I remember, quite a few years ago, getting stopped and searched by the police. It was at Whitechapel station and would have been around 2004/2005 ish. I was living in Stepney at the time, and on my to my local Amnesty group meeting.
As I walked towards the barriers, I became aware of a man with a dog walking towards me and looking quite threatening/intense. Thinking he was probably a weirdo, I sped up but he cut across me, and holding the collar of his dog forced it’s snout between my legs.
“What the fuck are you doing”, I said.
“Sorry, can you step to one side with me please sir”
“No, get your dog away from me”
At this point, he took out an ID card and explained that he was an undercover officer conducting an investigation, using stop and search powers. He then asked if I could explain why the dog had made a positive identification of an illegal substance on my person.
“The dog you just held by the collar and forced snout first into my balls”?
“That’s a positive identification sir. Can you explain why the dog might have ID’d you?”
“I don’t have any drugs on me if that’s what you mean”.
“So why did you evade the dog?”.
“Do you mean why did I walk a bit quicker when a big scary man with a big scary dog started walking threateningly towards me?”
“Do you can’t account for evading the dog?”
“I thought you were going to attack me, and to be fair you did push a dog’s snout into my balls”
“OK, I’m going to need you to come with me”
At this point he quoted some legal stuff I can’t remember, and I thought it best to just do what he wanted.
I was led to what looked like a staff locker room in the station, and asked to sit on a bench. There were around twenty other people sitting on the benches with me, mostly about my age, mostly men, but all of them (other than me) black.
I got chatting to a lad about my age who was sitting next to me. He was used to the process, and he described being stopped maybe about once or twice a month, sometimes more.
“It’s not surprising that I’m the only white lad here” I said.
“That’s because every now and then, when they realise they’ve pulled too many niggers, they go and get a white one”. He chuckled at this, and it made me laugh too.
“Can I ask you, did they push the dog at you? Cos, it really felt to me like the guy spotted me first and dragged it towards me. The dog didn’t seem that bothered”
“The dog can’t tell shit! Everyone is carrying drugs if they’ve got money in their pocket. And are you telling me all these white guys coming home from their offices and banks haven’t been on the blow at lunch?”
He also advised me not to give them any cheek. He had a few friends who’d got drug convictions after giving shit back to the police, where some coke they swore they had nothing to do with had mysteriously been discovered in their bag.
Eventually the police officer in the rubber gloves got round to me and asked me to turn out my pockets, which I did, and rifled through my bag. There were no drugs to be found. None on my new friend either. And as far as I could tell, no drugs on any other other people in the room too.
I was led out of the room by another officer and back to the station, where I was given a processing document as a souvenir. Before I was released, Given I was a gobby little shit, I thought I’d push back a little.
“Can I ask a question?”
“Sure,“ she said.
“What do you think the dog identified on me, given I didn’t have any drugs?”
“Could be anything really,” she said. “Bank notes usually have traces of cocaine on them, so it could be that. They also really like almonds”.
“Right. But if the dog is responding to bank notes, almonds and whatever else. You’d think that you’d be pulling in random people. Little old ladies. White collar professionals. Y’know”
“Yeah, but we have to take the dog to someone who fits the profile and see if they make a positive ID”.
“So you choose who to target”.
“Yes, but the dog has to make the ID”.
“So how do you decide who to target”.
“Erm…it’s usually just if people look suspicious. Young men who fit the profiling”
“So, I’ve just been in a room with twenty lads. All of them black, and you’re telling me that the dogs will react if they can sniff money or almonds. So don’t you think you might be bringing your own biases into the picture here.
There was a lengthy pause.
“The dog makes the positive ID”. She said. And then closed the door.
Now I’ve come to see this as quite a funny story. It has happened to me exactly once. But imagine this shit happened to you monthly, or even weekly. It would stop getting funny and start getting annoying very quickly.
I’m not sure what been ‘law abiding’ has to do with anything here, given the hassle and inconvenience that black people go through every day because the police think they just look like the wrong sort. For many black people it isn’t a case of the innocent have nothing to fear, and if they keep their nose clean they’ll be left alone. This isn’t their experience.
