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TV presenter and former tennis star Annabel Croft |
Warning all cops: celebs sleeping rough
Did cautionary email to police officers soften the reality of zero-tolerance approach for TV show?
WHEN five celebrities slept rough on the streets of Camden and Westminster for a BBC documentary due to be aired this week, their intention was to show the warts’n’all hardships of homeless life.
But police correspondence obtained under the Freedom of Information Act suggest Famous, Rich and Homeless, to be screened on BBC1 this Wednesday, might lack realism where it is most needed – in the controversial zero tolerance approach to the homeless.
Police emails seen by the New Journal warned officers that celebrities would be bedding down with homeless people between November 28 and December 7 last year – and reminded them to stay within the rules when dealing with rough sleepers.
One email explains: “If you are conducting stop and account or stop and search please comply fully with PACE (police and criminal evidence rules) and if you have to use force during an arrest please be sure that the level is proportionate.”
But it ends with a rousing message: “Being a celebrity does not mean they can break the law.”
The reason for an email reminding police officers to behave when dealing with the homeless while there are cameras on the street? According to the anonymous officer who circulated the Met email: “The information is circulated so you are aware of what is going on. I have no doubt that you would all act professionally anyway.”
Celebrities on this year’s show, which changed its name from Filthy, Rich and Homeless, include Hardeep Singh Kholi, a comedian and writer who is the brother of Camden police’s second-in-command, Superintendent Raj Kholi; Daily Mail journalist Rosie Boycott; TV presenter Annabel Croft; the Marquis of Blandford; and actor Bruce Jones.
The amount of “hot washing” – where rough sleepers are woken in the middle of the night and moved on so their bed areas can be hosed down – that the celebrities saw in their 10 days on the streets remains to be seen.
Richard Burdett, editor of homeless magazine The Pavement, who lives in Mornington Crescent, said police should be offering rough sleepers “the same duty of care” as the rest of society: “Police should be offering the same sort of service that you and I should get from the police. That is, as guardians. It used to be a bit more like that. Now the police are used far more as the hard-end of homeless care, the enforcers.
“I will not be watching [the show]. I dislike reality TV, especially reality TV which is dressed up ‘raising the issue’. If you want to raise the issue just raise the issue.”
Reverend Simon Perry, of Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church in Shaftesbury Avenue, said the “No One Left Out” policy for homelessness was a “moral atrocity that is hidden away from the public because we all know it’s atrocious”.
The priest, who sleeps rough every three weeks, added: “It’s a barbaric practice.
“I suspect if its celebrities on the streets the police politeness will still be there, but not the underlying aggression.” |
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