Police Crackdown on the Poor in Brighton

The two piers of Brighton...

So, I now have one friend in jail, who, by a method of entrapment is on a charge of 'drug supply' by Sussex Police, even though a police officer, dressed in civilian clothing and expressing signs of drug withdrawal symptoms, asked, near begged where she could obtain a small bag of heroin. The friend in question obtained some for her and is now looking at a 2-3 year jail sentence for drug supply. He shares a cell with another man, who was convicted for the same offence, by the same method of entrapment. Neither of these two men, nor the 30 something others now in Lewes Prison, all from the London Road area, are drug dealers. Fact. They are drug users. Fact. If they were all drug dealers, they would not be totally broke, many living in local homeless hostels or sleeping rough, awaiting methadone in the morning.

I now have another friend, who cares for his friend, a lady who has mental health problems, who was evicted from Sheffield Court, Brighton, by housing association, Moat, for drug related issues. Actually, what happened is 12 police came and raided his flat, and accused him of running a crack house. Was he a drug dealer? No, he was a busker, broke, who is now homeless, living in one room with his vulnerable friend in a hostel near the Marina. Where was the drug dealer of Sheffield Court? Living next door...the police raided the wrong flat and when they broke in to next door, they found loads of drugs. That individual is apparently still a free man and hasn't been charged. So, even though he and his friend were innocent, recovering drug addicts, on methadone, living in Sheffield Court, the real reason the Police hounded them out of there was because Moat and the residents association, didn't want they're 'type' living there. Vicious b**tards, that those residents associations and Moat are.

Let me then, be the first to say it: Sussex Police are corrupt and are directly targeting the poor, the addicts and despised of Brighton. It is an abuse of power and they are actually, possibly, letting the real drug dealers off the hook.

The Argus reported recently that, 'Scores of drug pushers have been swept off the street in an area plagued by crime. People in London Road, Brighton, welcomed the arrests of 82 people in a three-week police crackdown, 24 of them in their area. The action followed angry complaints nearly six months ago about dealers openly selling class A drugs on the streets, addicts injecting heroin near schools and pickpockets targeting shoppers. Senior police officers and councillors were confronted by angry shopkeepers at a public meeting after The Argus highlighted their concerns. Today Sussex Police said the latest phase of their anti-heroin strategy, Operation Reduction, had included specific action to target people in the London Road area. They seized 74 ‘wraps’ of heroin - amounts of the drug separated and packaged for sale - and 19 wraps of cocaine.

Action in the London Road area has also included the closure of a crack den in the New England Quarter housing development...Operation Reduction was devised in 2005 to tackle drug-fuelled crime in Brighton and Hove. It aims to disrupt the supply chain of class A drugs by putting low-level dealers behind bars. Users who commit crimes like shoplifting and thefts from crimes to fund their habits are encouraged into treatment to stop the cause of their offending.'

Yes, okay, right. Regarding the 'crackden' of which my friend was accused of running, The Argus reported that, 'The property in the New England Quarter development in Brighton was targeted after complaints from some residents that they had “danger on our doorsteps.” The raid at Sheffield Court, in the City Point area of the prestigious development came only a year after the flats opened. Officers wearing riot gear and carrying shields burst in on the suspected drug den and arrested three people during the dramatic raid yesterday at 12.05pm. Two other people who visited the flat while police searched it were also detained.

A quantity of suspected drugs were recovered from the flat and are now being tested by experts. Police acted after residents said their lives had been made a misery by drug addicts coming and going at all hours and urinating in corridors.

One resident said, “People always used to ring my door by mistake at all times. In the night you can hear them shouting and stuff. I don't want my kids to see that.”

Another resident said: “There have always been lowlife undesirables around the block that would visit some flat or other but we never knew which one.” He added: “It's a cause of resentment that people who have paid a lot have to share with people who likely pay nothing and then use the flat as a base for criminal activity.”'

Aha, I see. Now we have reached the heart of the matter...hypocrisy and snobbery. Those who are viewed only as 'lowlife undesirables' have got under the nose of the rich. The rich have ganged up and hounded them out of the apartments on trumped up charges of drug-dealing and any number of 'anti-social crimes' they can think of...Neighbour has turned against neighbour and the very poor are despised. The Police have turned on the poor of Brighton and Hove without shame, using corrupt and underhand tactics in which to achieve their 'results'.

Well over 30 drug addicts are now banged up in Lewes Prison and two of my friends are homeless for 'antisocial' behaviour. They are good and decent people but very poor and vulnerable. They are not drug dealers, nor was their house a crack house and I'll be willing to stand up in Court and say it. They have been deliberately targeted by Sussex Police, had their names and reputations slandered and dragged through the mud, in The Argus, as being the causes of all the drugs problems on London Road (he's a hard up busker for God's sake! I know him!) and are still, even having been evicted, facing a debt of over 900 pounds for rent for a flat which Moat are still making them pay for, even though they've been kicked out! Totally unjust!!

Yes, there are two piers in Brighton! One is about fun, entertainment, good times and partying. The other, the West Pier, is falling down, broken, unloved, uncared for, collapsing, debilitated, destroyed. It is just like the people of Brighton. The friendliness is a veneer...beneath it all is the same wretched snobbery and hypocrisy that exists the World over, and just about everyone and everything is accepted here, but the very poor and despised. This town is a den of vice and iniquity, indeed, but it isn't the drug addicts and homeless who are the problem...it's the Police and the 'well-to-do'. It makes me feel sick. This crackdown is not about drug dealers or even drugs...it is a Mugabe-esque crackdown, 'Operation: Clearing out the trash' on the very poor and despised of Brighton. Many of those people are now in jail. Where is the justice?