• WITH understandable anger over the appalling events in the USA (including the president’s words and actions) and subsequent developments and demonstrations, one aspect that has been raised yet again is that of excessive use by the UK police of stop and search.

This was introduced, withdrawn and reintroduced again, it should not be forgotten, due to the frightening increase in knife-related crime, which itself is directly related to the high amount of drug dealing and county lines activity.

While I can understand some of the reactions, the police have been treated shamefully in recent events in Hackney and by the memorial to a brave colleague outside the Houses of Parliament.

They claim that during lockdown they have been able to round up and disperse or deactivate much drug dealing which is to be commended.

However what I should like to see, to settle these arguments once and for all, are reliable statistics or percentages (from the police or any other reliable source) of the estimate of the number – separately each by ethnicity – of White, Black and possibly Asian known drug dealers and their associated county lines, with children down to around 12 involved in the latter.

JOHN STRATTON,
NW3