US civil rights leader Al Sharpton calls for an end to stop and search in UK
Reverend Al Sharpton has called for an end to the use of stop and search in the UK, accusing the police of disproportionately targeting people from ethnically diverse backgrounds.
The US civil rights activist said he fears unless urgent reform is instituted in UK policing, Britain will see its own version of the George Floyd case.
Mr Floyd was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis in May 2020 in a killing that sparked widespread protests across the America, and the world.
Speaking on Sky News’ Beth Rigby Interviews, Rev Sharpton asked: “How do you explain the disproportionate amount of citizens that are black, or people of colour, being stopped and searched to whites in this country?
“How do you explain in COVID, when everybody is locked down, people of colour, and blacks in particular, are stopped and dealt with and arrested, more than whites?”
Rev Sharpton, who has been a vocal campaigner in the US for decades, added: “There is a systemic problem, and I think the studies – the data – has shown that. That is why it is critical that we get ahead of it, and deal with it, before you end up with a George Floyd.
“Stop and search, it is inherently set up in a situation, that we found – when they called it in America ‘stop-and-frisk’ – that it was disproportionately done in areas where blacks and browns were. When you have a disproportionate police strategy, you must eliminate that strategy.”
The reverend also highlighted the issue of police brutality in his home country, citing the recent case of Tyre Nichols – a black man who was beaten by five black police officers in the city of Memphis, Tennessee and died three days later.
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“The thing that was troubling to me about the killing of this young man, is that Tyre was beat to death by five black policemen minutes away from where Martin Luther King was killed,” he said.
“Martin Luther King was in Memphis fighting for black city workers. I could argue the case they may not have even been on an elite squad if it hadn’t been for Dr King.
“So, we are fighting systems as well as race, because I don’t believe those black cops would have beat a white kid like that, because they knew the penalty.”
‘The police are not being policed’
However, Sharpton didn’t view the situation in America as without hope, saying he wanted reforms to US policing at a federal level, with the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
“I think there is the broader question of police being not policed,” he said. “I think that white and black police have been infested with the same kind of power trips that ‘I don’t have to be held accountable’.
Rev Sharpton speaking at a Martin Luther King Jr Day event in Harlem, New York
“Which is why the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act makes them accountable. Why does that make them accountable? Because it removes qualified immunity.”
Qualified immunity in the US protects police officers and other officials from civil lawsuits except in very rare circumstances.
“If a policeman knows he can lose his property, his house, his car, for his actions, his family would say, ‘wait a minute, you’ve got to be more careful and follow the letter of the law’. There’s no skin in the game,” Rev Sharpton said.
The reverend believes there is now sufficient pressure on officials in the Senate to pass the act, which failed to pass in 2021.
‘Imagine if Dr King had given up’
Asked if he thought Tyre Nichols’ death could be a catalyst for change in America, he said: “I believe that Tyre’s death can be that. I believe the same with George Floyd, where we did get the executive order. I always have hope, no matter how bad it looks.
“You must remember when the historic March on Washington happened in 1963, when Martin Luther King made his speech ‘I Have A Dream’, two months later, they bombed a church in Birmingham, Alabama – 16th Street Baptist Church – and killed four little girls.
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The funeral of Tyre Nichols has taken place in Tennessee. The 29 year old died after he was badly beaten by police officers in Memphis.
“There’s always going to be a reason to give up. But you have to keep going. Suppose that [Nelson] Mandela had given up – 27 years in jail – but South Africa ended up being a democratic one man, one vote.
“Suppose if Dr King had given up, we never would have had a Barack Obama or Kamala Harris. So every time I get discouraged, I think of people that face greater odds than we have and say if they could hold on, we can hold on.
“Victory is certain. I don’t know the date or the time, but I know we will win, and I won’t stop fighting.”
Asked if lasting change could come in his lifetime, Reverend Al Sharpton responded: “In my lifetime, hopefully. But if not, my children, they’ll say in their lifetime, or my grandchildren in their lifetime, that we won. And my dad or my granddad was part of the victory. They will not say he quit and gave up.”
US
Financial markets were always going to respond to Trump tariffs but they’re also battling with another problem
Stock markets around the world fell on Thursday after Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs – with some economists now fearing a recession.
The US president announced tariffs for almost every country – including 10% rates on imports from the UK – on Wednesday evening, sending financial markets reeling.
While the UK’s FTSE 100 closed down 1.55% and the continent’s STOXX Europe 600 index was down 2.67% as of 5.30pm, it was American traders who were hit the most.
Trump tariffs latest: US stock markets tumble
All three of the US’s major markets opened to sharp losses on Thursday morning.
The S&P 500 is set for its worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. File pic: AP
By 8.30pm UK time (3.30pm EST), The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 3.7%, the S&P 500 opened with a drop of 4.4%, and the Nasdaq composite was down 5.6%.
Compared to their values when Donald Trump was inaugurated, the three markets were down around 5.6%, 8.7% and 14.4%, respectively, according to LSEG.
Worst one-day losses since COVID
As Wall Street trading ended at 9pm in the UK, two indexes had suffered their worst one-day losses since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The S&P 500 fell 4.85%, the Nasdaq dropped 6%, and the Dow Jones fell 4%.
It marks Nasdaq’s biggest daily percentage drop since March 2020 at the start of COVID, and the largest drop for the Dow Jones since June 2020.
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The latest numbers on tariffs
‘Trust in President Trump’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN earlier in the day that Mr Trump was “doubling down on his proven economic formula from his first term”.
“To anyone on Wall Street this morning, I would say trust in President Trump,” she told the broadcaster, adding: “This is indeed a national emergency… and it’s about time we have a president who actually does something about it.”
Later, the US president told reporters as he left the White House that “I think it’s going very well,” adding: “The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom.”
He later said on Air Force One that the UK is “happy” with its tariff – the lowest possible levy of 10% – and added he would be open to negotiations if other countries “offer something phenomenal”.
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How is the world reacting to Trump’s tariffs?
Economist warns of ‘spiral of doom’
The turbulence in the markets from Mr Trump’s tariffs “just left everybody in shock”, Garrett Melson, portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions in Boston, told Reuters.
He added that the economy could go into recession as a result, saying that “a lot of the pain, will probably most acutely be felt in the US and that certainly would weigh on broader global growth as well”.
Meanwhile, chief investment officer at St James’s Place Justin Onuekwusi said that international retaliation is likely, even as “it’s clear countries will think about how to retaliate in a politically astute way”.
He warned: “Significant retaliation could lead to a tariff ‘spiral of doom’ that could be the growth shock that drags us into recession.”
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Tariffs about something more than economics: power
It comes as the UK government published a long list of US products that could be subject to reciprocal tariffs – including golf clubs and golf balls.
Running to more than 400 pages, the list is part of a four-week-long consultation with British businesses and suggests whiskey, jeans, livestock, and chemical components.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Thursday that the US president had launched a “new era” for global trade and that the UK will respond with “cool and calm heads”.
It also comes as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a 25% tariff on all American-imported vehicles that are not compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal.
He added: “The 80-year period when the United States embraced the mantle of global economic leadership, when it forged alliances rooted in trust and mutual respect and championed the free and open exchange of goods and services, is over. This is a tragedy.”
Tanking stock markets, collapsing world orders, devastating trade wars; economists with their hair ablaze are scrambling to keep up.
But as we try to make sense of Donald Trumps’s tariff tsunami, economic theory only goes so far. In the end this surely is about something more primal.
Power.
Understanding that may be crucial to how the world responds.
Yes, economics helps explain the impact. The world’s economy has after all shifted on its axis, the way it’s been run for decades turned on its head.
Instead of driving world trade, America is creating a trade war. We will all feel the impact.
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PM will ‘fight’ for deal with US
Donald Trump says he is settling scores, righting wrongs. America has been raped, looted and pillaged by the world trading system.
But don’t be distracted by the hyperbole – and if you think this is about economics alone, you may be missing the point.
Above all, tariffs give Donald Trump power. They strike fear into allies and enemies, from governments to corporations.
This is a president who runs his presidency like a medieval emperor or mafia don.
It is one reason why since his election we have seen what one statesman called a conga line of sycophants make their way to the White House, from world leaders to titans of industry.
The conga line will grow longer as they now redouble their efforts hoping to special treatment from Trump’s tariffs. Sir Keir Starmer among them.
President Trump’s using similar tactics at home, deploying presidential power to extract concessions and deter dissent in corporate America, academia and the US media. Those who offer favours are spared punishment.
His critics say he seeks a form power for the executive or presidential branch of government that the founding fathers deliberately sought to prevent.
Whether or not that is true, the same playbook of divide and rule through intimidation can now be applied internationally. Thanks to tariffs
Each country will seek exceptions but on Trump’s terms. Those who retaliate may meet escalation.
This is the unforgiving calculus for governments including our own plotting their next moves.
The temptation will be to give Trump whatever he wants to spare their economies, but there is a jeopardy that compounds the longer this goes on.
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Could America’s traditional allies turn to China? Pic: AP
Malcolm Turnbull, the former Australian prime minister who coined the conga line comparison, put it this way: “Pretty much all the international leaders I have seen that have sucked up to Trump have been run over. The reality is if you suck up to bullies, whether it’s global affairs or in the playground, you just get more bullying.”
Trading partners may be able to mitigate the impact of these tariffs through negotiation, but that may only encourage this unorthodox president to demand ever more?
Ultimately the world will need a more reliable superpower than that.
In the hands of such a president, America cannot be counted on.
When it comes to security, stability and prosperity, allies will need to fend for themselves.
And they will need new friends. If Washington can’t be relied on, Beijing beckons.
America First will, more and more, mean America on its own.
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