Dionne Kennedy

21

Student, University of the West of Scotland

Glasgow

We had been taking a shortcut through the park on a summer night, we all had hoodies on, it had been spitting with rain.

We were all about 15-16, it was in Paisley, at Barshaw Park. There was about five of us, me, another girl and some boys, who all had backpacks, I wouldn't have said we looked dodgy or like we were causing trouble. It was the summer holidays and we were just having some fun, walking each other home.

The police stopped us when we were leaving the park, accused us of drinking and said there had been trouble in the park earlier that night and they thought we were involved in it.

We told them we had no idea what had happened and were all using the park as a shortcut but they didn't believe us and said they had the right to search us and our belongings.

It was a male and a female [officer], the female took my friend and I aside, checked our bags and asked us to take everything out our pockets, we were patted down, the way you are in an airport. The male officer checked the guys in the group. They found nothing on us, we hadn't been up to anything, but they still took down our details.

We were all really angry and a bit shaken up. We had no involvement in whatever had happened earlier that night and it was our first altercation with the police really. We were all fairly well behaved and worked hard in school so it was annoying to be sort of victimised just because we were a group of young people. I think it's really easy to pick on youths, just because they're often too scared to defend themselves.

Edward Ferrigno

20

Student, Glasgow Caledonian University

Lenzie

I was about 16, I was with two of my friends, we were down at the Clydeside, they were skateboarding and I was filming them for a video. It was during the day, maybe around noon. ITwo police officers came up to us. They asked what we were doing there and things like that, they asked to search our bags, and being teenagers we immediately asked why and they said they have quite a big underage drinking problem down at the Clydeside, and they wanted to check us for alcohol...It did seem a bit strange though because there wasn't anyone around and no one was acting strange ... I just think it was a case of us being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Robert Blair

21

Student, University of the West of Scotland

Paisley

I was walking home from a party one night with a few of my friends and one of my friends was finishing a beer as we were walking down the street. At this stage an unmarked vehicle comes out of nowhere and pulls up right in front of us, obviously we're kind of scared - we were wondering who this person is who's drove up right in front of us. The police then came out of the car wearing uniform and basically they poured out his drink and said to all of us that one by one they were going to have to search us. Obviously they found nothing, it was quite invasive to be honest since we weren't really doing anything.

I'd never experienced anything like that before so I was totally baffled by what happened, I think it was a first time for all of us - certainly an odd experience.

We weren't really acting suspicious, apart from my friend who was finishing his drink the rest of us were just walking along, so I'm not entirely sure how it merited a search of everyone, a bunch of boys walking about might seen suspicious but I do think it's a bit of an unfair assumption to make based on someone's appearance. I don't think it's an uncommon experience in Paisley but it was a first for me.