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‘Black Lives Matter’ is an ingenious piece of political messaging because it hits on something so emphatically undeniable that to try to alter or contradict it is to reveal profound ignorance. A powerful and undeniable phrase that shines an ultraviolet light on some of our society’s most uncomfortable truths, privileges and injustices.
As the recent protests and social media campaigns have shown, there are lots of ways that all of us can help but I want to highlight one campaign that should strike a chord with anyone of a liberal persuasion and that is the campaign against school-based police officers.
For context I strongly urge Liberal Democrat colleagues across the country – and especially in the North West of England – to follow Kids of Colour and Northern Police Monitoring Project on social media. The two organisations have set up the ‘No Police In Schools’ campaign in response to the proposed roll out of school-based officers (SBPOs) by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.
Burnham claims the officers will help tackle violent crime amongst young people but, in reality, his proposal will change schools from places of support and safety, to places of punitive social control with young people of colour and those who are LGBTQ disproportionately inhibited as a result. Aside from the distinct absence of any meaningful consultation with students, parents, teachers or community groups there is also a distinct lack of evidence that school-based policing leads to a reduction in violent crime amongst young people. According to the British Medical Journal, the hours between which under 16s are at the highest risk from violent crime are 4pm – 6pm, so an approach that places an officer inside a school during school hours is unlikely to be a deterrent.
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