Young Black woman shares experiences with police

YOUTH COMMISSIONER TALKS OF HER ORDEALS TO EALING’S RACE EQUALITY COMMISSION

A YOUNG Black woman has described being stopped and searched at 13 years old and being handcuffed to the ground with “six guns pointing at her head” at 15, as her major experiences of the police growing up in South Acton.

Ami Kourouma, a youth commissioner on Ealing’s Race Equality Commission shared her ordeals as part of the inquiry’s public meeting looking at crime and justice in the borough on April 22.

The commission led by independent chair Lord Simon Woolley, is investigating racial equality in Ealing and is expected to reveal its findings and recommendations in May.

Ami, now a safeguarding apprentice, recalled in conversation with senior youth worker Colin Brent, who works in South Acton, that her first interaction with the police was being stopped and searched as a 13-year-old girl on her way home from school.

The former Acton High School student remembered walking down an alleyway in her black and red school uniform before walking past a police car where male officers asked her where she was going, playing a “good cop, bad cop” routine “just like you see on TV”.

Describing the experience of being patted down, the 19-year-old said: “Intrusive, of course, I’m a teenage girl going through puberty and I’m being fondled by two grown men.”

And reflecting on the stop and search, Ami added: “At the time it just made me feel like, ‘I’m a kid – I’m thinking what did I do wrong? Are they coming back? Are they looking for me? Am I a person of interest?’ That was my initial thought immediately after that.”

However Ami said her experiences with the police now means if she sees the police she will “go the other way”, try and look as discreet as possible, and sometimes take off her jacket to show she has nothing to hide.

Asked how many times she’s been stopped and searched she said: “too many times to count.”

Ami also told the meeting she does not have a criminal record.

Youth worker Colin shared his views having worked in the South Acton area for years, how he has seen “over and over again” the way that public justice and public space is experienced in a “completely different way” by young people of ethnic minority backgrounds, and the impact that has for example on their education and employment.

He also said there’s often a feeling that policing “happens” to young people, and that youths being stopped and searched are often afraid of violence against them already.

“We’ve had people walk from Acton Town to Bollo [youth centre] which is a 10-minute walk and being stopped and searched four times on their way to the place they feel safe, in order to apparently make them feel safe,” he said.

“Policing is not understanding young people as victims of crime, it’s about seeing young people as potential perpetrators and not understanding the power dynamic, especially for young people, of how intimidating it can be, as we heard from Ami, of feeling having no power.”

Responding to Ami’s experience of stop and search, Ealing borough commander Peter Gardner apologised to her in the meeting and said what she described had happened to her was “unacceptable”.

He said: “You should have been searched by a female officer, you should have had it fully explained why you were stopped, I can only apologise [for] what was clearly unjust.

“I know we have an awful long way to go and we are far from perfect, there’s a lot of work we have to do, but I recognise it’s bravery of people like yourself coming forward and willing to have these discussions with us that starts to bridge those gaps and thank you for that.”

In Ealing, the borough commander revealed a Black person is six-anda-half times more likely to be stopped and searched than a white person, and are more likely to be a victim of violent crime.

However he said stop and search is an effective tool and a “necessary evil” to tackle violent crime. He also revealed South Acton and Northolt are the biggest areas for violence retention in the borough.

But on the disproportionate stop and searches, Mr Gardner added: “I absolutely acknowledge that it’s our determination to make that proportionate and make that right.”

Residents from Ealing are being encouraged to share their experiences with the commission.

To find out the different ways to do this, go to www.ealing.gov.uk/ race-equality-commission.

To watch the full meeting on crime and justice www.youtube. com/watch?v=4XZrXpO1sJI&t= 2174s.

Intrusive, of course, I’m a teenage girl going through puberty and I’m being fondled by two grown men.

Ami Kourouma, on her stop-and-search experience