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Tuesday July 5, 2022
By Thomas Kingsley

Exclusive: The family have made a formal complaint against Merseyside Police following the incident in Liverpool


The father feared his son could have been killed in the stop (Supplied)

The father of a Black student held at gunpoint by “institutionally racist” police feared his son could have been killed in the incident.

The force has been accused of racial profiling after two young Black men, who have asked not to be named, were rushed by armed officers in Toxeth, Liverpool, as the pair walked home from a mosque last Monday (27 June).

 

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The father said his son is a final year university student and wanted to get some fresh air after completing an assignment when the incident occurred.

His son is now so distressed by the situation he is urging his son to request emotional and mental health counselling. He added that the family were not contacted after the incident to explain what happened or offer any support.

“We have to learn something from this. It’s happened before, it’s happened now and it could happen again. If those two young people didn’t act calmy, what would the action of the police be? They could have been killed,” the fatheradded.


Officers could be seen with guns crowding the young men (Supplied)

Kim Johnson MP for Liverpool Riverside which covers the area of the incident condemned the police action against the two young men.

“I absolutely condemn the police action here, and am not happy with the response I have received that this response was proportionate or necessary. I will be pursuing this with Chief Constable Serena Kennedy,” Ms Johnson said.

She added that the incident resembled something from the streets of America and not Liverpool and accused the force of harassing the young men for being Black and leaving them traumatised as a result. She called for a stop of racial profiling and scapegoating in the force which she labelled institutionally racist.

Granby Somali Women’s Group, which has been supporting the families and community impacted said people are outraged by what’s happened.

“You have to look at the impact on those young boys, they might not have had any feelings toward the police because they may not have had any contact but now there’ll be mistrust, they’ll be scared, it builds that mistrust,” Amina Elmi of Granby Somali Women’s Group told The Independent.

“I’ve spoken to a lot of people in the community and they said it’s a regular occurrence for the police to turn up in the area and ask for ID, not telling them what the situation is, handcuffing them, putting them in police cars. This is happening a lot.

“It’s like we’re going back to the 1980s when we had all the issues and the 1981 riots in the community.”

Ms Elmi added that a particular point of upset among the community was how the police conducted themselves telling onlookers that their phones would be confiscated and putting a taser to the back of one of the young men.

A Merseyside Police spokesperson said: “We can confirm Merseyside Police’s Professional Standards Department has received a formal complaint relating to the stop search of two men on Monday night (27 June).

“We are liaising with the complainant and will update them on the progress of the investigation into their complaint.

“It would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”

In an original statement Superintendent Diane Pownall, said the search “was justified and appropriate.”
 

This content was originally published here.