The conference agreed to establish itself as a national network of campaigns, individuals and comA new campaign - the Campaign Against Racist Policing (CARP) - was formed in Oxford last month after charges were brought by the police against a black motorist who had been stopped and searched 21 times in 26 months.
A lobby was organised when Harold Macfarlane, born in Oxford of African Caribbean parents, appeared at Oxford magistrates court on Thursday March 18th, accused of obstructing the police in the course of their duty and of threatening behaviour arising from a stop and search incident at the beginning of the year. The police offered no evidence and the case collapsed - the second time Harold Macfarlane had faced that situation. Whilst he was pleased the case had been dropped, he felt that he had been deprived of the opportunity to expose the actions of the police in public.
Harold Macfarlane's case is an extreme one, but, it is only one of many happening regularly in the Oxford area.
To begin to combat this the Campaign Against Racist called a public meeting on 'STOP and SEARCH' and racist policing on April 15th at 7.30 pm. at the Church of the Holy Family hall in Cuddesden Way, on the Blackbird Leys estate. CARP is calling on the Black community to attend the meeting and in particular black people who have been subjected to stop and search checks by the Thames Valley police. The meeting will discuss how to combat this in the wake of th Lawrence inquiry and what rights exist to deal with the situation when it arises on the street.