This is just shocking (trigger warning -racism)

[iloverock]

www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/department-for-education-metropolitan-police-services-scotland-yard-hackney-b988292.html

Please read the formal review.

Essentially the teaching staff called the police because a black 15 year old girl smelt of cannabis. She was taken to a room and strip searched. She was on her period. Her mother wasn't notified. She was not given the opportunity for an appropriate adult to be present.

Whilst highlighting the disparity of ethnic origin in those intimately searched in Hackney across that period of time it does also say that the number of searches in general was overly high and 80% of them found nothing/no further action with the conclusion they were uncessary/unwarranted

This poor child and those officers should be jailed!

Utterly horrific.

It is deeply worrying that the child now tries to sleep in a bath full of water. Beyond the obviousl safety issues it suggests that she feels dirty as a result of the incident and has PTSD.

The poor child.

The police should also be banned from language that uses the term ‘further search’ to obfuscate the reality of a strip search, and even strip search can have two different meanings the very worst being orifice search.

The report distinguished between two possible motives on the part of the school and the police for concern over the girl smelling of cannabis.

1. The wrong one - but the one influencing their behaviour - which was to criminalise her.

1. What it should have been - but wasn’t- the need to investigate her possible vulnerability and need for safeguarding.

@RichPetunia

Seems extreme. Where’s the evidence this happened?

Can't you read? Try the official safeguarding review that's been published and linked on the thread

It always seems to be the Met involved in these atrocious abuses of power. This must be gross misconduct which is stackable offence. I hope the poor girl gets a massive compensation claim and sees teacher who allowed this to happen sacked too. How dare they treat a child like this.

@oakleaffy
I am very sorry for what happened to you💐

@WonderfulYou

Unfortunately this is what black kids are told to do in order to avoid further abuse specially from the police or authorities.

I agree.

She did not have the luxury of standing up for herself or refusing as if this is how she was treated when complying and innocent, imagine how she’d be treated if they thought she was resisting or had something to hide.

That's why pp's post of "I wouldn't have let them do that to me" really ticked me off.

[quote Katya213]@Testingprof.

Go google it, it happened to a white girl too. BBC news. You cannot go round saying what you like to people, the way you treated that previous poster was actually quite shocking.

It shouldn’t happen to anybody, it’s totally wrong and they should pay for it![/quote]
Can you share the link of the girl this happened to? I’ve had a look and not found anything on bbc.

I’ve found the one about 24 year old woman, Dr Duff, who was taken in and horrifically strip searched and spoken about in a disgusting manner. I remember there was a thread on her case a few weeks ago.

I’ve found the one about 24 year old woman, Dr Duff, who was taken in and horrifically strip searched and spoken about in a disgusting manner. I remember there was a thread on her case a few weeks ago.

That case is mentioned as part of the context in the review.

I'm horrified by this. Black or white this is totally unacceptable. I can't actually believe that a school would report a smell to the police or that police would choose to investigate by strip search. All the adults involved in this should hang their heads in shame. Poor girl.

Whatever happens can never be enough or put things right for that violation- at minimum
Compensation and immediate ongoing support through any services necessary for this girl, her family and any of the other children at the school who need it.

To know the disciplinary action taken and results

To know what lessons have already been learnt and how implemented, independent continuing overview of whether they are happening - both school and police

Ongoing statistics on use of searches, breakdown on basis of ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, disability, age, religion.
We need this for all police forces.

Metropolitan police are the biggest force but there are other parts of the country where these factors including racism will be at play at any time.

For those saying it could happen to other ethnicities. 13.3% of Londoners identify as black. Puts 60% of searches in very stark perspective.

www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/uk-population-by-ethnicity/national-and-regional-populations/regional-ethnic-diversity/latest#areas-of-england-and-wales-by-ethnicity

@MintyFreshBreath in the statistics posted in the report, no white females under 18 had been strip searched within the same time period. The only female who was strip searched was black. Beyond that, only 2 out of dozens of males under 18 who were strip searched were white. So essentially the conclusion is that strip searches are more prevalent in under 18s that are not white

FFS she is a child, that should never have happened. Serious let down. I used to work in the borough and I am saddened and disappointed that happened. It was getting better 10-15 years ago.

God this is fucking awful! Poor girl.

All these posters professing to be shocked, appalled, disgusted. Throwing hands up and asking why it doesn’t stop. When are people going to understand? How many incidents, reports, reviews, commissions will it take for people to understand that there are white people who actively believe in their superiority over black people, who gravitate towards or seek out like-minded people, who laugh at the law, get a kick out of flouting it while wearing a uniform and soaking up the respect and glory of upholding it, who enjoy and value their racist beliefs, and find employment and succour and friendship and affinity and people just like them in the Met where they are given power over these black people?

You ask how could those female officers not realise how awful this was? How could they not have remembered the procedures and policies they’re bound to follow? Of course they did. They wanted to humiliate and degrade. It’s normal to them to do so. You can’t accidentally strip search someone, especially not in this way. It may not have been premeditated, but by god it was deliberate. They are racist. The made a choice to do this to a black girl. They wanted to. It wasn’t a lapse or an oversight. Are YOU capable of such a lapse or oversight?

It’s always been this way. This is institutional racism. It’s not bad apples. The Met is the natural home for many, many white people who are racist. They’re surrounded by, supported, protected by people like them. It’s in the culture of the Met. That’s what institutional means.

What will it take for people to let go of the fairy tale that the Met police are all goodies?

@EmbarrassingHadrosaurus

I’ve found the one about 24 year old woman, Dr Duff, who was taken in and horrifically strip searched and spoken about in a disgusting manner. I remember there was a thread on her case a few weeks ago.

That case is mentioned as part of the context in the review.

I heard an interview with Dr Duff. She was stripped searched because she kept telling black teenagers their rights when they were stopped by the police. She is aware she is privileged for being white and middle class which is why she fought for the truth. She also said if she was black she would have had no chance in getting the outcome she got.

The Met were appalling, but the school has hardly covered itself in glory either. The poor girl apparently merely 'smelt' of cannibis ffs. It is smoked openly in many places, so she could easily have walked passed someone smoking it (even possibly, a teacher). But of course, this would not be reported if she was white

This is appalling. Even if they did suspect her of having weed it doesn't justify a strip searched. This poor girl, her privacy has been completely violated.

@londonrach

Why did they even strip search her..she's 15 and on her period. That poor girl. I'm tbh shocked the school and teachers allowed this to happen. Why didn't they call her mum.

To humiliate her.

There are a lot of people who get a bit of a thrill about humiliating women and girls.

It was the male police officer who was the school's Safe Support officer (poor choice to have a man in that role anyway) who decided she needed strip-searched. Then said to call 101 for two female officers.

I also think that's significant.

@ClaudineClare

I don't know if I misunderstood, but the BBC report seemed to indicate that the Met is taking no action against the officers involved. I hope the backlash will be strong enough to force the Met to do something, hopefully sacking the officers. They assaulted that child.

The Met is not fit for purpose, it is rotten and racist to the core.

Yes this was the impression I got.

This is one of the worst things I think, that the Met is so broken/dreadful that no meaningful action is ever taken. However I am not sure whether action should be taken against just the officers, somehow it is the whole Met that is at fault. The officers were wrong, I think there should be action taken against them, but that lets more senior people off somehow.

Recently we have learned so much more about how toxic the whole institution is.

I agree this is shocking in how dreadful it is but not surprising that it happened. Black people have been telling the world for decades what the Met is like and how it treats them.

mobile.twitter.com/PortiaAntonia/status/1503828061992722434?cxt=HHwWhIC55fPp1d4pAAAA

[quote Katya213]@Testingprof.

Go google it, it happened to a white girl too. BBC news. You cannot go round saying what you like to people, the way you treated that previous poster was actually quite shocking.

It shouldn’t happen to anybody, it’s totally wrong and they should pay for it![/quote]
I’m not saying it didn’t happen but that by posting about it on a thread which is about racism that you are trying to detract from racism by saying it’s happened to someone who is white. It’s a ploy straight out of the apologists (racists) playbook.
On another thread discussing how using strip searches are wrong in cases outside of prison and very specific circumstances I’d have supported @oakleaffy however, on this thread it’s sounds very much like NAMALT especially in the context of other posters pretending that we can only tell racism exists is if a white person and a black person are skipping down the road together in exactly the same clothes and only the black person is affected.

I notice you haven’t challenged those posters who have suggested it didn’t happen at all…

@oakleaffy

I was a white girl {Now a woman} and was homeless as a teenager. I can assure you police stripped searched me in a really humiliating way on a several occasions, simply as I was thin {hungry} and they assumed I must have been on some sort of drug.

Being taken to the police station {Vine Street, London} was awful.

Is there any ''Nice'' way to be strip searched?

I think not.

They didn't find anything.

As a girl, I felt powerless, I doi wonder if they did it to keep numbers of people they searched up?

They did seem to strip search a number of young women who were also homeless.

Police Women did the actual searching, but if one made a fuss, it was ''Do you want me to call the Sgt. in?''

As a teenager, with no idea, I just blindly complied.

Why do you feel the need to assure us of anything? This thread isn’t about you. I am sorry for what you went through and I believe you but you are in danger of hijacking the thread.

Heavens above yet another incident to demonstrate the lack of support for women and young girls by the Met. Absolutely appalling and I hope the school governors and the MP will get involved in investigating how this could have happened. Girls of that age are sensitive to start with and I hope she'll get some compensation for this so she knows it should never have happened.