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There are a lot of teenager drug related stop and searches in =poorer= areas of Belfast, as drug use is more =visible= there.
Near my way kids have been using nitrous in the park, in other parts the paramilitaries are drug dealing, none of those areas of Belfast are rich parts and so the low income parts get it again. It is not racially targeted here, but I doubt the teenagers in richer areas get lots of stop/searches going on as drug use there is probably indoors.
Of course people have to put up with the hassle/are worried about the kids, but the PSNI isn't the way to deal with this and in effect "drug use" becomes code for "those parts of Belfast"...
In this case I don't think the NI politicians are big drug users (though what the DUP is on, we'll never know ;) those searches/lack of a drug policy reinforce socio-economic issues though.
JWestland-
All I'm saying is that if our law makers friends, families and colleagues were targeted in proportion to drug intake rather than demographics of race or welfare things would be a lot fairer.... but there's a class of people who despite being rampant drug / drink drivers are not systemically pulled over. Which I'm aware is stating the obvious but it really pisses me off.
My port wine faced uncle habitually drives way over the limit - cos the law doesn't apply to him.
Wrongcog
This observation further emphasises the massive discrepancies in stop / search etc too. POlicy makers are so far from considering themselves the demographic likely to be affected by these things - not because they aren't knee deep in marching powder, but because they know they'll never be targeted.
The police will absolutely never pull over a pink person with collar and cuffs driving a 3 ton Jag while they can hassle a brown lad in a Corsa... despite the fact that the Gieves and Hawkes guy is almost certainly constantly firing Plaster of Paris nose missiles. I'm open to correction but I have absolutely never heard of an inappropriate or unnecessary stop being afflicted on someone with a golf club membership despite the fact that these are precisely the people who have over cooked it at lunch, been doing lines all afternoon or prefer to drive to their country boozer rather than wait for a cab.