Newham Monitoring Project has launched a public campaign to have CCTV cameras installed in the back of police vans in Newham in time for the start of the Olympics.
The campaign calls on individuals and organisations to support a wider demand for the Metropolitan Commissioner Hogan-Howe to install cameras in the back of all police vehicles, but specifies that at a minimum, a pilot needs to be in place in Newham before the start of the Olympics. Read more
Link to full article with transcribed audio in Guardian 30 March 2012
A 21 year old black male from Beckton, Newham has described how police officers assaulted and racially abused him in the back of a police van after being stopped by the police during last August’s ‘riots’.
With the aid of his mobile, the young man was able to make an audio recording of police officers’ comments and later made an official complaint. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) eventually decided not to prosecute any officers directly involved, a decision we are now told is under review following the threat of a judicial review of that decision by the young man’s legal representatives, Bhatt Murphy Solicitors.
The young man was initially stopped on 11 August 2011 on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs, however the police could produce no evidence of this and charges were later dropped. Read more
Poet, writer and patron of Newham Monitoring Project Benjamin Zephaniah explains why it is important for young people in east London to know their rights on stop & search, especially during the 2012 Olympics.
That means carrying NMP’s 24-hour emergency helpline number at all times – so go on, put the number [0800 169 3111] in your phone!
If you are interested in volunteering for NMP over the Olympic period, either as a Community Legal Observer or to help promote civil liberties in east London in other ways, please contact us.
NMP will be speaking at the aftershow panel for a screening of Shane meadow’s excellent film ‘This is England’ showing at:
The Film Hub
12 Balham Station Road,
London SW12 9SG
on Sunday 19th February.
For those who haven’t seen the film, it tells the story of a troubled boy growing up in England in 1983 who becomes friends with a group of skinheads after a fight on his way home from school,
Please visit The Film Hub’s website for ticket details.
NMP will be speaking at a Campus Hub event organised by the Coexistence Trust on ‘Hate Crime and Institutional Discrimination: What’s Changed? on Thursday 16 February at the University of London Union.
Zareena Mustafa from NMP will join a panel that also includes Dr Richard Stone OBE (a panel member on the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry), Dr Edie Freidman (Executive Director of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality) and Rokhsana Fiaz, Executive Director of the Coexistence Trust, who will be chairing the discussion.
For more information see the event’s Facebook Page.
