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Norman Brennan is a British campaigner on issues of policing and law and order. He was a police officer in the British Transport Police, based in London, England, and left the police in 2009 after 31 years.
During his law enforcement career, Brennan stated he was assaulted on multiple occasions and decided he did not want any colleague to go through the types of assault and consequences that he had. He therefore launched a campaign group called "Protect the Protectors", calling for better protection for police officers.
He became a regular contributor to the media on police issues.
He also set up Victims of Crime Trust registered as a charity in 1994, which gave a voice for victims of crime and specialised in helping families bereaved through murder or manslaughter. The trust failed to submit returns to the Charity Commission from 2005 onwards, and its registration was removed in 2010 on the grounds that it had "ceased to exist". [1]
Police Review described Brennan as probably being the best known face and voice in British policing and said that "Protect the Protectors" was the primary reason the government of the day reversed its policy on issuing police officers with a side-handled baton which had been originally refused.[ citation needed ]
Some members of the Police Federation, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and the Home Office were critical of Brennan's outspoken positions.[ citation needed ] One Police Federation member[ who? ] was quoted as saying that Brennan "gives outrageous soundbites and simplistic solutions to complex issues. I don't think he represents the views of many officers." [2]
In 2013, The Independent offered critical coverage questioning whether Brennan is a convenient "rent-a-mouth" for the media pointing out his propensity to comment on a wide array of matters unrelated to policing, ranging from asylum-seekers to prison gyms. The newspaper also suggested that some in the police force viewed Brennan as "an unelected, unrepresentative, hardline reactionary." [2]
Greville Ewan Janner, Baron Janner of Braunstone, was a British politician, barrister and writer. He became a Labour Party Member of Parliament for Leicester in the 1970 general election as a last-minute candidate, succeeding his father. He was an MP until 1997, and then elevated to the House of Lords. Never a frontbencher, Janner was particularly known for his work on Select Committees; he chaired the Select Committee on Employment for a time. He was associated with a number of Jewish organisations including the Board of Deputies of British Jews, of which he was chairman from 1978 to 1984, and was later prominent in the field of education about the Holocaust.
Stephen Lawrence was an 18-year-old black British citizen from Plumstead, southeast London, who was murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus on Well Hall Road, Eltham, on the evening of 22 April 1993. The case became a cause célèbre: its fallout included changes of attitudes on racism and the police, and to the law and police practice. It also led to the partial revocation of the rule against double jeopardy. Two of the perpetrators were convicted of murder on 3 January 2012.
Liberty, formerly, and still formally, called the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), is an advocacy group and membership organisation based in the United Kingdom, which challenges unjust laws, protects civil liberties and promotes human rights. It does this through the courts, in Parliament and in the wider community. Liberty also aims to engender a "rights culture" within British society. The NCCL was founded in 1934 by Ronald Kidd and Sylvia Crowther-Smith, motivated by their humanist convictions.
Operation Spanner was a police investigation into same-sex male sadomasochism across the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. The investigation, led by the Obscene Publications Squad of the Metropolitan Police, began in 1987 and ran for three years, during which approximately 100 gay and bisexual men were questioned by police.
Avon and Somerset Police is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement in the five unitary authority areas of Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset, Somerset, and South Gloucestershire, all in South West England.
Various individuals, courts and the media around the world have raised concerns about the manner in which cases of child sexual abuse are handled when they occur in congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses. An independent 2009 study in Norway was critical of how Jehovah's Witnesses dealt with cases of child sexual abuse but stated there is no indication that the rate of sexual abuse among Jehovah's Witnesses is higher than found in general society. The organization's stated position is that it abhors child sexual abuse.
South Yorkshire Police (SYP) is the territorial police force responsible for policing South Yorkshire in England. The force is led by Chief Constable Lauren Poultney. Oversight is conducted by Mayor Oliver Coppard.
Wiltshire Police, formerly known as Wiltshire Constabulary, is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Wiltshire in South West England.
The Victims of Crime Trust was an English charity which aimed at providing care assistance to victims of serious crime, as well as raising awareness of the issues that are faced by victims of crime in the aftermath of the crime.
Sir Norman George Bettison, QPM is a British former police officer and the former Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police. He resigned in October 2012 amidst controversy about his role in the Hillsborough disaster, in which he was involved in the implementation of a cover-up of police errors. He remained the subject of an Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigation, and was charged on the 28 June 2017 with four counts of misconduct in public office. The case was dropped on 21 August 2018. Bettison's own book Hillsborough Untold (2016) contains his version of events.
Sara Jane Payne, MBE is a British media campaigner known for her campaign for parents' right for a controlled access to the sex offender registry, spurred by the murder of her daughter Sarah in 2000.
Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI) is a UK-based international non-profit organization founded in 2002. It is a registered charity under English law. ASTI works to promote and protect the survivors of acid and burn violence, with the aim of ending acid violence globally. In addition to public education and awareness campaigns, ASTI has worked with and sustains organizations in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Uganda.
An acid attack, also called acid throwing, vitriol attack, or vitriolage, is a form of violent assault involving the act of throwing acid or a similarly corrosive substance onto the body of another "with the intention to disfigure, maim, torture, or kill". Perpetrators of these attacks throw corrosive liquids at their victims, usually at their faces, burning them, and damaging skin tissue, often exposing and sometimes dissolving the bones. Acid attacks can lead to permanent partial or complete blindness.
Martyn Underhill is a British independent politician and former police officer who served as the Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner from 2012 to 2021.
In late 2012 it emerged that Jimmy Savile, a British media personality who had died the previous year, had sexually abused hundreds of people throughout his life, mostly children but some as old as 75, and mostly female. He had been well known in the United Kingdom for his eccentric image and was generally respected for his charitable work, which associated him with the British monarchy and other individuals of personal power.
The Derby child sex abuse ring was a group of men who sexually abused up to a hundred girls in Derby, England. In 2010, after an undercover investigation by Derbyshire police, members of the ring were charged with 75 offences relating to 26 girls. Nine of the 13 accused were convicted of grooming and raping girls between 12 and 18 years old. The attacks provoked fierce discussion about race and sexual exploitation.
Aneeta Prem is a British author, human rights campaigner, magistrate and the founder and president of Freedom.
Richard William Huckle was an English serial child sex offender. He was arrested by Britain's National Crime Agency in 2014 after a tip-off from the Australian Federal Police and convicted in 2016 of 71 charges of sexual offences against children, committed while he served as a Christian missionary and a freelance photographer in Malaysia.
Beechwood children's home was a care home for children in Mapperley in Nottinghamshire, England, where staff committed serious sexual and "sadistic" abuse against children spanning several decades before it closed in 2006. Some abusive staff received lengthy prison sentences.
To Catch a Copper is a 2024 British documentary series about investigations into officer misconduct within the Avon and Somerset Police. The series has three episodes, which are themed around mental health, race, and sex crimes. Concerns include use of force and racial profiling. In one case, a constable is fired after publishing revenge porn; in another, an officer is acquitted after having sex on duty with an intoxicated woman.