ktlight
25th May 2011, 14:16
FYI:
The British security forces use their counter-terrorism powers for stopping and searching suspects up to 42 times more against ethnic minorities than whites.
The powers authorized by schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allows stopping and searching of innocent people at random while giving them less rights than suspected criminals.
The figures, the Guardian quoted from official sources, show disproportionate targeting of non-white groups when compared with white people based on the percentage of the population they represent.
The contrast is specially marked when considering cases in which targets are stopped for more than an hour.
In such cases, Asians constitute 41 percent of stops with the percentage being 19 percent for Whites, 10 percent for blacks and 30 percent for others (including Middle Eastern and Chinese).
This comes as Asians make up only 5 percent of the UK population, black people 3 percent and others 1 percent while White people make up 91 percent of the population.
For less than an hour stoppages, the proportions are 45 percent for Whites, 25 percent for Asians, 8 percent for blacks and 22 percent for other ethnicities.
Based on the regulations, those stopped have no right to silence and they could face criminal charges if they do not answer questions.
Meanwhile, police can start an interrogation without any lawyer present and if those stopped want any lawyer they should foot the bill themselves.
This comes as experts say the move amounts to “ethnic profiling” by the security forces.
"They [the date] lend weight to the view that ethnic profiling is going on," said Ben Bowling, professor of criminology at King's College London.
“The use of these powers at the border should be based on reasonable grounds and in ways that are properly transparent and accountable. At present they are opaque and unaccountable and seem little more than arbitrary and discriminatory, especially from the point of view of the person detained without reason," he added.
The Guardian said the figures were published following a freedom of information request from the Federation of Student Islamic Societies.
source
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/181568.html
The British security forces use their counter-terrorism powers for stopping and searching suspects up to 42 times more against ethnic minorities than whites.
The powers authorized by schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allows stopping and searching of innocent people at random while giving them less rights than suspected criminals.
The figures, the Guardian quoted from official sources, show disproportionate targeting of non-white groups when compared with white people based on the percentage of the population they represent.
The contrast is specially marked when considering cases in which targets are stopped for more than an hour.
In such cases, Asians constitute 41 percent of stops with the percentage being 19 percent for Whites, 10 percent for blacks and 30 percent for others (including Middle Eastern and Chinese).
This comes as Asians make up only 5 percent of the UK population, black people 3 percent and others 1 percent while White people make up 91 percent of the population.
For less than an hour stoppages, the proportions are 45 percent for Whites, 25 percent for Asians, 8 percent for blacks and 22 percent for other ethnicities.
Based on the regulations, those stopped have no right to silence and they could face criminal charges if they do not answer questions.
Meanwhile, police can start an interrogation without any lawyer present and if those stopped want any lawyer they should foot the bill themselves.
This comes as experts say the move amounts to “ethnic profiling” by the security forces.
"They [the date] lend weight to the view that ethnic profiling is going on," said Ben Bowling, professor of criminology at King's College London.
“The use of these powers at the border should be based on reasonable grounds and in ways that are properly transparent and accountable. At present they are opaque and unaccountable and seem little more than arbitrary and discriminatory, especially from the point of view of the person detained without reason," he added.
The Guardian said the figures were published following a freedom of information request from the Federation of Student Islamic Societies.
source
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/181568.html