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Heavy-handed police can cause despair I'm not, and refuse to become, a cynic about the police force. But this week, upon exiting Kensal Green tube station, I witnessed two British Transport police officers attempting to deal with a situation involving a young man. The officers had chanced upon this man moments earlier when they took exception to his quarrel with a ticket cashier about how to apply for a refund. What became apparent was the inability of the officers to undertake a calm resolution. The situation instead deteriorated into a more futile argument about whether the man had been shouting or not. In an attempt to perform what raising his voice would have amounted to, the officers made good on their threat to arrest the man for a breach of public order. Yet it was becoming clear to myself, and other bystanders, that instead of defusing the situation, the officers were fuelling it. Cornered and submissive, the man sought to impede the further humiliation of having his hands cuffed. A physical confrontation ensued, during which I appealed to the officers, from arms distance, to simply resume dialogue with the man. They ignored my counsel and progressed to stamp him down. Appalled at the display several of us sought to elicit the man's side of the story. Seeing him close to tears out of self-pity, I appealed to the officers that if they released him I would personally refund whatever he felt owed to him and everybody could go their separate ways. Half an hour, three police vehicles and four additional officers later, the man received an escort to a local police station. And the moral of this story? There's plenty worse than never finding a police officer when you need one. For a bad police officer there never is a right place for him to be at the right time. I'm convinced that for every bad officer, or action, another ten good ones get uncharitably judged in the minds of the public. I am writing to the force about this flagrant abuse of power and misdirection of police resources. Oh, the reader may wonder, I've deliberately left out skin profiles on either side because I don't wish to invite further despair. Dr Shahrar Ali |
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Letter published in the Willesden Observer 16 December 2004. |