For anyone who thinks the police "understand" drug users:
A police force has been accused of fuelling stigma and prejudice after it posted a poem on its social media channels mocking people arrested on suspicion of apparently low-level drug dealing.
The posts, part of a wider emerging trend of some forces publicly shaming arrestees, were criticised as showing an apparent lack of understanding of the trauma and exploitation such individuals often face, with one drugs death prevention expert saying: “These attitudes cost lives.”
Cambridgeshire Constabulary shared the six-stanza poem to its official Twitter page last Wednesday with the caption: “If you're in need of some festive laughs, our Facebook poem doesn't do things by halves”, followed by a laughing emoji.
The poem described neighbourhood support officers watching “with glee” as a “drug addict” purchased drugs, before “jumping on” the alleged dealer and following him to his home to strip search him, where they found another individual sitting in bed next to wraps of heroin and cocaine, and £2,000 in cash.
It continued: “The suspected drug dealer, fought and was dumb, as the grown man cried and blubbed for his Mum”, before stating that the two men were both charged, concluding that, “if you are naughty”, the Neighbourhood Support Team “will catch you, to send you to jail”.
The post – hashtagged with the phrases “wet wipe” and “mummy’s boy” – has garnered hundreds of likes on Facebook, but has faced widespread criticism among drug policy experts and other law enforcement agents.
Police force criticised for ‘grotesque’ and ‘stigmatising’ social media poem mocking drugs arrest suspects | The Independent
A police force has been accused of fuelling stigma and prejudice after it posted a poem on its social media channels mocking people arrested on suspicion of apparently low-level drug dealing.
The posts, part of a wider emerging trend of some forces publicly shaming arrestees, were criticised as showing an apparent lack of understanding of the trauma and exploitation such individuals often face, with one drugs death prevention expert saying: “These attitudes cost lives.”
Cambridgeshire Constabulary shared the six-stanza poem to its official Twitter page last Wednesday with the caption: “If you're in need of some festive laughs, our Facebook poem doesn't do things by halves”, followed by a laughing emoji.
The poem described neighbourhood support officers watching “with glee” as a “drug addict” purchased drugs, before “jumping on” the alleged dealer and following him to his home to strip search him, where they found another individual sitting in bed next to wraps of heroin and cocaine, and £2,000 in cash.
It continued: “The suspected drug dealer, fought and was dumb, as the grown man cried and blubbed for his Mum”, before stating that the two men were both charged, concluding that, “if you are naughty”, the Neighbourhood Support Team “will catch you, to send you to jail”.
The post – hashtagged with the phrases “wet wipe” and “mummy’s boy” – has garnered hundreds of likes on Facebook, but has faced widespread criticism among drug policy experts and other law enforcement agents.
Police force criticised for ‘grotesque’ and ‘stigmatising’ social media poem mocking drugs arrest suspects | The Independent
