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As pointed out by Sara Ogilvie from Liberty, the plan has attracted plenty of criticism over the fact the BME community in particular face the threat of being disproportionately targeted. The police have abused their stop and search powers to target young black men for years, and British Transport Police are currently under investigation after footage of their officers hooding and pinning a young black man to the floor was posted online."Hooding is likely to be used with other forms of restraint, and so increases the risk of psychological and physical harm, and ultimately death," said Deborah Coles, Director of INQUEST. "This is particularly concerning given what we know about the overrepresentation of people from BME communities and those with mental health problems who die following the use of restraint."Marsh disagrees that the hoods will be over-used on BME communities. "We've spoken to community leaders, we've engaged with them," he said. "They're fully on board with what we're trying to do. This isn't about trying to put a fear factor in local communities. We don't want to put the fear into any law-abiding citizen on a daily basis. That's not what we're about. We police by consent. We have no intention whatsoever of upsetting people."The move, he says, is simply a deterrent. But when it has the scope to worsen already fraught police-community relations, it's one that could have perhaps been given a little more thought.READ: British Police Officers Reveal What They Really Think About the War on Drugs
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