police don’t tackle modern slavery because cases are too difficult and senior officers believe the public lack sympathy for the victims. Sky news reported that 17 police forces held data on convictions for slavery; 1,265 slavery offences were reported but only 25 people were prosecuted. In the UK, slavery is not just a bad working condition. People are living under constant control and fear and facing daily physical, verbal and sexual abuse. They are trapped. The charity Hope for Justice described the current situation in the UK as ‘a human conveyor belt of slavery’. See also

‘For the past ten years I’ve been a police response officer. A colleague, summing up our lives, recently wrote: “Last week I was hit, spat at and punched. There wasn't one day that I ate my lunch. I held a man's hand who had just lost his wife. I took a child from his father who was wielding a knife. I pulled a girl who was mentally ill off a bridge. I locked up a worker who had nicked from the till. I persuaded a battered woman finally to speak - after seeing her every day, week after week. This is our job and we are all proud to do it.” We are proud. And that’s why we work earlies, lates and night shifts. But I want to challenge a policy that puts the public and the police at risk. It’s called “single crewing” and it means that officers like me are sent out on jobs alone and face being attacked. Our team of 24 will have three double-crewed cars during most shifts: the rest of us will be on our own. That’s why I’ve started a petition calling on Amber Rudd to stop this.’