I’m not sure what we have the Met Police for anymore. They don’t turn up to burglaries and thefts or even when people get assaulted.
I guess if you do need an urgent response just tell them there’s a young kid they need to strip search and they’ll be along in shot.
Policing is so weird in the UK nowadays.
[EDIT] to say this is a criticism of top management and interfering politicians and not a criticism of front line staff.
Just end the war on drugs.
That’s appalling. They’re basically tricking children into submitting to a very invasive form of searching without giving them any opportunity for professional advice.
Sometimes these searches are necessary. OK. Why though are they taking place outside of the normal legal safeguards which would apply for adults?
The Metropolitan Police force is not fit for purpose. Tear it down and build a new one.
> The figures also expose huge racial disparities; more than half of the children strip-searched were black (436), three-quarters of them were from ethnically diverse backgrounds (607), while only one in five (179) were white.
Yes, because very few police forces outside of London are regularly using stop and search.
What are the racial statistics of the places where these people were arrested?
And by “places”, I’m talking about local areas such as neighbourhoods.
It’s quite disingenuous to make a claim of racism and using something like national statistics when ethnic minorities make up a much larger percentage of certain areas of London, where stop and search is regularly used.
Everyone needs a hobby.
Find it mental you can strip search a child at all but at the very least if it has to happen a parent should be there with them.
Imagine the trauma of being a kid being completely innocent and being made to strip by someone who you are meant to trust. Gonna damage a lot more than the trust in police.
Are you willing to let police strip search you and your kids if it might prevent me doing drugs?
Met must be doing a recruitment drive. Attract some more nonces
So in over half these cases the search found something illicit? That sounds like a good success rate to me. If you don’t want to be strip searched, not being a criminal will help reduce the chances of that happening.
I dunno that sounds a bit dodgy
Maybe the met should be checking their own hard drives
Met police are rapidly becoming indistinguishable from the people they’re supposed to protect us from.
They forcibly strip kids, like nonces would.
They apply the law in openly discriminatory ways, like racists would.
They kidnap, rape and murder women, like a uniformed Sutcliffe would.
They cover up their own misdoings, and those of their paymasters, like bent politicians would.
Yup, absolutely no idea why this is happening. I’d take a hundred 16 year olds being wrongly strip searched over one youth being killed, maybe I’m old fashioned that way
What even is the point in police?
They don’t prevent anything – they turn up after the fact.
The majority of crimes they don’t even turn up to.
I can’t remember the last one I actually saw on the street.
They cost us a fortune.
They’re constantly proved to act unlawfully.
So…what’s the deal?
That sounds like a reasonable number really. Knife crime is pretty much all under 18s so obviously you’re going to be searching kids. London is mostly non-white so obviously half of them aren’t going to be white.
A public rub down search can only remove their outermost jacket and gloves and gang members purposefully wear an insane number of layers to hide things in them. e.g. 2 pairs of trousers and 3 jackets all at once.
Any search which removes more than their jacket is defined as a “strip search” because you are asking them to strip off clothing. So asking that 17 year old to remove their 5 layers because they have a knife under there is a “strip search”
Now of course you could just arrest these “children”. But then that kid now has an arrest on record permanently. That will show up in background checks. And people in the comments are suggesting not only do you arrest them, but you also take them to the custody block… so now that kid you think has a knife is spending 8 hours in a cell just so you can search them. How is that safeguarding them?
Or alternatively, you just take the 17 year old to an area where the public can’t watch and you search them for the knife. If you find a knife you arrest them, otherwise they are free to go. This does not go on their criminal record and it has only taken a few minutes from their day.
And that is why stop and search is a thing.
Isn’t that the usual order of things? They ‘detain’ you, search you and then arrest you when/if they find something illegal? I don’t think they can arrest you without suspicion of an offence? People don’t seem to understand how arrest works.
Rotten to the core
Kinda feel like strip searching *anyone* without arresting them first seems like a massive overreach of authority.
That it’s kids just makes it even worse. If that’s possible.
I know they get it wrong sometimes but fuck me I would NEVER do that job!
Like wtf is up with the met. Scandals after scandals.
Racist, sexism, very bad eggs, cover ups, child assault..
Anyone feel like the met needs total reform?
Where’s them stats coming from?
I didn’t know that children couldn’t carry knifes and guns and drugs.
All aboard the outrage bus!
There’s some scandal on the met coming out almost every other week now. Clearly the whole thing is rotten and needs to be replaced
London is just a hellhole
They can do this but they can’t even send Bojo a questionnaire, mmhmm
Met are corrupt and peados, gasp there’s a shock.
If they’re chavs, then that’s fair enough
Pft, it’s not even one a day. 7/10 for effort. Must try harder.
Some little assholes need a squat and cough.
This is actually entirely legal – however the question is rather is the process fit for purpose.
We shouldn’t be naive enough to think a child would never need to be strip searched. Unfortunately children are exploited to carry weapons and drugs in intimate places – done so, so that they can avoid detection.
However the Child Q case rightly questioned the lack of rigorous safeguards involved, and lack of focus on the welfare of the young person, and that absolutely needs to change.
31 comments
I’m not sure what we have the Met Police for anymore. They don’t turn up to burglaries and thefts or even when people get assaulted.
I guess if you do need an urgent response just tell them there’s a young kid they need to strip search and they’ll be along in shot.
Policing is so weird in the UK nowadays.
[EDIT] to say this is a criticism of top management and interfering politicians and not a criticism of front line staff.
Just end the war on drugs.
That’s appalling. They’re basically tricking children into submitting to a very invasive form of searching without giving them any opportunity for professional advice.
Sometimes these searches are necessary. OK. Why though are they taking place outside of the normal legal safeguards which would apply for adults?
The Metropolitan Police force is not fit for purpose. Tear it down and build a new one.
> The figures also expose huge racial disparities; more than half of the children strip-searched were black (436), three-quarters of them were from ethnically diverse backgrounds (607), while only one in five (179) were white.
Yes, because very few police forces outside of London are regularly using stop and search.
What are the racial statistics of the places where these people were arrested?
And by “places”, I’m talking about local areas such as neighbourhoods.
It’s quite disingenuous to make a claim of racism and using something like national statistics when ethnic minorities make up a much larger percentage of certain areas of London, where stop and search is regularly used.
Everyone needs a hobby.
Find it mental you can strip search a child at all but at the very least if it has to happen a parent should be there with them.
Imagine the trauma of being a kid being completely innocent and being made to strip by someone who you are meant to trust. Gonna damage a lot more than the trust in police.
Are you willing to let police strip search you and your kids if it might prevent me doing drugs?
Met must be doing a recruitment drive. Attract some more nonces
So in over half these cases the search found something illicit? That sounds like a good success rate to me. If you don’t want to be strip searched, not being a criminal will help reduce the chances of that happening.
I dunno that sounds a bit dodgy
Maybe the met should be checking their own hard drives
Met police are rapidly becoming indistinguishable from the people they’re supposed to protect us from.
They forcibly strip kids, like nonces would.
They apply the law in openly discriminatory ways, like racists would.
They kidnap, rape and murder women, like a uniformed Sutcliffe would.
They cover up their own misdoings, and those of their paymasters, like bent politicians would.
“A few rotten apples, spoil the barrel”.
https://www.mylondon.news/all-about/knife-crime
Yup, absolutely no idea why this is happening. I’d take a hundred 16 year olds being wrongly strip searched over one youth being killed, maybe I’m old fashioned that way
What even is the point in police?
They don’t prevent anything – they turn up after the fact.
The majority of crimes they don’t even turn up to.
I can’t remember the last one I actually saw on the street.
They cost us a fortune.
They’re constantly proved to act unlawfully.
So…what’s the deal?
That sounds like a reasonable number really. Knife crime is pretty much all under 18s so obviously you’re going to be searching kids. London is mostly non-white so obviously half of them aren’t going to be white.
A public rub down search can only remove their outermost jacket and gloves and gang members purposefully wear an insane number of layers to hide things in them. e.g. 2 pairs of trousers and 3 jackets all at once.
Any search which removes more than their jacket is defined as a “strip search” because you are asking them to strip off clothing. So asking that 17 year old to remove their 5 layers because they have a knife under there is a “strip search”
Now of course you could just arrest these “children”. But then that kid now has an arrest on record permanently. That will show up in background checks. And people in the comments are suggesting not only do you arrest them, but you also take them to the custody block… so now that kid you think has a knife is spending 8 hours in a cell just so you can search them. How is that safeguarding them?
Or alternatively, you just take the 17 year old to an area where the public can’t watch and you search them for the knife. If you find a knife you arrest them, otherwise they are free to go. This does not go on their criminal record and it has only taken a few minutes from their day.
And that is why stop and search is a thing.
Isn’t that the usual order of things? They ‘detain’ you, search you and then arrest you when/if they find something illegal? I don’t think they can arrest you without suspicion of an offence? People don’t seem to understand how arrest works.
Rotten to the core
Kinda feel like strip searching *anyone* without arresting them first seems like a massive overreach of authority.
That it’s kids just makes it even worse. If that’s possible.
I know they get it wrong sometimes but fuck me I would NEVER do that job!
Like wtf is up with the met. Scandals after scandals.
Racist, sexism, very bad eggs, cover ups, child assault..
Anyone feel like the met needs total reform?
Where’s them stats coming from?
I didn’t know that children couldn’t carry knifes and guns and drugs.
All aboard the outrage bus!
There’s some scandal on the met coming out almost every other week now. Clearly the whole thing is rotten and needs to be replaced
London is just a hellhole
They can do this but they can’t even send Bojo a questionnaire, mmhmm
Met are corrupt and peados, gasp there’s a shock.
If they’re chavs, then that’s fair enough
Pft, it’s not even one a day. 7/10 for effort. Must try harder.
Some little assholes need a squat and cough.
This is actually entirely legal – however the question is rather is the process fit for purpose.
We shouldn’t be naive enough to think a child would never need to be strip searched. Unfortunately children are exploited to carry weapons and drugs in intimate places – done so, so that they can avoid detection.
However the Child Q case rightly questioned the lack of rigorous safeguards involved, and lack of focus on the welfare of the young person, and that absolutely needs to change.
Blimey, they’re like the Tories.