To tell you never to accept a caution?

[brasty]

Or at least not without legal advice.

The police often offer cautions in cases where they know there is not enough evidence to secure a conviction. So if you refuse a caution in these cases, the case will simply be dropped. The caution is offered so that the police can officially say the crime has been cleared and dealt with. But many people accept cautions when they are innocent, because of fear of going to court.

Diego - so in your mind every single serving police officer will stop a black person, merely because his or hers colour. Yep, very offensive indeed.

AnUtterIdiot, I wouldn't waste your time with the institutionally faux-dim.

OP's advice is sound.

If she did not know of the existence of the drug then she could not have the mens rea for possession, which includes knowledge of the drug. And therefore she would be not guilty

But if charged with possession, wouldn't this depend on being able to prove she didn't know about the drugs - something which would surely be very difficult?

It's been said at least twice that nobody would be offered a caution if they'd denied an offence, yet many posters have described exactly this happening ... is everyone supposed to be lying then?

And while I hope most of us accept the vast majority of police are decent folk doing a very difficult job, I struggle to forget the sight of several off duty PCs sniggering over what they called the "Ways and Means Act"

Please ignore the goady fucker(s).

LineysRum Sun 19-Nov-17 18:17:55
Please ignore the goady fucker(s).

Interpreted as please ignore anyone who doesn't agree with you or who doesn't believe that all police officers are bent or racist.

It's worth noting that it's the CPS - not the police - who decide to prosecute. I know some people who have been offered a caution, told the police "no thanks" (well, words to that effect ) and heard nothing more.

Nobody here has said all police officers are bent or racist. That would be a ridiculous thing to say.

dancerdog

Gosh, thread has moved quickly, so thanks for that advice back at 17.18 if you are still on here.

That sounds like a reasonable outcome/punishment for what my young man did, but a 10 month wait would be quite problematic. He has been suspended from university for a year, as a consequence, and having this hanging over him for that long is limiting what he can do to make amends - some volunteer work, some gap year project abroad etc.

Thanks OP, your advice is useful.

a broken brake light is not reasonable cause to search a vehicle.

No, but once the car is stopped a policeman can "smell" whatever they like to invent have a reason to search the car.

You need to scour the media and realise there is no downside to police lying to then understand why they do it (because they can).

The ongoing disparity between general ethnicity, and ethnicity of those stopped & searched would also suggest something is amiss ...

cool - does being black mean that you will be automatically be stopped by the police? Are there any serving police officers here? Is this what you do? Wow just wow. How offensive is that?

Black people are much much much more likely to be randomly pulled over and searched. It has been written about numerous times. It's not an official policy (duh) but is a sign of institutional racism. I bet most police officers that you ask have no idea that they are doing it. Yet they are.

My first husband was black.
Employed (civil service), drove a VW Golf. Clean licence.

Stopped and licence checked / boot checked / cursory search of the car AT LEAST 4 times a year.

Stopped and searched at customs coming home from holiday. Stopped and searched on the way in to France, Sweden, Cuba, Germany...

You know if someone has given you an envelope of their papers, or their passport, or driving licence for example, for you to photocopy because they need a copy for some application or something, you can be done for being in possession of someone else’s id?

Did you even KNOW that, all you law abiders who could never possibly get done?

cool - which UK force was that?

From their analysis of MPS's data, they concluded that a black person caught in possession of cocaine is more likely to have a previous conviction than a white person - 40% of black people had been charged or warned before, compared with 24% of white people. However, Release points out that - relative to population size - black people in London are also at greater risk of being stopped and searched.
FullFact.

WildBluebelles (duh) I do not accept that

User

I note you have not answered my question, re, Sandra

User the statistics to show black people are pulled over far more frequently than white people have already been posted.

I'm quite surprised people don't know that actually - it's been widely publicised. Is wythenshaw a very white area?

Absolutely hilarious. You do know that you've posted a link to The Guardian, don't you? I'm afraid I would take more notice of the 'Sun' than that rag.