A statement on GMP’s arrest of one of our staff members.
Solidarity to everyone harmed by GMP yesterday, particularly young people.
Yesterday, alongside other teenagers fighting for our rights, GMP arrested one of our staff members, our youngest member of the team. This team member is doing okay, and we have come together safely today to check in.
GMP continue to be a brutal force who act out state violence against our communities, particularly those that are racialised and working-class. Through our project’s three years, we have continued to receive stories of that violence from the many young people and families we have come to know and care about. These stories will exist as long as GMP do.
While of course the arrest of our staff member brings deeply personal feelings of anger for the team, this is not our ‘too close to home’. ‘Too close to home’ is every young person and family we have met over the years who have been harmed in Greater Manchester, and every individual and community impacted by police violence that we have never met, across the UK. When police harm an individual, they harm a collective and we will continue to resist.
In Greater Manchester, we will continue to highlight the harm caused by GMP in solidarity with others: from
@npolicemonitor to
@reslabmcr, community organisers to academics, young people to adults, people from all communities oppressed by those in power.
We want children and young people safe from state violence, and we thank everyone who has been part of mobilising for that before us, who does so today, and who will continue to do so in the future. A final thank you to
@sistersuncut and Green & Black Cross who have been organising tirelessly on the ground to support people to protest.
To the staff member harmed, as always, we are proud of you.
www.theguardian.com
