Head of undercover policing inquiry says he expects to be told if practice is continuing
The head of the inquiry into undercover policing has insisted that Scotland Yard reveal whether it is currently deploying spies in political groups.
The surprise intervention from Sir John Mitting came on the second day of public hearings in the inquiry into spying operations that targeted mostly leftwing groups for at least four decades.
Continue reading...Judge will hear evidence on undercover operations against campaigns such as Stephen Lawrence
A public inquiry into undercover policing is poised to reveal details of how police repeatedly spied on black justice groups, including several run by grieving families whose relatives were killed by police or died in custody.
The judge-led inquiry was launched six years ago by the home secretary at the time, Theresa May, after the Guardian revealed police covertly monitored the campaign for justice over the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence.
Continue reading...London force accepts watchdog advice over flawed tactics undermining community confidence
The Metropolitan police force has been getting its use of stop and search wrong with multiple errors that have undermined its legitimacy, the police watchdog has found.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct said police in one case stopped and searched two black men who were innocently fist bumping, because officers wrongly thought they were drug dealing.
Continue reading...Met chief pays tribute to Matiu Ratana as suspected culprit remains in hospital in critical condition
The suspect in the fatal shooting of a custody sergeant at Croydon police station on Friday is 23-year-old Louis de Zoysa, sources have told the Guardian. He remains in hospital in a critical condition, the Metropolitan police said on Sunday, after the force’s chief commissioner, Cressida Dick, paid tribute to the fallen officer.
A second man has been arrested on suspicion of supplying the revolver used in the fatal incident, and is being held in a south London police station, the force added.
Continue reading...Scrutiny of procedures urged following fatal shooting of officer in Croydon police station
Police officers believe there needs to be an urgent review of the stop and search protocols used when arresting suspects, following the fatal shooting of Sgt Matiu Ratana.
As the Metropolitan police and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) launch investigations into the death of the popular 54-year-old custody sergeant, questions remain as to how it happened.
Continue reading...In 2006, the 20-year-old was killed on the orders of family members. Ahead of an ITV drama on the case, her sister reflects on the police response
As a television drama of the real-life investigation into the murder of a young woman by her family airs this month, her sister told the Guardian little had changed since Banaz Mahmod was killed in 2006.
“Lessons have not been learned. Banaz is not the first ‘honour’ killing and she won’t be the last,” says Payzee Mahmod, a British Kurd, who was a teenager when her sister disappeared from her south London home. Banaz had gone to the police five times for help.
Continue reading...Charles Ehikioya, who has served for 22 years, says he was racially profiled
A black police inspector has complained to the Metropolitan police about racial harassment after two white officers stopped him while he was driving.
Insp Charles Ehikioya recorded the incident, which happened as he returned from work in south London on 23 May, the BBC reported.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Andrew George calls for urgent reform of system that views black people as ‘criminals or drug dealers’
The police stop of the Labour MP Dawn Butler was rooted in systemic racism that is damaging the legitimacy of policing, the leader of black police officers has said.
Inspector Andrew George, the new interim president of the National Black Police Association, also called for urgent reform of “a biased system that views black people as criminals or drug dealers”.
Continue reading...Convicting all the suspects would also have offered the police a measure of redemption
Convicting all of the suspects in the racist gang of five or six people that killed Stephen Lawrence would have delivered justice for his family, and some measure of redemption for the Metropolitan police. Scotland Yard’s decision to close the case means neither will get what they longed for.
For Doreen and Neville Lawrence the loss of their first child, Stephen, was a personal catastrophe that over the years turned into a symbolic case for the nation, and remains so.
Continue reading...Car driven by a friend pulled over by officers who later admitted they made a mistake
Dawn Butler, the Labour MP and former shadow equalities minister, has accused the police of being institutionally racist after she was stopped while driving to Sunday lunch with a friend.
Butler, a strong critic of police stop-and-search tactics, said the car was being driven by her male friend, who like Butler is black, when two police cars pulled it over in Hackney, east London. Officers said the vehicle was registered in North Yorkshire.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Mishcon de Reya partner Mike Stubbs allegedly relayed offer as part of plot to release €300m from Swiss bank account
A lawyer at one of the UK’s most prestigious law firms has been accused of relaying an offer of a £1m “bribe” to police officers as part of a bizarre plot to release €300m (£274m) hidden in a Swiss bank account, according to court transcripts obtained by the Guardian.
Mike Stubbs, a partner at Mishcon de Reya, allegedly told two Metropolitan police detectives that a former SAS sergeant with intelligence contacts had concocted a plan to release what were described as “CIA funds” being held in the Swiss bank for “covert” purposes in Somalia.
Continue reading...Exclusive: ex-chief prosecutor’s lawyers say behaviour of Boris Johnson’s aide warrants ‘thorough investigation’
The Metropolitan police have been urged to launch an immediate investigation into Dominic Cummings’ trip from London to Durham at the height of the coronavirus outbreak by the former chief prosecutor for north-west England.
Lawyers for Nazir Afzal have written to the Met commissioner, Cressida Dick, arguing that the behaviour of Boris Johnson’s chief adviser during the lockdown warrants a “thorough investigation” by the force.
Continue reading...Jessie-Lu Flynn told her ‘Fuck Boris’ slogan was in breach of Public Order Act at Black Lives Matter protest
A woman who was challenged by police officers for wearing an anti-Boris Johnson T-shirt at a Black Lives Matter demonstration is launching legal action against them over the right to free speech and political debate.
Jessie-Lu Flynn, an actor who is also the founder of the immersive theatre company Wide Eyes, estimates that she has attended more than a dozen demonstrations wearing the “Fuck Boris” T-shirt without being challenged by the police.
Continue reading...Head of police union for England and Wales calls for emergency law during Covid-19 pandemic
Priti Patel has been urged to impose an emergency ban on all protests after Britain’s biggest police force condemned the “mindless hooliganism” and “utterly shocking” violence of far-right activists against its officers in London.
The head of the body representing rank-and-file police officers in England and Wales called for tougher restrictions on demonstrations after 23 officers were injured and more than 100 people were arrested during clashes in London on Saturday.
Continue reading...Scotland Yard chief Cressida Dick also calls for justice and accountability following death of George Floyd
Britain’s top officer has said police feared there would be violence if they tried to intervene with protesters in London angered by the brutal death of George Floyd at the hands of an American officer.
Demonstrators at protests in London on Sunday and Tuesday flouted coronavirus lockdown rules on how many people can gather together.
Continue reading...Outcry after man, 23, fell from wall after stun gun was fired in Haringey, north London
A police officer has been placed under criminal investigation after a man was shot with a Taser weapon and left paralysed from the waist down, the Guardian has learned.
The man, 23, was shot by an officer using a stun gun as he jumped over a wall and fell as officers tried to detain him in Haringey, north London.
Continue reading...Concerns raised about ‘disproportionate’ use of force after young black man is seriously injured
The police watchdog has launched an investigation into the conduct of three officers after a black man in his 20s was left with a life-changing injury in an incident in north London where he was shot with a stun gun.
Police on patrol in Haringey chased the man on Monday after he ran away from them following an approach, it is understood. They used the stun gun as he jumped over a wall and he fell, suffering serious back injuries, which his family fear could leave him at least partially paralysed.
Continue reading...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...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.
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