Scrap Stop and Search, it's a racist mess

I was at the Brixton market last weekend and saw a kid, no more than 15, getting stopped and searched by the police. He was just standing there, minding his own business, and the next thing you know he's being told to empty his pockets. I've seen this sort of thing happen countless times before, and it's always the same - young black kid, probably from a council estate, getting harassed by the cops. It's like they're being singled out, and it's not right.

I've worked as a defence barrister for years, and I've seen the damage that stop and search can do to people's lives. It's not just the searches themselves, it's the whole system that's stacked against them. The police are given too much power to stop people without good reason, and it's always the same communities that get targeted. I've had clients who've been stopped and searched multiple times, and it's clear that it's not about crime prevention, it's about intimidation.