On Saturday 26 January, the Labour Party called a national day of action. Against no deal Brexit? For migrant rights? Against the academy rip-offs recently exposed by a parliamentary report? For the NHS? Over Universal Credit? No — to “say no to police cuts”.
Leaflets implicitly linked “deep Tory cuts to the police” to rising violent crime, and called for 10,000 extra officers and more resources for the police. Many BAME and working-class people directly experience high levels of police harassment and violence which make their communities feel less not more safe. Socialists aim to limit the powers of the police and increase democratic oversight, and to shift towards community self¬policing, not to throw more money into the current structures.
The Metropolitan Police’s own studies show that stop and search is useless in tackling violent crime. Many studies show that more and longer jail sentences also fail, and sometime makes things worse. Expanded social provision, with early intervention programmes, youth, family and mental health support, in communities and schools, reduces crime.
