Volunteer to become an NMP Community Legal Observer during the Olympics

This summer, the eyes of the world will be on east London during the Olympics. Communities across east London and visitors to the area will witness an extensive policing and security operation with up to 12,000 officers on the ground during peak days. A prime community concern is the impact of this on equality and human rights entitlements.

The need for Community Legal Observers has already been explored in articles both by NMP and its supporters in recent months. In short, we and many others based in east London are concerned about the impact that such high levels of policing will have on specific sections of the community, many of whom already experience disproportionate contact and often discriminatory treatment from authorities - young people, people from black, Asian, minority ethnic, refugee or white working class backgrounds - but we are also conscious that policing and security at ground level can impact on others including visitors for whom English is not a first language, students and residents. In recent times in Newham, community confidence in the police has been severely tested by the disastrous Forest Gate anti-terror raids, where two Muslim families endured a terrifying house-raid based on faulty intelligence, the inordinately high level of Section 60 searches compared to other boroughs and most recently the allegation of racial abuse by police from NMP case Mauro Demetrio. An increase in human rights abuses has been documented in cities where sport mega-events have been held in the past; it is therefore essential that communities in east London are strengthened to resist and challenge any infringements on their rights.

Community Legal Observers can play a pivotal role in addressing this by:

• Being present on the ground to listen to, observe and respond to community concerns
• Ensuring people are aware of and can utilise their rights by distributing rights information
• Monitoring, recording and reporting back any treatment by the police or security officers that appears unlawful, discriminatory or improper
• Signposting people to access independent advice, support and legal referral for arrest and detention to NMP’s 24-hour freephone emergency helpline

Newham Monitoring Project, an independent anti-racist and civil justice organisation, will be coordinating a team of trained Community Legal Observers in areas surrounding the Olympic sites for the duration of the Olympics and Paralympics.

The provision of Legal Observers / Human Rights Monitors is a long established tradition in east London dating back to the 1930’s, acting as the eyes and ears of those on the ground and providing unique support to communities during public events and protests. This summer, we need your help to do this!

How to volunteer to become an NMP Community Legal Observer

To become part of the NMP Community Legal Observer team you need to attend one of the following training sessions. Training is free and will be held on the following dates:

Saturday 9th June 2012  11am - 4pm
Friday 15th June 2012    11am - 4pm

at The Harold Road Centre, 170 Harold Road, London, E13 0SE

What the training will cover:

- The Olympic ‘landscape’ and its impact on east London
- Understanding the role of Community Legal Observers
- Overview of human rights issues and the law in relation to this: Stop & Search powers, dispersal zones, curfew powers, arrest and detention
- Overview of law specific to the Olympics and potential impact at a community level
- Details of how the Community Legal Observer Team will be coordinated and supported by NMP

The training is open to anyone over the age of 18. You do not need a background in law as you will not be providing legal advice. Volunteers should be able to offer some availability during day and evening shifts across Newham from July 27th – September 9th 2012.

To register, email spw@nmp.org.uk or use the contact form on our website providing your contact details stating which date you can attend. Alternatively you can call us on 02084708333 for further details.

NMP is supported by The Network for Police Monitoring in launching this project.

Police announce Olympic Dispersal Zone in Stratford

This article was written Kevin Blowe, a long-standing Newham Monitoring Project supporter 

Yesterday, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that a three month dispersal zone had begun in the Stratford area, which "will specifically cover Stratford Town Centre, including the Magistrates' Court, the main transport hubs in Stratford and the areas along West Ham Lane commonly known as the West Quadrant".

Powers under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 to move on groups of people congregating in the zone began on 27 April, exactly three months before the Olympics opening ceremony. The police rather coyly add that at the end of the current period, they will "review the intelligence gathered and will consider making application to Newham Council for a three month extension", but it is pretty obvious that an extension will happen automatically. Coupled with confirmation that "local residents and businesses will also notice a marked increase in police patrols" supported by the Met's specialist public order unit CO20 (the Territorial Support Group) and Newham council enforcement officers, this is clearly a clean-up operation in advance of the summer's Games.

So what does a dispersal zone involve in practice? Section 30 of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act says that police officer or Police Community Support Officer has the power to order a group of two or more people to leave the area and, if they don't live within it, to ban them from returning for up to 24 hours. Refusing to comply with an officer's direction or not following the rules of the dispersal order can lead to arrest and charge, with a conviction potentially leading to a maximum penalty of three months' imprisonment and/or a fine of £5000.

In addition, officers have 'curfew' powers: young people aged under 16 are effectively prohibited from public spaces within the dispersal zone overnight, from 9pm to 6am, unless they are accompanied by a parent or a responsible adult over 18 years of age. An officer has the power to remove anyone within this age group that they find during these hours to their place of residence, unless there are "reasonable grounds for believing that the person would, if removed to that place, be likely to suffer significant harm."

Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRT) has shown that dispersal orders can have an impact on levels of crime and anti-social behaviour within a designated zone, although they risk displacing crime to the immediately surrounding neighbourhoods. Dispersal powers do, however, tend to have the impact of stigmatising all young people as potential perpetrators of anti-social behaviour, although they are most likely to be its victims:

Dispersal orders potentially criminalise youthful behaviour on the basis of the anxieties that young people congregating in groups may generate among other people. As such, the power is potentially less concerned with the agency of individuals than the assumptions that are made about what they might do.

For many, meeting friends and peers in local public spaces constitutes a fundamental aspect of developing their sense of identity and control, as well as providing space in which to forge their independent capacity to manage risk and danger. 

With the Olympics fast approaching, the underlying fear of young people from Newham scaring visitors and upsetting the drive for the 'perfect Games' does seem like the major motivation for creating a dispersal zone this early. It is as much about sending what JRT describes as a 'symbolic message' - mainly to stay away from public spaces in Stratford. The reality, though, is that this message is unlikely to succeed - many young (and not so young) people are are likely to head towards the area after 27 July, whether they have tickets for Olympic events or not, out of curiosity and excitement generated by the relentless publicity for the Games if nothing else.

However, when coupled with other stop & search and anti-terrorism powers and the huge number of police and private security around Newham over the summer, the dispersal zone is clearly seen by the Met as an important element in the expected lockdown of Stratford for the duration of the Olympics - one that could lead many young people to unexpectedly find themselves in court if they don't fully understand their rights.