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A tale of stop & search and how reality and perception often differ. A thread...
A while ago when I was the new sergeant we got a call to a shooting on one of the estates. The team rushed to the scene and discovered a young lad with a gunshot wound. We don’t have extensive first
A while ago when I was the new sergeant we got a call to a shooting on one of the estates. The team rushed to the scene and discovered a young lad with a gunshot wound. We don’t have extensive first
aid training but it lived up to its name, Emergency Life Support, and it was enough to keep him alive until the professionals arrived 
. While this was happening I saw another teenager, who matched a description provided by witnesses, run from the scene. I took off after him...
. While this was happening I saw another teenager, who matched a description provided by witnesses, run from the scene. I took off after him...
chasing him through the estate & onto the local high street. I was doing my best to provide a commentary & directions over the radio but was on my own in the pursuit. I can’t be sure if it was fitness or stubbornness but despite running in boots & armour the gap started to close
It was when that gap was down to about 6 feet that he dropped a firearm. He slowed down as he looked over his shoulder at the gun and that’s when I caught up with him. His first words as I took hold of his arm..”You’re only stopping me because I’m black”.
“I think you’ll find it’s about that gun” seemed the obvious reply. Not one to deviate from his line of reasoning he enquired “What gun?”. It was turning into a slightly surreal conversation as I handcuffed him with a firearm lying on the ground only feet away from us.
At this point multiple units arrive on scene and the high street is filled with police vehicles. The suspect is searched after arrest and while waiting for a van I notice a bus stopping in the middle of the road, next to us. I ask the driver if he is unable to get past all the..
police cars and he replies “I’m just making sure he is ok” pointing at the suspect. I admit to being a little confused because the suspect is absolutely fine, there has been no struggle, no shouting, he’s just standing there calmly. Then the bus driver elaborates..
“You’re stopping another black lad and I want to make sure he’s ok”. So the traffic is now at a standstill behind him, there is a gun being made safe by an ARV officer and there is a teenager en route to surgery with a gunshot wound but skin colour is what matters to some.
Stop two..We’ve left a briefing, grabbed a coffee & are on patrol in an area that has suffered a lot of gang violence. Within minutes the carrier driver says “That’s one of the lads from the briefing”. A briefing on ‘habitual knife carriers’, most of whom were school age.
We turn around, intending to have another look to confirm it is the same person. As we get close to him he runs. Another foot chase ensues. Running in boots is a definite disadvantage but we prevail. We catch him & have a chat about why he ran & confirm it is the same person..
from the briefing and discover that he is also a suspect for a recent attempted murder. He’s 15. A crowd has gathered, phones are out recording and a woman has come out of the shop she works in to offer an opinion. That opinion is “Why are you always hassling the black boys?”
The lad is black but I’m somewhat perplexed by the ‘hassling’ as at this moment I have a large knife in my hand that was in his man-bag/purse. I felt a bit like a game show host doing the “You could win” bit and proudly displaying it to the watching crowd.
This lady is still not convinced. We are now “Picking on a schoolboy”. He is a schoolboy. He also tried to murder another schoolboy and in the end I have to admit there may be no convincing her that my only interest is in preventing more kids dying.
That’s two stops. Two arrests. One firearm and one knife. The skin colour of the suspects didn’t matter to me in any way other than for the purposes of a description. But it mattered to those members of the public. In fact it appeared to be the only thing that mattered.
Kids dying is what should matter. Cops trying to prevent kids dying matters. The focus needs to be on the knives and guns, not on skin colour.
