UNFAIRLY TREATED AT THE HANDS OF THE MET POLICE: TECHNIQUES NEED TO BE REVIEWED AND CORRECTED. TRUE OR FALSE?

Nowadays, imagine we live in a world where it’s prominent that unfair justice has been allowed by police officers to kneel on civilian’s heads and necks and think it’s OK because in their eyes they are doing a good deed and taking the crime off the streets, WRONG! And let me tell you why?

One evening last week, I was sitting with my mum in the living room listening to the highlights of the 6pm ITV news and we both came across the incident regarding a UK white police officer felt it was right to apply pressure on the head and neck of a black man who was suspected in possession of an offensive weapon, but the officer was not alone, there was another officer who also helped in restraint of the suspect as he kneeled to the ground shouting the words “Get off my neck”. Luckily, the man had minor injuries to his wrists and neck, as you can imagine, this incident rapidly circulated the whole of social media platform as people voicing their concerns of racial justice.

Now, let’s take a step back and think about this incident logically, none of these police officers took the initiative, no matter what race or gender, to think about the pressure of kneeling on a person’s head and neck could cause fatal injury such as suffocation, plus not to mention it was only a couple of weeks ago the entire world was horrified and disgusted to hear about the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, USA who unfortunately died from the same sort of treatment at the hands of police officers who are supposed to “serve and protect”. This feels like another game of police brutality. Tell me why is this happening again? What is the world coming too, this is not a game! You would have thought the police would have learnt their lesson but not cause more trouble with the black community.

Sources from the MET Police admitted: “this is not what has been taught in training”. From this statement, I want to believe what has been said, but I’m currently having a tough time trusting the MET police as they are imitating the same sort of action which took place in Minneapolis, USA several weeks ago. Yes, we’ve heard the two officers will be scrutinized for their actions and the justice being taken is one officer has been suspended however the other officer has been removed from police duties but no suspension has been taken at this time. Is this right TRUE/FALSE?

In my opinion, more forceful justice needs to be actioned in the future such as officers who are guilty of inflicting police brutality need to be stripped from the police force as effective and immediate. MET Police like this should not be entitled to wear a badge as they are going against everything that was originally taught, the words which the police today need to remember is “SERVE AND PROTECT”. This has been forgotten. Regardless if they caught a suspect, they still should protect him/her and restrain them the correct way instead of causing harm.

Going forward, I cannot stress enough the outrage of the incident, other past incidents which police brutality have been responsible, there are still challenges as a nation we need to work on and face up to and if these incidents keep on happening, it will continue to affect the trust we have in our MET police officers. It makes me think they are NOT trustworthy when it comes to the black community.

In truth, it is important and imperative that the MET police need to review their techniques and tactics concerning to restrain a person no matter what colour or race or we are just repeating history instead of correcting it.

Feeling Happy at 37 and Full of Energy

In truth, to some people like myself, birthdays are the most special day of your life and we should all celebrate to our heart’s content. Of course, there are always a few people that feel birthdays are a bit “meh”, but it is the one day of the year where we should enjoy, eat, drink and give thanks for living. My special day was two days ago, “happy birthday to me, lol” and I celebrated my 37 years of living on this complicated planet we call Earth.

37 years of eating, crying, drinking, moaning, studying, getting dressed and undressed, I can go on. Despite the trauma, tragedy, violence and frustration, we have all been through, one thing I can give thanks to is the support of my family around me.

In the last 37 years of my life, they have experienced my growth of a young girl running around half-naked in my red boots around the house to a fun-loving woman who wants the opportunity to do everything and anything in this world, literally fly and keep on flying like an eagle, well this is what my gran tells me but I still keep the mentality close to my heart that family comes first.

With that note, on my birthday night, everyone went to bed early, my sister went home early, I sat on my couch and I took a deep breath slowly inhaling and exhaling and my initial thought was its been such an emotional and fun rollercoaster. An experience that if I had the opportunity to turn back time, I would be more than happy to replay all those memories again and not change a thing. All those experiences made me the person; I am today.

I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday, yes I miss going out to restaurants where I don’t need to leave my details but more importantly going on holiday is something my sister and I do every year for our birthday and unfortunately, this year that was not the case but at least we were together celebrating our special days.

Another year older, feeling happy and full of energy, the action I would like to take going forward is putting in the time, energy and improving on my self-doubts and not let it take over my subconscious, call it a little present to myself. This is working progress in this crazy world of chaos, but still, I intend to stay happy, healthy and full of beans.

Time for a Change

"Lives Matter"

 

A close friend of mine reached out a few days ago to check if I was ok considering the difficult time we have been faced with in the last couple of days, weeks, and months. Words could not describe how I felt last week when I heard about George Floyd’s death, even until now it has been extremely difficult to comprehend the brutal killing which has touched millions of lives across the globe. And for that, I gathered all my energy inside to message my friend back and replied:

“Thank you for your message, I’m good thanks. Sad times we live in, compared to how life was the last time we spoke. It feels like it is a never-ending, one thing after another. It was COVID 19 and we are still in the COVID 19 situation of following the rules and regulations of Lockdown, but now we have Black Lives Matter”.

In truth, I did shed a tear for George Floyd’s death, I was angry, enraged and there have been millions of people that felt the same way because even though most of us didn’t know him personally, it was the sadness and heartbreak for his family but also our black community. At the end of the day, we are related by race and I/we as in the black community feel that our race yet again has been attacked by horrifying social acts of Racism, Injustice and Prejudice and this has to END.

Should it be this difficult for the Black Race to exist on this planet? It shouldn’t be this painful to live in a society where you are constantly looking over your shoulders and being vigilant that you don’t get stopped and searched by the police for no apparent reason or get stopped in the street for what you are wearing or tone of voice that has been made under the assumption of aggression.

We have always been stereotyped as a race that needs to work that extra harder than the white race and I am sick and tired of having to prove myself. All we want is to be able to co-exist freely, heal our community and earn our place in society without any trouble and violence but that’s not the case as we always end up a victim you hear about on the BBC 6.0 clock news or CNN channel.

George Floyd was 46 years old and was murdered in cold blood in Minneapolis, US on the 25th May 2020 at the hands of a police officer Derek Chauvin who kneeled on his neck for approximately 9 minutes, three additional officers were at the scene and didn’t do a damn thing. They did not think twice of the force, compression on George Floyd’s neck and back. In his last few moments, Floyd uttered the words “I CAN’T BREATHE” which has been loudly chanted throughout the social media channels, amongst protestors in the streets across the world, slogans and pictures on t-shirts, murals on street walls, pavements, posters and banners. It is a message portraying to The Human Race that RACISM is real, it is amongst us and it must END. We understand change is not going to happen overnight, but we need to speak up, oppose RACISM and not be silenced.

In his final moments, he also called out for his mother and, his mother died two years ago. Ask yourself, what does that tell you? The words, sadness, grief, heartache, anger and RAGE will be remembered forever when we think about this horrific tragedy. With that in mind, it shows you how much force was inflicted on this man’s neck and in result has become detrimental, a prime example of a brutal murder which could have been prevented like so many others.

In the climate we live in, this is not how life should be, there should be peace amongst the races, not rage, anger and discrimination. We should bring forth real change and stick by those changes.

Nelson Mandela once said, “It is your hands to create a better world for all who live in it”.

And he is right. This is the time to make our voices heard.

• We need to encourage peace and solidarity.
• We need to challenge rightful justice.
• We need to put a stop to police brutality whether it is in the UK, US or worldwide.
• We need to raise awareness.
• We need to ensure we educate ourselves, so we are all fighting for the same cause and understand why it has come to this.

As a black woman, born and bred in London, I want to do all in my power to support my black brothers and sisters, encourage others regardless of what race and colour to stand with the black community and bring forth peace, raising awareness, signing petitions and donating, voicing your an opinion that SYSTEMATIC RACISM needs to be corrected.

We have lost so many lives with regards to RACISM. Members of the black community have lost their people such as:

• Breonna Taylor
• Ahmaud Arbery
• Mark Duggan
• Stephen Lawrence
• Belly Mujinga

And that is only to name a few. The list goes on and it will continue to grow until there is justice for our black victims. Thousands of people joined forces during this week to support the Black Lives Matter Movement, shouting out and chanting in the streets in aid of achieving solidarity even celebrities such as Star Wars actor John Boyega and many others joined protestors on Wednesday this week, showing passion for the cause, expressing and crying out:

“How painful this is to be reminded every day that your race means nothing”, John Boyega said.

It makes me angry because this has been going on for decades, centuries going back to slavery times. “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”. I am not one to remain silent, I speak my mind and so should you.

We do not want history to continue repeating itself, we want to encourage change and avoid creating a culture war. By achieving this, we need everyone’s support and with that comes strength, compassion, acknowledgement of past efforts, inspirational activists, leaders, knowledge of authors from the past and present, black & POC business owners, even celebrities, achieving greatness and being a role model for all generations and future generations to come.

JOIN US!

Can you imagine the queues to your local salons? Once the lockdown has been lifted

What a thought? For several weeks now, I have had this feeling inside of what it will be like when the salons open once again. I can imagine salons across the country will be swamped by the amount of customer’s footfall. All waiting to stand in line and give us the ultimate treat we have been waiting for.

Tracing our steps back before lockdown began. Let us face it, we did not see this virus coming and who would have thought we would have a 2 ½ month break from getting our hair, nails and feet done. I cannot tell you the number of times I have looked down at my nails or look closely at my eyebrows and think these need desperate attention. Can our salons be open soon yet? “Sad face”.

Some of us are relying on nature to take its course, hoping and praying for our salons to open very soon and then there is the remaining majority that can’t handle the rough or extra hair growing look which leaves them to take matters into our own hands and prefer sprucing themselves up by arranging home visits from their regular barbers or hairstylists, plus taking the necessary precautions of keeping clean, wearing face masks and having anti-bacterial wipes handy.

To not let yourself completely think you are out of options, let us not forget almost every retailer has an online presence these days so it’s nice to know you can do it yourself and rely on retailers like Boots or Amazon to save the day if you need any anything for your hair, skin or feet.

If you think about it, we can always count on our relatives to cut each other’s hair such as mum and dad. It is quite cute, nearly every week watching mum ready with the razor to start shaving off the short grain of hair dad has on his head. Despite that, he fits into the over 70’s bracket and must stay home for 3 months, he still attempts to stay home and look his best at the same time. I suppose you can call it extra bonding time with your partners.

But what do you think is going to happen once the lockdown is lifted and we are all scrambling in the queue or for the next available appointment with our beauty technicians and hair stylists? I can just imagine the queues are going to be horrendous, diabolical, the word awful comes to mind. The shops will be overwhelmed even our barbers ready to be on point once the first customer comes in through the door for shape up, shave and cut. Already to step out into the world.

Speaking from personal experience, my local nail shop is quite popular to the point where customers do not even live in London travel from a distance and plan to be first in the queue before 10 am. Without a doubt, I am certain that once our the nation goes back to a normality existence, women will be camping in their cars early morning, standing outside the shop so they are first in the queue or congregating the area just to catch a glimpse of when the shop owners will be opening their doors again.

For someone like myself who is very particular, when it comes to my eyebrows looking good, I only have one lady that threads them perfectly and she is amazing. Therefore, my mission is to be in front of the queue as I know she will have a flood of people wanting to book appointments for waxes, threading, even facials which I cannot wait to experience again.

In Post COVID times – Will I be ready to get back to work?

Spending most of the days occupied with nothing but online exercises, taking daily walks, grocery shopping, tidying, reading and of course writing sounds like a busy day. If you think about it, deep down mentally I am still adjusting to the reality of lockdown. 

I can honestly say being at home has been a blessing and there was a moment I didn’t have work on my mind, but as I take a minute, the reality is this is my new current lifestyle from Monday to Friday and I’m sure you're noticing your weekdays are rolling into your weekends because you’re at home repeating the same regime achieved during the week, last week and the week before that and the cycle continues.

It is second nature to most of us at this point but that’s lockdown rules – STAY HOME and SAVE LIVES. As I flick across the channels on TV, these are the words that have been physically repeated to us day in and day out, channel to channel, it is a never-ending story.

However, soon or later, this regime we have all been forced to experience for the last 2 ½ months will soon come to an end and our daily jobs will start up again, some have already started back to work such as the notion of WFH (work from home), but some non-essential companies like your retailers will be making a comeback in June or even later during the summer period.

The question is, “Am I ready to go back to work and face the melody?”. I honestly do not think I am ready, and it is best, to be honest about this now rather than hide my thoughts.

If you think about it, I’m sure all of us are feeling the same way, we are comparing or should I say reminiscing about the times before the pandemic consumed our lives like an annoying cold you can’t get rid of. When I say “melody”, focus on the sound of the noisy trains moving rapidly in front of you as you stand at the platform and of course “mind the gap”, being underneath somebodies armpit on the train as I head back and forth to work (just for the record, I am short), commuting to our daily jobs and working 9-5 hours non-stop.

To put it bluntly, I am looking forward to seeing the colleagues again and having back the excitement and interaction with people in the office, but the commute to get to the office will be the ultimate struggle test especially getting back to the daily hassle of passing two of London’s busiest stations again (Baker Street and Farringdon) which are constantly jammed packed with loads of people getting on and off the trains and interchanging amongst various train/tube lines. This is what I need to get my head around - hence why adjusting to the attitude of WFH is such an easy ride for most of us.

It’s the flexibility of coming out of bed when you know jumping back into bed with such joy and your computer, but the mare fact of going back to a normal lifestyle where I’m standing at the bus stop, looking at the bus app with eagerness, trying to work out when the bus is coming scares me to my very core. 

If I had to choose, I would love another couple of months just to be on the safe side, at home with the family, enjoying long walks when I can and gathering as much sunshine and vitamin D but more importantly getting my head in the game and coming to terms with the thought of going back to work properly. Time will tell at this point but taking each journey as it comes.

Procrastination in Lockdown

As the days roll on and the months sail by, we tend to reflect on ideas of what we can do to occupy our minds, things that need our attention while we are at home. There may be online fitness workout videos to get you on the gym hype, painting and decorating to do around the house, making new recipes for dinner to baking scrumptious cupcakes, but there are always things to do that you have been putting off since God knows and this is the time to do it instead of procrastinating.

When I woke up this morning, I found myself sitting on the floor, in a daze and looking around my bedroom, contemplating what needs doing which I have been putting off for so long. It can almost be a long list of things to do such as:

• Old files, pictures, music that needs to be wiped from my old computer and added to an external hard drive. Furthermore, once I remove the computer, it will make a wonderful spot for my laptop and reduce on-wanted clutter if necessary.

• Getting vacuum storage bags for my winter clothes as the season is changing. I have too many jumpers, scarves and cardigans, so I have no use for them at the moment. This section of my wardrobe needs a tidy up which will make it a nicer and neater spot.

• The main table in my room needs a supportive office chair. This is where IKEA, Wayfair or Amazon springs to mind and scoping out the best pieces available and good value for money.

• Even the jeans section of my wardrobe needs a good pick-me-up as well.

• Looking for distant curtains for my room. Currently, I have net curtains that do its job, but you need something to block out the morning sunlight especially when you have had a late one the night before.

Indeed, there are tasks to crack on with but there will always be more to do. I think the biggest struggle is when to take the time to do it. It’s about motivating one’s self to do the task that needs doing at hand and it can be quite a struggle for anyone because instead, you prefer to lie in bed, listen to music or have a Netflix marathon at your leisure and say this can be put off until next day and then the procrastinating circle starts and goes round and round.

For those of us who would like to get around the lockdown procrastination, I call it, is not to give yourself added pressure. You have five days during the week, you do not need to accomplish all tasks in one day. Spread the tasks out evenly, for example, for me:

• Monday – jeans tidy day·
• Tuesday – scope around online for vacuum storage bags and supportive office chair.
• Wednesday – look for curtains online.
• Thursday – reduce clutter from my main table and draws.
• Friday – it is time to get out the external hard drive and back up old files and music from the old computer.

You could say the first step is laying out a basic plan for myself, now the next stage is to motivate, take control, stick by the plan and hopefully, results will be achieved. Once you get into the rhythm of things, procrastination in lockdown will not even enter your mind, it will be something you “shake off", Taylor Swift says and continue the next task that needs your attention.

Isolation Lifestyle: What is normal to me?

It has roughly been at least 5 weeks and has almost forgotten what it feels like to live a normal life. My friend said to me the other day, what is normal? You could say it's about conforming or fulfilling an essential nature. 

I didn't know what to say to my friend except, what is natural or normal for me is waking up in the morning, getting dressed in my usual attire, commuting to work, socialising with friends after work for a drink, getting together with the family/friends and having a barbecue, visiting a gallery or a museum, doing your weekly food shopping without having to line up in a queue 2 metres apart from each other and going on amazing holiday trips with your mates. 

In a nutshell, doing what you feel makes you happy. I don't think I can explain any further what normal life is.

Despite the current isolation period we are all experiencing, I have no doubt we will all pull through this depressing time, but there is an advantage to this lock-down as we are going to know ourselves even more. 

We understanding the importance to wash hands thoroughly for 20 secs, lol. I have to laugh at this because I know already how to watch my hands so does the entire population of the planet, but more importantly how to appreciate what we have in our lives such as family, our friends on zoom every other day talking to their friends and so on and so on. 

Let us not forget the friends you gain on social media such as Instagram and Facebook. I would hate to think where we would be without social media, but I reckon we will survive. 

Giving myself an applause for sticking by the lock-down as we speak, it's allowing us to tap into our creative juices and indulge in activities which we would never make the time for such as painting, when was the last time I picked up a paintbrush and paint tray, taking daily walks with mum which has been a blessing every morning or even getting the knitting needles out and the idiot guide on the nightstand to take me through the basics of knitting as I cannot knit for the life of me.

I cannot stress enough how much this is the perfect time to stop, re-evaluate and focus on things so I'm keen to explore and have fun in this difficult time. One thing I have learnt amid these 5 weeks is to appreciate what is around me and to be thankful for friends, family and myself that we have good health. As they say, everything happens for a reason.