A BLACK student who has been stopped around 50 times by
police – but never found to have committed any crime – is to sue the
Metropolitan Police. He says he has suffered almost four years of harassment
and false charges, which he believes have been motivated by racism.
Between the ages of
14 and 17, the college student says he has faced a series of charges of which
he has either been found not guilty or which have been dropped before getting
to court, as well as numerous stops and searches and two strip searches, none
of which identified any criminal activity.
He says he has also
been detained several times in police cells after which he was released without
charge.
Last week the
teenager appeared at Bromley youth court, south London,
charged with assaulting a police officer. The case collapsed after CCTV footage
contradicted the evidence in court of PC John Lovegrove, who claimed to have
been assaulted by the youth during a stop and search.
The youth had been
stopped by police in Sidcup, south London,
on 11th February this year, after reports on the police radio that a named
white suspect had threatened his father with a knife and had then run off. The
police description was later amended to black or mixed race male.
The youth said:
"I can't think of any other reason why the police keep doing this to me
apart from racism. I've been stopped and searched so many times I've lost
count, I think it's about 50 times."
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