SO happy to have been a part of this project!
“In England and Wales, the ‘sus law’ became the informal name for section 4 of the Vagrancy Act 1824 which permitted a police officer to stop and potentially convict individuals as ‘suspected persons.’ Section 4 was repealed in 1981 following uprisings in Brixton.”
Why was a Victorian vagrancy act, intended to prevent ‘begging, showing wounds’ and ‘telling fortunes’, used to criminalise minority groups in the 1970s and 1980s? Who brought a stop to it? Who is under suspicion today?
Fighting SUS is a youth-led oral history project which has investigated the near 200 year history of this law and its legacy in Britain today through oral histories with individuals affected by the sus law as well as evidence in archives such as the Bishopsgate Institute, National Archive and George Padmore Institute.”
For full list of stories, please see Short Stories section.
