Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
police harassment !
My neighbour across the street on Umfreville Road had his door kicked in by the police last night, who had decided on no evdence that it was a crack-cocaine house. He is a geography teacher, who grew up in that house and lives there with two colleagues, also male. They also all happen to be black.
The police accidentally left documents behind detailing how they obtained the warrant - they said that they could not find out who lived in the house (although he is on the electoral register) and that the occupants were likely to be dangerous, and causing anti-social behaviour in the community.
In fact he has always been a calm and reassuring presence, looking out for my house when I'm away and a truly good neighbour - any observation of the house, or local enquiries would have made this clear. Or perhaps they could have knocked instead of kicking the door down?
No apology was made - he was told he was unlikely to get compensation and has taken the day off work today to fix the door.
I'm completely outraged by all this, and it's hard to imagine that it wasn't to some degree affected by racist assumptions - he vertainly feels that.
Far from making me feel safer, it increases my feeling that anything could happen around here, and there might be a policeman behind it.
Does anyone know where to start with making a complaint about this, or has there been any similar incident you know of?
Maddy
The police accidentally left documents behind detailing how they obtained the warrant - they said that they could not find out who lived in the house (although he is on the electoral register) and that the occupants were likely to be dangerous, and causing anti-social behaviour in the community.
In fact he has always been a calm and reassuring presence, looking out for my house when I'm away and a truly good neighbour - any observation of the house, or local enquiries would have made this clear. Or perhaps they could have knocked instead of kicking the door down?
No apology was made - he was told he was unlikely to get compensation and has taken the day off work today to fix the door.
I'm completely outraged by all this, and it's hard to imagine that it wasn't to some degree affected by racist assumptions - he vertainly feels that.
Far from making me feel safer, it increases my feeling that anything could happen around here, and there might be a policeman behind it.
Does anyone know where to start with making a complaint about this, or has there been any similar incident you know of?
Maddy
Tags for Forum Posts: crime, police
Replies are closed for this discussion.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Without being facetious (I hope) and with the greatest degree of sympathy for your neighbour, what was it Oscar Wilde said about malice and incompetence?
And having said that, if you're that incompetent I don't believe you should have that much power. -
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Permalink Reply by rahman on
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We have the police breaking down doors at our hostels all the time without notice, even though we are a local authority and would work with them to make sure any culprits are arrested. Usually, the tenants are up to no good, so it is understandable. Sometimes, its friends of tenants who have been using the address on paper only without knowledge of the tenant who bring the old bill knocking. You'll never know what prompted them to act so urgently without a full investigation - it may not be the 'R word' at all. It could be something as ridiculous as school kids who dont like their teacher making malicious allegations that require an urgent response....
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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That's awful, your poor neighbour.
I knew of someone in Stroud Green whose front door was broken down by the police in 2006, as I recall because they'd had a tip-off there was/had been a burglary (the bit I remember 100% is that she was told by the police that on looking through her letterbox it certainly seemed messy enough to have been burgled - she'd just had a baby ...). Anyway, the punch-line is that there wasn't anything going on at all. The police did pay for a replacement door, fitting etc but it took a lot of complaining, so I'd certainly advise your neighbour to pursue this. Good luck. -
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Do you think school kids could really get away with that? Surely annonymous information is taken with a grain of salt by the police?
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Permalink Reply by Harringay SNT on
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Just a word of caution while I won`t comment on individual cases, it may better for everyone if people were careful about criticising and undermining public confidence in us to the detriment of all.
Particularly if they are without the full facts in individual cases.
The the only person(s) entitled to the the full facts are the person(s) concerned.
This is because they have rights under the Data Protection Act and under the Human Rights Act.
We have to respect these rights. We do not ride roughshod over them in any way.
Magistrates make a decision on what is put in front of them.
That`s not to say that in this imperfect world mistakes can`t be made obviously they can. It`s not an exact science and Intelligence can prove to have been wrong.
These sort of criticisms are common and we have to take them on the chin.
However the one thing here that is most damaging and upsetting is bringing ethnicity into this. -
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Permalink Reply by Anette on
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"However the one thing here that is most damaging and upsetting is bringing ethnicity into this."
Hear hear!!!! Glyn, well said. -
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Thanks for this Glyn. I do understand the position you guys are in. And you're right to point out that's it a bit dangerous to make accustaions of racism which are unfounded.
Whilst I'm sure that Maddy made her statement in good faith, I also feel that other members will undertsand that this is her opinion and not a evidence-based statement. -
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Permalink Reply by Margaret Fowler on
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The worst thing that I find about all this is that we are going backwards again. I lived on the other side of the borough in 1970-1990 and taught many ethnic minority students. They had many problems of police knocking down doors etc. in Tottenham. My children (from New Zealand) went to a school where most of the children were born of parents not born in this country and were often distressed at what was happening to their friends who were all people to them no matter what colour. I am very unhappy that the borough of Haringey still seems to be so fragmented. My house happens to be in Harringay but I am concerned about what goes on in the whole borough
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No, Margret you're not in Harringay any more. Haven't you read Harringay's not Harringay after all. It's Official.
And, do bear in mind what I said above. We don't know the facts of this case yet. So let's not be too ready to reach unfounded conclusions. -
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And Glyn told us that we're not entitled to the facts so... you might as well close this discussion.
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He said: The the only person(s) entitled to the the full facts are the person(s) concerned.
This is because they have rights under the Data Protection Act and under the Human Rights Act.
So unless the bloke concerned joins up and fills us in, we're not going to know anymore than has been said.
What is it that you think he meant by that statement? -
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