In the 1970s the ‘sus law’ (section 4 of the Vagrancy Act 1824) allowed police officers to stop and potentially convict individuals as ‘suspected persons.’ 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 poetry and oral history collection, produced by young people in East London galvanised by their own experiences of exclusion from public spaces and awareness of racism to preserve and explore the events, effects and significance of the SUS laws. Risograph printed, stylishly designed and packed with archive material and original illustrations.
Limited edition, order your copy £7 inc p&p, free to community groups, young people, schools, libraries etc.
Book by Fighting Sus
Fighting Sus
"So you knew as a young person if you were going out in the evenings you had to be aware of where you were, you had to be aware of who you were with and you had to be aware of what you were doing, yeah? And you had to learn to look at where is the best place to run when things went down. Yeah?" - Hugh Boatswaine