Airport profiling under scrutiny after violent arrest

Airport profiling under scrutiny after violent arrest.

In the aftermath of the violent arrest of a teenager at Manchester Airport, local Lib Dem councillor Sam Al-Hamdani has called for a review of the use of profiling at Manchester Airport.

He wrote to GM Mayor Andy Burnham, the Police and Crime Commissioner, and Arooj Shah, the leader of Oldham Council – which is a stakeholder in the airport – raising the repeated profiling of ethnic minority passengers, and the potential for this to create a culture of suspicion which could contribute to incidents like the one that took place on Tuesday night.

He said: “I have been profiled myself repeatedly when flying to the United States from Manchester Airport. This is purely because of my Iraqi heritage, even though I was born in the UK, am a British citizen, and have never even travelled to the Middle East.

“On one occasion, I and every other Arab and Asian-heritage passenger on a flight were announced over the tannoy before boarding in Manchester, and marched in front of all the other passengers for ‘additional security checks’. That could not have failed to scare all the other passengers, make them suspicious of us, and to have reinforced any prejudices that they might have.”

While the circumstances of the incident on Tuesday night are still being investigated, he called on politicians and shareholders to change these attitudes and practices to de-escalate tensions between police and passengers.

He added: “There clearly needs to be a thorough investigation into the events of Tuesday night. The anger that people are feeling is understandable.

“We all have a part to play in building trust back in our communities. People need to feel heard, and be heard. This is not just an isolated incident – there have been too many occasions on which the actions of police have broken the agreement that we have in the UK … policing by consent.

“Listening to people and investigating properly is the only way to change this. We owe it to passengers, to the many good police officers that there are, and to people and communities that do not feel listened to, and do not feel safe.”

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