The spread of Covid-19 in India has been catastrophic for millions of its poorest and marginalised residents who are bearing the brunt of the world's biggest shutdown. Hannah Ellis-Peterson tells us how coronavirus and the lockdown is further dividing the country along class and religious lines
Officer stabbed and murdered during a terrorist attack on parliament in March 2017
The Metropolitan police are facing legal action over the death of PC Keith Palmer, murdered during a terrorist attack on parliament.
An inquest in October 2018 concluded with the coroner, Mark Lucraft QC, ruling that the officer’s death may have been prevented had armed officers been closer.
Continue reading...Police taskforce head says Covid-19 lockdown has not led to fewer young drug runners being used
Children and vulnerable adults are still being forced by gangs to travel from cities to towns and villages as part of “county lines” drug trafficking, according to the head of a police taskforce set up to tackle the problem.
Det Sgt Gareth Williams, head of intelligence and covert policing at British Transport Police (BTP), told the Guardian the restrictions on public transport during the coronavirus lockdown had not resulted in a reduction in the number of mostly juvenile drug runners identified across the country.
Continue reading...Fatal shooting of Dublin criminal is latest incident in saga of vicious score-settling
It started with taunts about stolen flip-flops, veered into a litany of horrors – abduction, murder, dismemberment, betrayal, vengeance – and ended with a party.
The gangland feud propelling such violence and depravity has played out in Ireland and now moved to the UK.
Continue reading...Majority of forces in England and Wales adopt online form allowing people to report others
New police tools that encourage the public to report people they suspect of breaching coronavirus restrictions risk fuelling “social mistrust and division”, a barrister has warned, as the majority of the UK’s forces adopt the scheme.
Twenty-six of the 43 police forces in England and Wales have launched dedicated online forms allowing people to report suspected breaches of the lockdown, such as large gatherings in parks.
Continue reading...Sunny and modest, detective Leonard ‘Nipper’ Read was admired by criminals and colleagues alike
Most people would be hard pressed today to name a single Scotland Yard detective, yet many would nod knowingly at the name of Leonard “Nipper” Read. While he will forever be remembered as the man who finally nailed the Kray twins, a major factor in his enduring reputation was that he was regarded with great affection, not only by his colleagues but by many in the criminal fraternity, who regarded him as a straight arrow in an era when some of his fellow detectives were far from that ideal.
Long after his retirement, Read was happy to reminisce about his work, and did not seem to mind being asked the same endless questions about the Krays.
Continue reading...Violence and humiliation used to police coronavirus curfews around globe, often affecting the poorest and more vulnerable
As coronavirus lockdowns have been expanded globally, billions of people have found that they are now faced with unprecedented restrictions. Police across the world have been given licence to control behaviour in a way that would normally be extreme even for an authoritarian state.
Related: ‘We can’t go back to normal’: how will coronavirus change the world?
Continue reading...Exclusive: policing chiefs seek to set out legal powers forces have in coronavirus lockdown
Police chiefs are drawing up new guidance warning forces not to overreach their lockdown enforcement powers after withering criticism of controversial tactics to stop the spread of coronavirus, the Guardian has learned.
The intervention comes amid growing concern that some forces are going beyond their legal powers to stop the spread of Covid-19, with one issuing a summons to a household for shopping for non-essential items and another telling locals that exercise was “limited to an hour a day”.
Continue reading...Derbyshire police have defended using a drone to shame people into staying away from a national park during the lockdown. The force tweeted footage taken near Curbar Edge in the Peak District, insisting members of the public should not be driving there to walk their dogs or take photographs. 'It's not Big Brother,' a spokesman said. 'It's just to illustrate the fact that people are going out and making these journeys against the government's rules.'
Offences including burglary and violence fall by as much as 20% in some areas
The coronavirus crisis has led to a drop in recorded crime, by as much as 20% in some areas.
Offences such as burglary and violence were down last week compared with the previous seven days, after Boris Johnson made his first request for people to stay home on the Monday.
Continue reading...Proposals for England would allow use of ‘reasonable force’ if people refuse to go home
Police will be authorised to use force to send people back home if they refuse to obey the coronavirus lockdown, under government plans.
Ministers will issue fuller details by Thursday of how police will enforce the lockdown ordered by the prime minister on Monday, aimed at stopping the spread of the virus by keeping people apart.
Continue reading...Warning after crimes including theft of oxygen canisters and puncturing of ambulance tyres
Police chiefs have warned the coronavirus pandemic could “bring out the worst in humanity” after a spate of opportunistic crimes hindered efforts to control the crisis.
The theft of oxygen canisters from a hospital, the puncturing of ambulance tyres and the raiding of food banks by thieves were among the “worrying isolated incidents” in recent days raised by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).
Continue reading...The Metropolitan police have released footage of officers clearing Shepherd's Bush Green, west London, of sunbathers on the first day of the UK-wide coronavirus lockdown. 'Can you all go home please,' one officer can be heard saying. 'It's not a holiday, it's a lockdown.'
Under tough new measures announced by Boris Johnson on Monday, people are allowed to leave their homes only to exercise once a day, to travel to and from 'absolutely necessary' work, and to shop for essential items.
Continue reading...Watchdog says intelligence officers destroyed documents despite being told to keep them
A secretive Scotland Yard intelligence unit shredded a large number of documents after a public inquiry was set up into the undercover infiltration of political groups, a watchdog has found.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) announced on Wednesday that it had found that documents had been destroyed despite an instruction that they had to be preserved.
Continue reading...Metropolitan police say no terror link to deadly incident where suspect was shot with Taser and firearm
A man has been shot dead by police in Westminster after an incident that was not being treated as terror-related.
Officers from the Metropolitan police remained overnight at the scene of the incident which occurred at around 11.30pm on Sunday. Road closures were put in place.
Continue reading...Revelation fuels calls for investigations into Cambridgeshire force and Foreign Office after high court bombshell
There are demands for independent inquiries into the roles of the Foreign Office and Cambridgeshire police after an investigation into the abduction of a princess on a British street was allowed to lapse.
Princess Shamsa Al Maktoum of Dubai was snatched two decades ago by men working for her father, Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum, the billionaire ruler of Dubai, who is a friend of the Queen.
Continue reading...Disabled mother and son claim Somerset and Avon police have not helped to stop the abuse and violence they are suffering
A UK police force is facing fresh questions over its approach to vulnerable individuals after it emerged a disabled mother and son have endured years of abuse and violence, near to where a disabled refugee was murdered in 2013.
Ruth and Zac Jones, from Bristol, say they have had a brick thrown through their window and four vehicles set on fire, among a series of targeted attacks similar to those that preceded the death of Bijan Ebrahimi in 2013.
Continue reading...Lydia O’Sullivan has been missing on the island of Fiji after travelling there from New Zealand
A British woman has gone missing on the south Pacific island nation of Fiji. Lydia O’Sullivan, 23, has not been seen or heard from, for the past eight days.
Fiji police have set up a task force and released the following statement: “We have managed to confirm her last sighting in a hotel in the Western Division and that she already checked out, and as of today no missing person’s report has been lodged at any police station around Fiji.”
Continue reading...Family court ruled this week that Sheikha Shamsa al-Maktoum was probably abducted by her father
The lapsed investigation into the disappearance of the ruler of Dubai’s daughter from the streets of Cambridge 20 years ago is to be reviewed, police have said.
Confirmation that detectives could revive their criminal inquiries follows a damning family court judgment that found – on the balance of probabilities – that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum orchestrated the abduction of two of his daughters, Sheikha Shamsa in 2000 and her sister, Sheikha Latifa, who was seized off a yacht in the Indian Ocean in 2018.
Continue reading...Government document reveals plans to ditch tool that allows for fast extradition of criminals
The UK is to abandon a crucial tool used to speed up the transfer of criminals across borders with other European countries.
Acting against the warnings of senior law enforcement officials, the government said it would not be seeking to participate in the European arrest warrant (EAW) as part of the future relationship with the European Union.
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