(Photo: NRBrizzle)
In London today, members of the UK Border Agency were stopping people of color at various tube stations and demanding that they show identity papers. Several eyewitnesses confirmed that the patrol officers were singling out brown people, that they were intimidating in demeanor, and that they threatened to arrest passers-by who asked what was going on. At least one officer is reported to have removed his badge number. This comes as the UKBA began to blitz London’s neighbourhoods with vans threatening undocumented migrants with arrest and deportation and exhorting them to turn themselves in.
Kensal Rise resident Phil O’Shea told the Times he was threatened with arrest when he asked what was going on.
He said: “I thought the behaviour of the immigration officers was heavy-handed and frightening. They appeared to be stopping and questioning every non-white person, many of whom were clearly ordinary Kensal Green residents going to work.
“When I queried what was going on I was threatened with arrest for obstruction and was told to ‘crack on’.
“I asked that officer for his name but he refused to give it and said I could read his number on his shoulder but I couldn’t see a number there.”
NEWSFLASH: UK Border Agency ID Checking People of Colour At Train Stations [Scriptonite Daily]
(via Charlie Stross)