Traveller charity urges police watchdog review
A police watchdog has been urged to investigate an incident in which officers were accused of being "heavy-handed" after large groups of Romani Gypsy and Irish Traveller youths were stopped from attending a city's Christmas market
The groups were met by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) at Manchester Victoria on 23 November last year and allegedly "forced" back on to the trains they arrived on.
The Traveller Movement said the force's response to its complaint about the incident was "deeply flawed" and it had now asked the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) to review the case.
Both GMP and the IOPC have been contacted for comment.
GMP previously said a dispersal order was put in place on the day in response to "intelligence" about anti-social behaviour on trains and in the city.
The Traveller Movement alleged children were racially profiled by officers and excessive force was used.
GMP met representatives from Romani Gypsy and Irish Traveller communities in the aftermath of the incident and expressed "regret at the distress and upset these events had caused".
Greater Manchester deputy mayor Kate Green previously found the dispersal order raised concerns about discrimination and could have been avoided.
Ryan Bradshaw, from law firm Leigh Day which represents the Traveller Movement, said: "Our clients are hopeful that an IOPC review will expose what they believe is the clear institutional racism that led to this appalling incident."
It is alleged by the charity that children were forced onto trains heading to unknown destinations, separated from their families and subjected to physical abuse and disparaging remarks about their ethnicity.
Pauline Melvin-Anderson OBE from the Traveller Movement said the police response to the charity's complaint was "deeply flawed and lacks transparency".
She said it was a "blatant attempt to justify the unjustifiable".
"Our children were humiliated, physically harmed, and placed in vulnerable situations because of discriminatory assumptions about their communities," she said.
"We will not rest until a full inquiry takes place."
The Traveller Movement has called for the IOPC to step in and investigate and for GMP to apologise and disclose the "intelligence" it relied upon to justify its actions.
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Dispersal order 'could have been avoided' - deputy mayor
Traveller charity angry at police dispersal order
Police accused of 'heavy-handed' dispersal response
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