Manchester police harass Travellers

The sight of traveller children and young people being kettled and herded onto trains out of town has caused horror and anger in traveller communities in Manchester and beyond.

On Saturday 23 November, Greater Manchester Police prevented young travellers from going to the Manchester Christmas markets. The markets have now become an annual gathering for young travellers from Manchester and Yorkshire to meet up with family and friends — like other young people at Christmas markets. In a response described as “heavy-handed and discriminatory” by the Traveller Movement organisation, dozens of uniformed police prevented about the same number of young travellers from leaving Victoria Station and herded others there from the Arndale shopping centre, then physically forced them onto trains out of the city. They had no idea where they were being sent or how to get back, and at least one was injured in the police action, with her leg going down between the train and the platform.

The Traveller Movement, Report Racism GRT, the Travellers Alliance Against Discrimination and others have put out a call for witnesses to contact them, and for police to be held to account. Manchester’s Labour Deputy Mayor, Kate Green, put out a statement: “I have watched the videos circulating on social media with concern and have asked GMP for a full report on the action taken.” We have not yet seen responses from Andy Burnham or any of Greater Manchester’s MPs.

GMP had issued a “dispersal order” on the Friday lunchtime, the 40th of these punitive orders they have issued since they gained the power to do so in the 2014 Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act.

These powers, described in the act as for use against “a person who has committed or is likely to commit anti-social behaviour” have in this case been used against a group of young people in a racist way. The organisation Report Racism GRT says “we are deeply concerned about the apparent racial profiling and heavy-handed policing evidenced in videos circulating on social media and corroborated by eyewitness accounts. These incidents raise significant concerns about the disproportionate and discriminatory treatment of Gypsy and Traveller individuals.”

Targeted

The Traveller Movement says: “Romani Gypsy and Irish Traveller children... were simply trying to enjoy the festivities like everyone else but instead have been unfairly targeted and marginalised… Manchester Police must be held accountable for their alleged actions and take immediate steps to end this blatant injustice.”

GMP’s statement on the events makes reference to two arrests made earlier in the afternoon, in a different part of the city, as if these two entirely unrelated incidents constitute justification of their actions against Romani and Traveller young people going to the markets — a point that Kate Green’s statement entirely fails to make.

Report Racism GRT is calling for “A full, independent investigation into the events of that day, including the implementation and enforcement of the dispersal order and the conduct of individual officers involved” and “transparency and accountability regarding the intelligence cited to justify the dispersal order, particularly any evidence linking it to the specific targeting of Gypsy and Traveller individuals.”

These are demands that the labour movement should support. Support should be given too to the protests that are being organised in the next few days — on Tuesday in Manchester, on Saturday 30 November in London (1pm, Parliament Square), and again in Manchester on 6 December.