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| Unless you happen to Black or Muslim. |
May I apologise in advance dear reader this is rather long article. It seeks to deal with issues that a rarely covered elsewhere in any depth and so by its very nature has become a complex read. I hope nevertheless you will take the time to read it as I have laboured long in writing this for you. Get a cup of tea, relax and put your feet up.
You will no doubt not completely agree with all I have written here, but in prompting debate its important that there is compelling argument.
I didn’t submit a consultation response to the
Governments snap 8 week summer consultation on the police power of stop and
search. After 30 years of an almost relentless rise in rates of stop and search under Tory, Labour and now a Tory led Coalition Government and countless consultations I really didn't see much point.
There are number of other reasons why I chose not to formally
submit a view, but primary among them was that I, along with many of Britain’s
black communities, have zero confidence in the Government’s commitment to
tackle racism either more broadly or within the criminal justice system in
particular.  |
| Is she serious about reform? |
This Tory led Coalition government has engaged in an
ideologically driven purge that seen the gradual elimination and eradication of
all traces of anti-racism or multiculturalism in Government policy. As far as
race is concerned the Prime Minister has adopted the French model I dealing with racism and
determined no special provision, no focus on difference, no special interest
group’s agenda’s and has given the issue zero political priority.
This has seen the dismissal of all national Black and ethnic minority consultation forums, the proscription of single ethnic funding for disadvantaged groups and promoted the most disgraceful demonization of immigrant communities. In addition, they have enfeebled the Equalities Human Rights Commission removing Black and Asian Commissioner’s, slashed budgets and sacked workers. They have made a bonfire of legal aid cuts and left black people with no ability to easily or affordably access or enforce our rights to be protected from racism and unlawful discrimination.
Statutory consultations are viewed by most living in poorer
communities as nothing more than PR exercises that usually take place after the
real decisions have already been made, informally or otherwise. Government,
Council or statutory consultations are seen as tick box exercises.
Driven by either a legal requirement or political expediency, the outcome for communities is invariably the same. They feel frustration, anger leaving them feeling disempowered, patronised, ignored used and abused.
Consultation now leaves a nasty taste in the mouth and has become a dirty word that is spat out with venom. For me, having witnessed both the good and the bad, the issue of poorly timed, badly executed, patronising, crap consultation is right up there with MP’s expenses, Clegg and tuition fees and Blair illegal invasion of Iraq.
Such consultation is disempowering and acts as a drain on community confidence in statutory process and ultimately, confidence in democracy itself.
As a direct consequence of the misuse of Stop and Search powers Britain's black communities are being
criminalised at a persistent and alarming rate. The consequences for democracy
and our communities, are simply devastating. What we are witnessing is the
return to the pre Macpherson levels of mass criminalisation of black
communities by a predominantly white male police force (and I use that word
deliberately for this is how they are now perceived).
From the year the Mayor got elected in 2008 to 2011 he increased stop and search by the Met by a massive 200,000. The erosion of police accountability in London and the abolition of the Metropolitan Police Authority led to the complete dismantling, in line with Government policy, of all policy infrastructure that tackled institutional racism within the Met.
The clear signal sent to the Met by the Mayor was that race was off the agenda and the issue of race equality at the Met was placed on the policy back burner. In the most diverse city in the world that was a catastrophic political error that led indirectly to the riots of August 2011 and has led to a well of deep anger and frustration that has built up and will inevitably burst forth onto London streets. .
The Mayor to be fair had already declared that the Met
was a post institutional racist
organisation in his infamous Race
& Faith report. However, like all resurgent infectious
viruses that have failed to respond to an initial course of treatment, the culture
of racism within the Met has become resurgent, more powerful than ever.
Such is its power and influence as the dominant organisational culture within the Met, that it literally eats police guidelines, policy and equality legislation for breakfast. It corrupts all before it and lays waste to the empty political rhetoric of equality.
This immense power is so culturally engrained, so deeply rooted in the Met’s DNA as to represent the most acute threat to democracy, levels of peace safety and security of the capital.
As I have stated previously but it bears repetition, I believe the disturbances of August 2011 will be occur again at some point probably before the general election in 2015 if not shortly after, but come they will, with a level of ferocity and venom that will shock and surprise many.
Lord Denning, in his judgement in the case of R v. Metropolitan Police Commissioner ex parte Blackburn 1968 gave legal definition to the Office of Constable.;
Lord Denning went on to say,
“He must decide whether or not suspected persons are
to be prosecuted; and, if need be, bring the prosecution or see that it is
brought; but in all these things he is not the servant of anyone, save of the
law itself.
What these means in effect, is that when it comes to the interpretation of the law of the land, the PC is sovereign.
This despite persistent media reports at the time and subsequently
that the police were reluctant to use the power as a result of the Stephen
Lawrence report. The Met use of the power is abusive and unnecessary, they rely
on this power more than any other force in the UK. Within the lower ranks it’s seen as defining
who runs the streets and in adopting that attitude the Met have become the
biggest gang in London.
This has seen the dismissal of all national Black and ethnic minority consultation forums, the proscription of single ethnic funding for disadvantaged groups and promoted the most disgraceful demonization of immigrant communities. In addition, they have enfeebled the Equalities Human Rights Commission removing Black and Asian Commissioner’s, slashed budgets and sacked workers. They have made a bonfire of legal aid cuts and left black people with no ability to easily or affordably access or enforce our rights to be protected from racism and unlawful discrimination.
The history of formal consultation with black and poor urban
communities is a sorry one of raised hopes, dashed aspirations and failed
delivery. If our democracy is eroding and it is, (one look at voter turnout
rates tell us that) then the process of municipal or statutory ‘consultative
abuse ‘as I call it, has played a large part in alienating communities from
local authority forums and wider democratic engagement.
After decades of unethical and poorly organised consultation the experience left most poor communities feeling both used and abused.
After decades of unethical and poorly organised consultation the experience left most poor communities feeling both used and abused.
Driven by either a legal requirement or political expediency, the outcome for communities is invariably the same. They feel frustration, anger leaving them feeling disempowered, patronised, ignored used and abused.
Consultation now leaves a nasty taste in the mouth and has become a dirty word that is spat out with venom. For me, having witnessed both the good and the bad, the issue of poorly timed, badly executed, patronising, crap consultation is right up there with MP’s expenses, Clegg and tuition fees and Blair illegal invasion of Iraq.
Such consultation is disempowering and acts as a drain on community confidence in statutory process and ultimately, confidence in democracy itself.
Stop
and Search Consultation.
I consider this particular effort by the Home Office a joke,
an attempt to appear to be listening while kicking the proverbial political
football into the long grass. Bear with me dear reader and I will tell you why.
Before I do though, it is important to understand the
nature of racism in policing. As one of Britain’s most experienced campaigners
on this issue I offer you the following insight into the problem we now face.
As a direct consequence of the misuse of Stop and Search powers Britain's black communities are being
criminalised at a persistent and alarming rate. The consequences for democracy
and our communities, are simply devastating. What we are witnessing is the
return to the pre Macpherson levels of mass criminalisation of black
communities by a predominantly white male police force (and I use that word
deliberately for this is how they are now perceived).
In the last year, in addition to the myriad of issues
arising in the aftermath of August
riots of 2011 we have seen a plethora of stories on stop
and search. In January we saw Stuart
Lawrence brother of Stephen, complained of being consistently
targeted by Met officers for no other reason than the colour of his skin. In
March a Met
police officer was recorded telling a black youth 'You’re problem is you’ll always be a
n****r'.
In July the Met admitted what black
communities had known all along, that it fails to investigate race complaints.
An Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation uncovered the case of
six
Met officers sending each other deeply offensive racist
texts.
In May the IPCC revealed that it received over 50 race complaints since the 1st April and these are recorded complaint that are dwarfed by the mountain of unreported incidents that the community simply has no confidence in making.
The view of the influential Met
Black Police Association officers is clear and uncompromising
that the Met continues to be an institutional
racist organisation and cannot be trusted by the public to
investigate claims of racism. Then we had the simply devastating news that in
the aftermath of Stephen Lawrence’s brutal racist murder, the Met had deployed undercover
cops
to spy upon and undermine the Lawrence family and their campaign supporters.
In July the Met admitted what black
communities had known all along, that it fails to investigate race complaints.
An Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation uncovered the case of
six
Met officers sending each other deeply offensive racist
texts. In May the IPCC revealed that it received over 50 race complaints since the 1st April and these are recorded complaint that are dwarfed by the mountain of unreported incidents that the community simply has no confidence in making.
Increasingly viewed as an army of occupation by many
communities, rather than upholders of the law, the Met have violently regressed
on the issue of race, suffering a rampant relapse of institutional racism.
Racism as a social phenomena has endured for 500 years adapting, shape shifting, moving its focus from the crude unreconstructed racism of the 1950’s to the smooth, barely detectable on the surface, sophisticated type of racism we see today. The impact of racism has morphed form the crude Teddy boy racist attacks and colour bars of the 1950's to school exclusions , job rejection, criminalisation and incarceration. Social mobility in all communities has declined and wealth inequality has increased for all communities, but particularly, no let me rephrase that, acutely so for the black community. Those colour bars remain even if the mode of oppression has changed
Whatever the changing face of racism, what is clear that rates of racial inequality in Britain in the areas of education, housing health. wealth and criminal justice are rising and rising fast.
Racism remains one of Britain’s most contagious and virulent social viruses. Racism remains reactionary, evolutionary and resistant to change and in the current economic austerity climate, promoted by Tory politicians seeking to induce a climate of fear, it breeds a powerful sub culture.
Racism as a social phenomena has endured for 500 years adapting, shape shifting, moving its focus from the crude unreconstructed racism of the 1950’s to the smooth, barely detectable on the surface, sophisticated type of racism we see today. The impact of racism has morphed form the crude Teddy boy racist attacks and colour bars of the 1950's to school exclusions , job rejection, criminalisation and incarceration. Social mobility in all communities has declined and wealth inequality has increased for all communities, but particularly, no let me rephrase that, acutely so for the black community. Those colour bars remain even if the mode of oppression has changed
Whatever the changing face of racism, what is clear that rates of racial inequality in Britain in the areas of education, housing health. wealth and criminal justice are rising and rising fast.
Racism remains one of Britain’s most contagious and virulent social viruses. Racism remains reactionary, evolutionary and resistant to change and in the current economic austerity climate, promoted by Tory politicians seeking to induce a climate of fear, it breeds a powerful sub culture.
In the institution of policing where racism is given the
green light by affable politicians like Boris Johnson it becomes cancerous threat to communities that condemns thousands of black youths mass involvement with a racist criminal justice system.
Boris Johnson much like Mayor Bloomberg in New York, comes across as moderate, charming and affable. Black people In New York thought Bloomberg a moderate Republican and decent guy and yet he too resides over a force, the NYPD, whose deadly racism hides in plain sight. Most recently the NYPD Stop and Frisk policy have been deemed illegal after a federal judge deemed the policy violated constitutional rights of minorities in the City. Johnsons Met is no different in terms of stop and search from the NYPD.
Boris Johnson much like Mayor Bloomberg in New York, comes across as moderate, charming and affable. Black people In New York thought Bloomberg a moderate Republican and decent guy and yet he too resides over a force, the NYPD, whose deadly racism hides in plain sight. Most recently the NYPD Stop and Frisk policy have been deemed illegal after a federal judge deemed the policy violated constitutional rights of minorities in the City. Johnsons Met is no different in terms of stop and search from the NYPD.
Most Londoners will not be aware of the deep crisis
in confidence experienced by black communities when it
comes to the Met, but I can tell you things are really very bad indeed. A
recent poll found that 38% of Black Londoners polled believe the Met remains
institutionally racist and that’s an undercount.
One a lighter note though, the calamitous state of
relations between the Metropolitan Police
Service and London’s black communities has resulted with Met being renamed by
inner London Black communities as the Metropolitan Discrimination Force (MDF). Joking aside, the breakdown in London’s police and black
community relations, the sheer anger and outrage that many in our community,
particularly young people feel towards the police remains unacknowledged by the
mainstream press, media and political commentators.
Mayor Boris and his Policing and Crime Commissioner Mr
Stephen Greenhalgh, have not only turned a blind eye to racial profiling within the Met
but have demanded more of the same. From the year the Mayor got elected in 2008 to 2011 he increased stop and search by the Met by a massive 200,000. The erosion of police accountability in London and the abolition of the Metropolitan Police Authority led to the complete dismantling, in line with Government policy, of all policy infrastructure that tackled institutional racism within the Met.
The clear signal sent to the Met by the Mayor was that race was off the agenda and the issue of race equality at the Met was placed on the policy back burner. In the most diverse city in the world that was a catastrophic political error that led indirectly to the riots of August 2011 and has led to a well of deep anger and frustration that has built up and will inevitably burst forth onto London streets. .
The Mayor to be fair had already declared that the Met
was a post institutional racist
organisation in his infamous Race
& Faith report. However, like all resurgent infectious
viruses that have failed to respond to an initial course of treatment, the culture
of racism within the Met has become resurgent, more powerful than ever. Such is its power and influence as the dominant organisational culture within the Met, that it literally eats police guidelines, policy and equality legislation for breakfast. It corrupts all before it and lays waste to the empty political rhetoric of equality.
This immense power is so culturally engrained, so deeply rooted in the Met’s DNA as to represent the most acute threat to democracy, levels of peace safety and security of the capital.
As I have stated previously but it bears repetition, I believe the disturbances of August 2011 will be occur again at some point probably before the general election in 2015 if not shortly after, but come they will, with a level of ferocity and venom that will shock and surprise many.
Constitutional
discretion in policing drives racism in practice.
The driver of this culture of police racism is in my view
directly related to the extraordinary level of officer discretion that in
Britain is one of the highest levels of officer discretion anywhere in the
western world.
“The police service in England and Wales is almost unique
in investing its lowest ranking officers with its greatest and most intrusive
powers”
So said, none other than Tom Windsor, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary and it is this Office of Constable that lies at the heart of untrammelled officer discretion, discrimination and disproportionality in modern policing.
So said, none other than Tom Windsor, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary and it is this Office of Constable that lies at the heart of untrammelled officer discretion, discrimination and disproportionality in modern policing.
Lord Denning, in his judgement in the case of R v. Metropolitan Police Commissioner ex parte Blackburn 1968 gave legal definition to the Office of Constable.;
“I hold it to be the duty of the Commissioner of
Police, as it is of every chief constable, to enforce the law of the land. He
must take steps so to post his men that crimes may be detected; and that honest
citizens may go about their affairs in peace.
So every PC knows that he or she has the sole
power to decide what is deemed ‘ suspicious’ and that determination is beyond
question by anyone, by authority given by the Crown.
Lord Denning went on to say,
“He must decide whether or not suspected persons are
to be prosecuted; and, if need be, bring the prosecution or see that it is
brought; but in all these things he is not the servant of anyone, save of the
law itself.
“No Minister of the Crown can tell him that he
must, or must not, keep observation on this place or that; or that he must, or
must not, prosecute this man or that one. Nor can any police authority tell him
so. The responsibility for law enforcement lies on him. He is answerable to the
law and to the law alone.”
What these means in effect, is that when it comes to the interpretation of the law of the land, the PC is sovereign.
To change the level of individual discretion that police
officers enjoy and abuse, would require the reform of the 12th century ancient
and now unfit for purpose, Office of Constable, in order to ensure that police officer were
personally and professionally accountable for their actions.
Want to lower the number of stops and
searches? Amend the police regulations to remove officer discretion for
reasonable suspicion and make the disproportionate targeting of black people by
individual police officers a sackable offence.
No superior officers nor Ministers of the
Crown can instruct officers to conduct less stop and searches and this absolute
power forms an explicit part of the PC driven canteen culture of racial profiling that
now threatens liberty and democracy. In the Met its the tail that wags the dog.
This mediaeval office is
the root cause of disproportionality in the Met, not lack of training or more
diversity courses, this archaic power gives rise to ancient prejudice and
chronic injustice.
Such absolute power and discretion
gives licence to racism and discrimination. The Office of Constable for me amounts
to a codification of racism into the very heart of the institution of
policing. This the definition of
institutional racism and it exists at the core, the very bedrock of British
policing
In recent years Black British citizens are being
subjected to the single most sustained and targeted campaign of police
harassment ever seen in Britain. A quick look at the figures for Stop
& Search shows the focus of police activity post the
publication of the McPherson report rising from 100,000 per year in 1998 to a
staggering 1.1 million in 2012.
This despite persistent media reports at the time and subsequently
that the police were reluctant to use the power as a result of the Stephen
Lawrence report. The Met use of the power is abusive and unnecessary, they rely
on this power more than any other force in the UK. Within the lower ranks it’s seen as defining
who runs the streets and in adopting that attitude the Met have become the
biggest gang in London.
I urge you to read the excellent Release
report on the Met’s use of Stop and Search and drug enforcement
policy.
It makes devastating reading. What the reports details is the inescapable fact that the policing and prosecutions of drug possession offences in England and Wales is unduly focused on black and minority communities.
This
report looks at racial disparity rates at stop and search, arrest, prosecution
and sentencing and clearly demonstrates that the drug laws in the UK are a
major driver of the disproportionality that exists in our criminal justice
system in relation to the black community.
Its findings provide the most conclusive and irrefutable, evidence that racism is driving the wholesale, mass criminalisation of black communities in Britain. I along with Release, will be announcing a tour of major black communities across the country to discuss this report and its implications.
If you’re interested in hosting such a meeting then do contact me.
Race: The political football.
This is a tactic developed into an art form by the Met.
Huge public uproar and scandal, followed by contrition, acknowledgement and
apology, followed by consultation and then some small concession. This tactic
seeks to absorb the community rage and anger by seemingly taking criticisms on
the chin and where there are no legal implications, admitting some level of
responsibility and inviting critics in to Scotland Yard to help them get things
right.
3. To organise mass rallies outside selected police stations.
It makes devastating reading. What the reports details is the inescapable fact that the policing and prosecutions of drug possession offences in England and Wales is unduly focused on black and minority communities.
This
report looks at racial disparity rates at stop and search, arrest, prosecution
and sentencing and clearly demonstrates that the drug laws in the UK are a
major driver of the disproportionality that exists in our criminal justice
system in relation to the black community. Its findings provide the most conclusive and irrefutable, evidence that racism is driving the wholesale, mass criminalisation of black communities in Britain. I along with Release, will be announcing a tour of major black communities across the country to discuss this report and its implications.
If you’re interested in hosting such a meeting then do contact me.
Race: The political football.
Tory Home Secretary Theresa May is not by nature a
committed anti racists. What then, are we to make of her sudden conversion to
driving down disproportionate rates of black people being searched by the boys
in blue?
In politics, timing is everything as is the mercurial
arts of distraction. The timing of the Home Secretary, in publically declaring
her commitment to non-racist policing followed the Channel 4 story of an
undercover policeman who admitted to spying on the Lawrence family and their
supporters. I’ll leave you to join the dots, but for me the whole Government
consultation on stop and search is an exercise in distraction, a form of
political Aikido if you will.
This is a tactic developed into an art form by the Met.
Huge public uproar and scandal, followed by contrition, acknowledgement and
apology, followed by consultation and then some small concession. This tactic
seeks to absorb the community rage and anger by seemingly taking criticisms on
the chin and where there are no legal implications, admitting some level of
responsibility and inviting critics in to Scotland Yard to help them get things
right.
There an escalating menu of options for defensive
political Aikido depending on the specific gravity of the issue. However the
general format is the same for all statutory agencies in crisis. Consultants
are hired, terms of reference are drawn up, scoping report is produced and a
year has passed. Critics are patronised as experts and given a place on the
committee.
The current consultation is no different. The Government
announces an urgent consultation, Minister’s huff and puff publically on the
issue, guidelines are produced, and the healing balm of ingratiating
bureaucratic co-option to working groups or sub committees serves both to
impress and dissipate communities’ anger until the next time. Communities and
campaigning organisation wait three years to find out the guidelines are not
working, the recommendations not implemented and the whole process starts
again. It’s a political process perfected in Government that perpetuates a
cycle of reinvention. How many reports are there on stop and search have been
written in the last 30 years, thousands and I mean that, literally thousands.
Scotland Yard and Government must have an aircraft hangar
somewhere in Buckinghamshire stuffed to the rafters with reports and
consultation feedback all dutifully ignored and left to collect dust,
occasionally being cited as evidence of progress.
This stop and search consultation represents, in
political terms nothing more than a small diversionary bush fire. The Home
Secretary’s more urgent task is one of wholesale police reform and breaking the
link in the public’s minds about police officer numbers and the level of crime.
No doubt she will have been advised I’m sure, that
Association of Chief Police Officers, MPF and other Police Services are no
pushover and she has one of the most thankless tasks in Cabinet. The received
wisdom inside Government is that Home Secretary’s job is a hospital pass in
rugby terms. There is even a legend “The path to reform of the Police is
littered with the white bones of previous Home Secretaries who have tried
before.”
The number of political scalps they have claimed in the
past is testimony to that. At a time when the Government is committed to
‘reforming’ the police, which in essence means attacking their pay and
pensions, any stick to beat the police will do.
The whole thing smacks of political opportunism of the
highest order and as black communities we had a gutful of such political
posturing at our expense. So no I didn’t
respond to the consultation having no faith whatsoever that anything other will
emerge from Government than some new or amended guidelines. These will be
dutifully ignored by the majority of street based PC’s and Stop and search
disproportionality may dip monetarily but continue on its remorseless rise.
There is simply too much money to be made by all in criminal justice system in
the mass criminalisation of black youth
snared by Stop and Search in the war against drugs which is ostensibly a proxy
for a war against black people.
It is my view that regardless of the outcome of the
Government nothing much will change for the majority of black youth. What I
suggest is radical civil disobedience to expose the moral hypocrisy of the law in
relation to stop and search to force Government to change the law so as to
racism in the execution of stop and search.
This is my 24th September
Stop and Search Declaration so named to reflect the end of the cosmetic consultation of the
Home Office and the beginning of a serious political discussion on how we, as
committed black people and anti-racists, finally achieve change.
The article is meant to promote community discussion and offer a way forward out the continual process of history repeating itself leading to yet more oppression and injustice. Information is power and the findings of the Release report are incredibly important we are keen to work with you to disseminate its findings in local communities and develop a peaceful civil disobedience campaign. Here are the suggested proposals. First I think its important to have a declarative statement of intent, followed by some real action on the ground.
The article is meant to promote community discussion and offer a way forward out the continual process of history repeating itself leading to yet more oppression and injustice. Information is power and the findings of the Release report are incredibly important we are keen to work with you to disseminate its findings in local communities and develop a peaceful civil disobedience campaign. Here are the suggested proposals. First I think its important to have a declarative statement of intent, followed by some real action on the ground.
24th
September Stop and Search Declaration.
We
oppose the arbitrary and discriminatory use of stop and search powers by
British police services. We note the disproportionate and illegal targeting of
black and ethnic minority communities by some police officers. We commit to
challenging the discriminatory and damaging use of Police stop and search
powers and the subsequent criminalising of black communities. This is vital if
we are to retain the important principle of policing with consent.
We believe
that all people should be treated fairly and professionally and without
prejudice.
We
uphold the right of all people resident in the UK regardless of ethnicity or
faith to be treated as equals by British police officers in accordance with British
human rights standards. We commit to working with others whose objective is to peacefully
confront and expose the racist policing of our communities.
Stop
& Search Agenda for Change.
1. To consider
a campaign of civil disobedience. If everyone who was subject to the power initially
refused to provide their details the police would be forced to take you to a
police station. Once there you can provide your details and no offence would
have been committed and you would be released. Such action would fill up police
cells overnight causing huge difficulties in police stations across the
country.
2. To
mass peacefully in selected symbolic Police Station receptions all over the
country. This would have a similar effect as above and again would cause huge disruption.
3. To organise mass rallies outside selected police stations.
4. To
organise groups of people to follow street foot police patrols to record and publish
their activities
5. To establish,
where they don’t exist local Stop & Search Monitoring Groups to co-ordinate
local activities.
If you would like to host a local meeting on Stop & Search based on the findings of the Release report or would like to comment further contact me
