Man stopped by police in London plans to sue for 'severe racial profiling'
A man who has been stopped by police in London dozens of times although he has never been found guilty of any offence, says he plans to sue them for “severe racial profiling”.
Ryan Colaço, 31, hit the headlines after posting footage on social media about two police stop-and-search incidents that happened in quick succession. The first took place on 23 May in Northumberland Park in north London when he said Metropolitan police officers “aggressively tailgated” him. Police said they could smell cannabis from his car but none was found.
The second took place less than a week later on 29 May, when he was driving home from an interview at Channel 4 about the first incident. He was stopped by City of London police, who accused him of “dashing stuff up in his waistband”. He said officers smashed his car window, forcefully removed him from his car, handcuffed him, drug tested him and took him to a police station where he was strip-searched and held for 12 hours. Nothing was found.
He made complaints to both forces and the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which directed City of London police to carry out their own investigation into the incident.
The force exonerated themselves in their investigation and found the level of service provided was acceptable apart from the condition his car was in when they returned it to him, for which they have apologised.
Colaço has spoken out about what he believes to be racial profiling by the police at a time when new research from University College London has found that young black men in London are 19 times more likely to be stopped than the general population.
In the latest incident where Colaço was stopped and searched in Trinity Church Square in Southwark in south London on 29 September, he said he was accused by police of having made a “sudden turn” but he said he had not seen the police at that point. He was again handcuffed, searched and stood against a wall.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/19/man-stopped-by-police-in-london-plans-to-sue-for-severe-racial-profiling
