On Tuesday evening I walked past a stop-and-search taking place on Lower Clapton Road, roughly opposite the Round Chapel. It's the second I've witnessed around that spot since the start of Operation Blunt 2 last spring. One of my sons was stopped-and-searched a while ago. Blunt 2 is becoming part of the scenery. Has it had a beneficial effect? If so, will that go on indefinitely? The new Met chief Sir Paul Stephenson has indicated that it will continue for some time. At this stage that might be seen as a political signal, one what associates him with Boris Johnson's wish that the service concentrates on the "core product". But will a point be reached when stop-and-search becomes counter productive, perhaps when young people with nothing to hide and information about others that could be useful begin seeing the police as hostile? I don't know if such a point will be reached. I do, though, hope that if it is our senior officers will notice.
Didn't the SUS laws lead to stuff like the Brixton riots the last time?
Posted by: Martin McCallion | February 16, 2009 at 11:56 PM