Institutional racism in Policing: Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick hides behind an unremitting wall of institutional racism and routine denial.

 

There is a saying in British black communities that all serious accusations of systemic institutional racism are a bit like eternal truths; they both tend to start their lives as heretical blasphemies. Always denied and when eventually accepted it's with begrudging reluctance.  

 

In Britain, there appears to be no exception to this general rule with no historical precedent of serious accusations of racism eliciting immediate acceptance and apology. Only the crudest examples of offensive racism, usually involving the use of racist language, prompts quick apology and regret. All major accusations of systemic and institutional racism are routinely denied. 

And even where 'progress' is achieved Britains cultural default setting, institutional racism, is so deeply engrained into the countries cultural DNA that racism, once the political pressure is relaxed almost always snaps back to its original setting. 

Of course, some progress has been made over the last 50 years. It would be churlish to suggest otherwise but in the words of the legendary reggae, compose/producer Lee Perry on his iconic tune "Down Ina Babylon" it's almost one step forward two steps backwards. 

Accusations of racism are almost always denied. For black communities here in the UK, the word denial denotes don't even notice I am lying. Where policing is concerned denial is often the preface to the justification of injustice.

 

Having challenged institutional police racism for the last 35 years, and as one of the foremost black experts on police-community relations and a former Policing Director for London, I am going to make a confident prediction. Alas, much like an oracle, my predictive track record on these issues, is sadly hundred per cent solid being one of the many who correctly predicted the disturbances of 1981, 1986, 1996 and 2011.  

 

My prediction is that we are heading for a significant series of civil disturbances as a result of the deteriorating relationship between the Metropolitan Police Service and London's African and Caribbean communities. It is only as a consequence of this summers Covid-19 lockdown that we've narrowly averted such a conflict taking place. For many public commentators and ethical black community leaders, people such as former senior black officer Leroy Logan (founder member of the Metropolitan Black Police Officers Association), things that they are as bad today as they were in the early 1980s.

 

They say that history comes round in 30 to 40-year cycles and next year sees the 40th anniversary of the 1981 Brixton uprisings that sparked massive confrontations with the police throughout the country. 

Back then despite repeated warnings by community campaigners warning of the likelihood of community police conflict, the Commissioners and government of the day chose to stick their heads in the sand. Their response was to deny the police were racist or the was a crisis of black confidence in policing. Sound familiar? 

 

Activists of the day, people like Frank Crichlow and Darcus Howe of the Mangrove Community Association, Kaoumba Balagoun of St Pauls, Bristol, Alex Bennet of Merseyside Race Equality Council and Dorothy Kukuya, Linda Bellos the first black women leaders of a Council (Lambeth) and the young, radical campaigning lawyer of the day Paul Boateng, all consistently warned of trouble on the streets as a result of increasing police racism. All were routinely ignored. 

 

Precisely the same thing happened again in 1986, and in the early 90s, it was only the hope offered by Stephen Lawrence public inquiry that prevented a re-occurrence. Nevertheless, disturbances erupted in 1996 in Brixton and again in 2011 in Tottenham. On both occasions, senior police officers and Home Secretaries denied there was a problem. Community activists warnings were routinely ignored at an extraordinarily high cost to the country and black communities.

 

Today the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, Home Secretary Prit Patel, and Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick are united in the continuance of this political tradition, the consistent rejection and denial of accusations of institutional police racism.

 

In the aftermath of the tragic death of George Floyd, we have seen and public institutions businesses around the world, reflecting on the nature of their commitment to race equality, embarking on a process of having a dialogue with black and ethnic minority employees and communities on issues of fairness, justice, diversity and anti-racist practice. 

 

The global concern about the issue of police racism, violence and accountability have been central to these ongoing conversations, discussions that have echoed around the world everywhere except in England and Wales. 

 

Even though public confidence in policing of the African and Caribbean community is at an all-time low, the leading police officer in the country Commissioner Cressida Dick, like her counterparts of old, refuses to acknowledge the Mets culture of institutionalised racism. It's this pernicious culture that is the driving force behind the persistent and increasing rates of racial disproportionality in almost all aspects of operational policing in London.

 

Given the wall-to-wall research and statistics that demonstrate the industrial scale of police racism towards black people, the question is, why would she choose to continue to deny this overwhelming and compelling objective reality?

 

It is my view that the police officer "canteen culture" is deeply hostile to the concept of institutionalised racism. The 20-year long backlash against the publication and findings of the Stephen Lawrence report that deemed the police to be institutionalised racist runs deep in the cultural and political DNA of the Met Commissioner Dick cannot contemplate accepting this reality without facing a virtual revolt among the reactionary ranks.

 

The evidence of such resistance can be discerned not only by the figures demonstrating massive racial disproportionality in operational areas such as stop and search: use of police force on black people; racial differences in the rates of cautioning and charging for drug offences; the refusal of bail for black suspects, the failure to sufficiently recruit African and Caribbean officers; and the overrepresentation of serving black officers in police disciplinaries and investigations, it is also evident in the attitudes of police officers as revealed in an alarming new survey conducted by You Gov. 

 

Published in June of this year with very little media coverage, this critical survey revealed the dark attitudinal underbelly of the persistent culture of racism that persists within the Metropolitan Police.

 

The survey asked officers if they believed stereotypes about other groups of people to be true. An astonishing 41% agreed with the statement compared to just 24% of the general public. More worryingly over half of the officers surveyed (55% ) agreed with the suggestion that human rights laws have been bad for British justice. About race equality in the workplace, 65% expressed opposition to any form of positive discrimination in attempts to level up the lack of representation of black people within British companies and institutions.

 

These overwhelmingly racially hostile attitudes provide a unique insight into the prevailing culture within the Met, and that makes this Commissioner a prisoner of her workforce.

 

This, in part, explains why the Met has seen a resurgence in such prejudicial hostile attitudes among serving police officers. What we are witnessing today in this survey is the result of the Mets historical and contemporary hostility towards the Stephen Lawrence report and their retreat from the majority of its recommendations in most notably in the areas policy and performance scrutiny and diversity focus in police cadet training.

 

I recently submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Met asking them to provide me with "...the total number of mandatory, probationary constable training hours solely dedicated to ethnic diversity…". The answer I received from the Met's Information Rights Units reveals the brutal extent of that retreat. 

 

The fact is, in one of the most diverse cities on the face of the planet, there are no specific lessons for police cadets dedicated focused solely on ethnic diversity training or the critical lessons learned from the Stephen Lawrence, none.

 

Whilst there is training for unconscious bias, it lasts precisely two hours. There is a broader one-day training input on the more general question of "diversity" covering the entirety of the equality strands.

 

Finally, there are some online voluntary training packages. Nothing on anti-racist policing practice or the rich and diverse history of Amylticulatutal London. Nothing on the fraught history of the Met and London's multicultural communities. This explains why institutional racism is so resurgent in the Met. Refusal to listen to communities, retreat from the recommendations of the Stephen Lawrence report, failure to mainstream anti-racist practice in one of the greatest multicultural cities in the world. policy and 

 

For a city like London, this is woefully inadequate. 

 

Police denial of institutionalised racism places a lid on the relational and emotional pressure cooker that constitutes relations between African and Caribbean heritage communities and police services. The longer we leave it on, the more pressure we build up. That pressure is becoming intolerable and will, at some point, explode onto our streets with devastating consequences. Denial of the problem is the lid. 

That's why so little focus is given to this issue in police training, it's simply not considered that important by the Commissioner. This is a fatal and critical failure of leadership. 

 

Charles Tremper of the Nonprofit Risk Management Center, Washington, DC, warning of the dangers of denial wrote, "Denial is a common tactic that substitutes deliberate ignorance for thoughtful planning."     

 

The problem for this Commissioner is the routine denial of truth does not invalidate its objective reality. The worst lies are the ones we tell ourselves. 

 

This Commissioner has made the fatal political calculation that it's better to offer friendly denial than accept the realities of institutionalised racism.

 

She knows, as the survey suggests, that all demands for compliance to anti-racist policing practice will elicit a hostile response from the rank and file. Policing is the only area of command and control employment where such huge power is located in the lowest subordinate rank. 

 

We're in for a hellish time. It was the 17th century English writer John Bunyan who said, "The road of denial leads to the precipice of destruction." This statement is as true today as the day it was written. Having failed to learn from the past, we are about to repeat tragic history

 

You heard it here first, second and third. 

Lee Jasper Drive Time Season 2: Stafford Scott On Why It's Time To Sack Met Chief Cressida Dick.

Met Police, Commissioner Dick. Why she’s got to go.

Lee Jasper Former Deputy Mayor of London writes…

 

As a community activist focused on discriminatory policing for 32 years and Policing Director for London for eight years, I was instrumental in delivering some of the highest rates of black community public confidence in Met policing ever recorded. 

 

The way this was achieved was as a result of a clear focus on institutionalised racism within the Met. The then-Mayor Ken Livingstone ensured that I was given the power to hold the Met to account with the objective of driving down racism and increasing diversity. We managed to do both.

 

By accepting the force was institutionally racist and taking measures to tackle disproportionate impact, we saw radical innovation and improvement in black community and police relations. 

 

For example, we provided financial support for legal actions for victims of police deaths in custody. Through Mayoral nominations, we created the most diverse Metropolitan Police Authority in British history.  Through positive action, we improved black and ethnic minority recruitment of police officers by 100% in three years. 

 

And in relation to the growing level of violence within Africa and Caribbean communities I helped lead and establish the Trident Independent Advisory Group, some two years prior to entering the Mayor's office, this produced the most successful police/community partnership in the Mets history. Trident was back then, a gold standard initiative, that was subsequently thoroughly corrupted by Boris Johnson after his election as London Mayor in 2008. 

 

In short, I know how to improve relations between police and black communities, and it starts with tacit acceptance by those in power of the realities of institutionalised racism in policing. No sustainable progress can be made without this being accepted by the Commissioner and politicians as the fundamental starting point.

 

People like me, Stafford Scott and others have consistently warned the authorities of the dangers of unrestrained police racism. It is my belief that relations are so bad today that the prospect of civil disturbances has only been reduced as a consequence of the Covid 19 lockdown. And even then, the aggressive policing of block parties has seen relations deteriorate even further.

 

In the post-black lives matter environment public officials who do not accept the reality of institutionalised racism must surely be considered unfit for public office. Given the response of the private and public sector who are all engaged in re-examining their fundamental approach to diversity and antiracism, anyone who denies the existence of the reality of systemic racism, can and should expect to be vigorously challenged. 

 

What is true of the private sector is doubly true in the policing and criminal justice sector aa the Lammy Report demonstrated. That's why it's so bizarre that Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick has simply refused point-blank to re-examine their relationship with black communities in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd and the subsequent rise of the black lives matter movement. 

 

In a response that could come straight from the President Trump playbook, the Commissioner has dialled up the disproportionate targeting of African and Caribbean Londoners and dialled down any idea that racial targeting of black people is in any way racist. 

 

Harking back to the days of 1990s when Commissioner Sir Paul Condon launched his infamous Operation Eagle Eye who sought to justify this racially targeted policing initiative as a response to increased levels of street robbery, Commissioner Dick now seeks to justify the current culture of racial profiling as an appropriate policing response to rising levels of violence in our communities.

 

These weak justifications (stop and search has proven entirely ineffective in reducing violent crime) obscure the historical reality of the ever-growing disproportionate use of policing powers that have taken place with relentless consistency over the last decade. To be fair we did see a brief interregnum whilst Teresa May as Prime Minister but police racism has, like a resurgent virus, returned with a vengeance under Boris Johnson.

 

And make no mistake ‘aggressive policing, free from the shackles of political correctness’, is this Prime Minister's preferred policing style. Any analysis of his time as London Mayor will leave you in no doubt about his commitment to ramping up the discriminatory use of stop and search. 

 

Between 2008 and 2012 Boris Johnson increased up and search in London by 300% with disastrous consequences for relations between Africa and Caribbean communities and the Metropolitan police. It was this type of policing that was primarily responsible for the national outbreak of civil disturbances in 2011 in the aftermath of the shooting of Mark Duggan in Tottenham North London. Young people speaking to the Guardian newspaper in the aftermath of these disturbances cited the “humiliation of stop and searches as a key factor in anger towards the police.”

 

Cressida Dick, when a senior commander in the Met, was also the chief architect, advocate and sponsor of the discredited and illegal use of Joint Enterprise and the Gang Matrix. 

  

In addition, the disproportionate use of Section 60 powers, sanctioned by her, is increasingly seen within black communities as the reincarnation of the dreaded SUS law allowing for blatant policing prejudice to be justified and represents nothing less than a codification of racism into British law.  

 

Our watershed moment on race and policing was, of course, the brutal and racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, and the subsequent failure of the Metropolitan police to investigate and bring the murderers to justice. Infected by the virus of institutionalised racism as defined by Lord MacPherson, the Metropolitan police could not see past their own prejudice. 

London's black communities were dehumanised and subject to the most discriminatory, hostile and aggressive policing as a result. 

 

21 years since the publication of the seminal MacPherson report there are those, like Commissioner Dick who believe Britain is "different country" and that the police have 'moved on" having transformed themselves. On Channel 4 News recently, she made it clear she doesn't believe the Met are an "institutionally racist organisation." 

 

Clearly, the Commissioner has changed her view because in 2003 she stated the Met would always be an institutionally racist organisation as reported in the Guardian below.

 

                 

She is, of course, wrong, and that is a serious, I would say, a catastrophic error of judgement. 

A recent national poll for ITV conducted by YouGov published in August this year reported that 39%, a majority of Londoners believed the Met to be an institutionally racist organisation, with 34% disagreeing and 27% stating they did not know or were not sure. 

 

As for Black, Asian and ethnic minority Londoners, (BAME) according to the London Mayor's office last year (2018/19) saw the largest reductions in the number of BAME people expressing confidence that their local police were "doing a good job”. 

Black Londoners recorded a 7% drop compared to the same period in 2018, whilst mixed ethnicity recorded an 8% reduction. Only 51% of black Londoners thought their local Met police were doing “a good job” and only 50% of mixed ethnicity Londoners. 

 

And this is a consistent and deeply worrying trend. 

According to figures published by the Mayor’s Office of Policing and Crime (MOPAC) 2016/17, the Met saw a 10.9% confidence drop among Black Londoners in quarter 4 of that year. [1]

 

              

The Commissioner has presided over a force that has seen London's African and Caribbean descent communities suffer a precipitous decline in public confidence, as a result of increased perception of police, racism, violence and aggression. 

 

And all as result of racial profiling through stop and search; the massive abuse of Section 60 stops, a power that is now regarded as the new SUS laws, (no reasonable suspicion needed); the imposition of that power on the entire Notting Hill Carnival area in 2019; the routine use of handcuffs and the disproportionate use of force, and deaths in police custody; the disproportionate charging of black people for crimes for which white people receive a caution; and the deeply controversial Met’s Gang Matrix [2]  the disproportionate use of emergency Covid 19 powers targeting London’s black communities at a time when there were few if any people on the streets; and it’s becomes crystal clear that institutional racism in the Met, much like racism in wider society has returned with a vengeance. 

The catastrophic confidence figures, combined with the compelling and indisputable evidence of disproportionality in operational policing, confirms the strongly held perception in Londons Black communities that the Met is a ‘hostile force’ 

 

This is in my view proves beyond reasonable doubt that the Mets relationship with Black Londoners, under the stewardship of both Commissioner Cressida Dick and London Mayor Sadiq Khan has declined to an unprecedented and new historic low.  

What these figures tell us is that from 2016 to 2020 we have seen the largest year on year declines in Black communities’ public confidence in the Met ever witnesses since records began. 

 

Add to this the experiences of Africa and Caribbean Officers who since 2016 are disproportionately leaving the force within two years of joining, who face disproportionate disciplinary investigations and suspensions and rarely get promoted and you can see how far diversity and race equality has regressed under this Commissioner. 

 

Britain is heading for increasing racial hostility, violence and discord. History teaches us that when the economy declines, racism inevitably rises and we are about to experience the worst recession in living memory. Black unemployment in London is the highest its ever been and in this Covid 19 recession is likely to rise to even higher. That is a disastrous scenario for a community already mired in the grip of long term poverty and disadvantage. 

If one adds to the mix the disgusting treatment of the Windrush generation and rising hate crime,    racism in the workplace, the precariousness and anxiety black people now feel is tangible. Nobody feels safe.

We are witnessing the return of racism we thought long gone. Fundamental to our sense of citizenship, belonging and security is the extent to which we feel we are treated equally and accorded the same respect as all other citizens. That confidence is eroding every day.

 

There's a familiar tale of civil discord, distrust and strife between African and Caribbean descent communities and police services in the United Kingdom.

 

In order to avoid the inevitable civil uprising that will result in response to the present down pressure, it's important that Londoners actively challenge both the Mayor and his Commissioner in order to prevent major civil disorder which will cost the capital and the country millions, resulting in unnecessary injury and destruction. It can be avoided. 

Those of us who warn of such calamity are routinely ignored but we are the canaries in the coal mine, we will have a sharp sense of our communities and are best placed to ring the alarm. Often politically marginalised, at great cost to the nation, we radically challenge racism and the fact is in a racist Britain, most people don't like to hear the truth. Sadly is we are often proven right by the passage of time. In January 2011 after the death in police custody of Smiley Culture, I warned the black community was 'at boiling point'. Nobody listened then and nobody is listening now. 

 

                                     

 

That's why it's incredibly important for good people to support the planned demonstration calling for the removal of Commissioner Cressida Dick in an effort to begin rebuilding shattered relations and avert the forthcoming disaster we can all see looming on the horizon. 

We can act now in order to save ourselves later on, and if this Commissioner cannot or will not rise to the challenge of policing a world city, with its complex diversity, then she is not fit for public office. In 2008  Boris Johnson sacked the then Commissioner Sir Ian Blair. Mayor Sadiq Khan must now sack Commissioner Cressida Dick and prioritise tackling institutionalised racism within the Met as his key the political priority.  

We intend to make this an issue right up until the next Mayoral elections, a wise politician would act now to make sure that they're on the right side of history.

We need a Commissioner capable of taking this issue forward not one whose irrevocably stuck in the past.

 

Join us outside Scotland Yard on Saturday, 12 September from 1 PM as we seek to save our city and dial back the institutionalised racism of the Metropolitan police service that so blights the lives of so many in our city.

[1] A Better Police Service For London MOPAC London Surveys, Annual Results Q4 16-17

[2] Met takes 1000 names off gangs list after racism claims. Times Newspaper, April 2020 

Commissioner Dick hides the truth from Channel 4 News on black public confidence in the Met

Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, speaking to Channel 4 News is less than truthful on London's Black public confidence figures. 

So during this interview, the Met Commissioner Dick said, ’I don’t accept that confidence is at an all-time low, I think that’s a ludicrous thing to say,  just five months ago a survey showed that our black Londoners had, had more confidence in the job of the local police than white Londoners.“ at 8.00 -8.13  

That's true. but what she didn't say is that according to the latest figures from the London Mayors Office,  

"...those from a Black or Mixed ethnic background are less likely to be satisfied compared with the MPS result (-5 pp. both groups). The gap for the Mixed group emerged in Q2 19-20 and has remained stable since. 

However, the gap for Black residents has newly emerged this quarter, following a gradual widening over FY 19-20. Residents from a Mixed ethnic background see large gaps across 5 of the 7 core questions – most notably for ‘fair treatment and ‘listen to concerns’ (both -15 pp). 

Looking over time, gaps have widened over the last two years. This increasing inequality has been driven by widening gaps for ‘listen to concerns’ (+9 pp. from Q1 18-19 to Q4 19-20), ‘fair treatment’ (+8 pp.) and ‘good job local’ (+5 pp.).

Residents from a Black background continue to show a large negative gap for ‘fair treatment’ (- 12 pp.), although inequalities have tended to narrow slightly over the last two years." (A Better Police Service For London: MOPAC Surveys Q4 19-20 Results)

So confidence, as defined by 5 of the 7 core questions for the mixed-race category, has in fact widened for Black and Mixed race-ethnic groups in London. She simply manipulating the figures to suit her own ideological agenda. My statement as a former Policing Director for London, that Black public confidence is at an all-time low is certainly not ' ludicrous' its an undeniable, indisputable fact. That she continually seeks to deny this, is why both she and the Met are no longer trusted by Londons Black communities. 

In addition in the year 2018/19 the following was recorded;

Further, in this year  2019/20 Black people's confidence fell again, here are the figures from the Mayor's office showing a huge drop in levels of black and mixed-raced public confidence in the Metropolitan police service. I say these are historic and unprecedented lows and therefore accuse the Commissioner of deliberately and knowingly misleading the public.;

https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/mayors-office-policing-and-crime-mopac/data-and-statistics/public-voice-dashboard

So while she may hold the view that the Metropolitan police service is no longer institutionally racist institution, that flies in the face of the majority view of black London communities, who have consistently expressed lower levels of public confidence in the ability of the Met to treat them fairly. That the Commissioner refuses to accept or engage with this strongly held community perception, that is informed by hard facts and data, means in essence that she lacks the necessary insight and understanding to police a multicultural city like London. In short, she lacks the cultural competence to do the job, and as a result, we are seeing black public confidence in London's Police sink to unprecedented new lows. 

Lee Jasper Says Resurgent Police Racism A Real Threat to Democracy.

Rampant institutional racism within the Met has seen black officers undermined, particularly when challenging police racism, they have become increasingly marginalised as a consequence of some being maliciously targeted. Many now see their careers lay in utter ruins, as a result of these malicious and vexatious complaints, placed in context of the toxic deterioration of black community police relations in London and throughout the country, this crisis poses a real threat to British democracy, respect for the rule of law and the maintenance of the Queen's peace.

Without the requisite trust and confidence of the general public in the policing, administration of justice and the principle of equality of all citizens before the law, chaos and anarchy beckons. This is as a direct consequence of prioritising prejudice over justice.  Not only are a black suspects being disproportionally treated at the hands of police officers, but we have seen an unprecedented attack on senior black officers within the Metropolitan police service. As a result  Scotland Yard's senior management team has once again become a snowy white peak of privilege and exclusion.

Fmr Chief Constable Michael Fuller

In today's Gaurdian newspaper we see former senior Met officer Micheal Fuller ask why there has been no further black progression to Chief Constable and why so few senior black officers?

He is right to raise this issues. As Deputy Mayor I oversaw back police officer recruitment, and as a result of an aggressive positive action recruitment and promotion policies than Metropolitan Police Service​ doubled the number of black officers in six years. At that time we had more senior black officers than at any other time in the Mets history.

The reason for such success? Politics leadership from the Mayor on insisting any new funding paid for by him came at a cost of securing improved Black recruitment. Such regression as we see now is simply unforgivable, as is the fact that relations between the Met and London's black communities have been allowed to continually fester to the point of toxicity.

I say Sadiq Khan​ and his current Deputy Mayor for Policing, Sophie Linden​ have utterly failed to confront the residual and resurgent racism of the Met and as a direct result of thefailure to hold the Met to proper account, we have a situation where the Met has severely regressed on race issues.

That institutionalised racism is still a problem within British free services is not just some 'partisan' political view from "left-wing extremists" with an "anti-police agenda" far from it.

Everyone ,from the former beleaguered Prime Minister Thersea May to the current national lead for the National Chief Constables Association, Chief Superintendent Gavin Wilson agrees with me. He recently admitted that the police remain "institutionally racist" when launching yet another new initiative, following countless previous initiatives costing millions of pounds, all aimed at recruiting and retaining black officers.

I know from personal experience as a former Deputy Mayor of London, that tackling racism within the Met is perfectly possible with strong political will, and that was clearly demonstrated when Ken Livingstone was Mayor and I was one of his Deputies. I would constantly intervene with the Met senior command when these issues arose. It was the only way in which black Londoners could be reassured that complaints of police racism, brutality or corruption were taken seriously and could have any real faith in the police complaints process. Such confidence was incredibly low back then, but today, because of the malign neglect of the Mayor, the Commissioner and the troubled history of the police complaints process, such confidence is virtually non-existent.

I have never known things to be so bad other than the years 1981 to 1986.

Both are failing to tackle the Met's out of control racism

The real reality within the Met today is one of the  existence of a consistent trend of disproportionate targeting of black and ethnic minority police officers facing disciplinary action over the last 30 years. This has led to a swathe of senior black officers being removed from their posts,  the disproportionate rate of disciplinary actions against black officers has increased under the leadership of Sadiq, while the total number of warrented African and or Caribbean officers in the Met has gone down. We are losing good black officers as a direct result of this failure to drive back the rise of racism within British policing.

The number of black officers leaving the force within the first two years of their recruitment has skyrocketed. This is largely a result of idealistic young people joining the police force, and when they get out of their training college, and are confronted with the reality of racism inside British police stations, they refuse to  endure such a toxic working environment. It quickly becomes apparent that the culture of racism within the police force is so deeply embedded into the informal cultural value system of this institution, that it makes a mockery and hypocrisy of the police commitment to tackling  institutional racism.


"As at 31 March 2018, 7% of all officers were Black and Minority Ethnic (BME), the highest proportion since records began. While BME representation in the police workforce has continued to improve, such groups are still under-represented as 14% of the population in England and Wales are BME. Over the last year, 9% of joiners were BME, compared with 5% of leavers."  

Of the 7,850 BME officers in the 43 police forces in England and Wales, 42% classified themselves as Asian or Asian British, 29% as Mixed, 18% as Black or Black British, and 11% as Chinese or Other ethnic group. These proportions have remained stable over recent years. 

Levels of BME under-representation were highest among Senior ranks (i.e. chief inspector or above) compared with constables and other ranks. For example, 4% of officers of rank chief inspector or above were BME, compared with 7% of constables. Police Workforce as of March 31st.  Home Office Statistical Bulletin 11/18 

Supt Robyn Williams Most señor Black woman in the Met Suspended 

What I find interesting is the way some police services are now defining BME  officers. I guarantee, if you were to ask your local police service who is included in that category, you would be shocked by the result, anyone can self define themselves as BME with no questions asked.





In actual fact this bulletin shows us that only 6.6% of British police officers declare themselves BAME and are fully warranted police constables. When one breaks down the diversity these officers, something very interesting comes to light.

This means there are 3,326 Asian Police Officers

Only 1420  Black officers national and whilst the rate of dismissal for white officers was 1.5% for BME officers it was a staggering 4.5%.  

WPC Carol Howard Victimised 

Supt Jeff Boothe Suspended 

Remember WPC Carol Howard awarded £37k for compensation for suffering racism and victimisation at work, and she was the Mets "diversity poster girl" ? Or how About Supt Robyn Williams  or what about Supt Jeff Boothe, Croydon Borough Commander ?

What the current Met figures tell us, is that black police officers are catching racist hell on a daily basis and more are leaving pr being dismissed.

Ass Commissioner Pat Gallon Couldn't Stand The Racism of the Met. 

The most senior Black officer in the UK Metropolitan Police Service. Assistant Commissioner Pat Gallan left last year amid rumours that she couldn't bear the racism she encountered under  Commissioner Cressida Dick.

The Commissioner is a senior officer I know well as the former head of Operation Trident, she had to be constantly restrained and challenged from initiating discredited policing practice to try and secure more convictions.

Commissioner Dicks position on institutionalised racism is crystal clear and fundamentally wrong.

She believes the Met is no longer institutionally racist and from that perspective, all other serious errors of judgement and misconception occur. The failure of a sick patient to recognise they have a serious illness will often result in tragic consequences.

Time and time again,  as head of Operation Trident, she would urge me to allow her officers to use a range of discredited policing tactics, such as super grass testimony, anonymous witnesses and other heavily discredited and largely abandoned unethical policing tactics. I consistency resisted her demand whilst in post, however once we lost the election in 2008 it wasn't long before she convinced Boris Johnson to turn Operation Trident into London's "anti gang unit" and thereby giving the impression that all London gangs are black by definition.

She once told me that Operation Trident should be disbanded because white officers were complaining that black murder victims were receiving a "premium service"  this was after after years in which the Met failed to solve hundreds of black murders in the capital.  Cressida's complacency on police racism is of such staggering proportions that it borders on the fringes of being professionally categorised,  in my opinion, bordering on an acute mental disorder, characterised by routine and constant psychotic denial in the face of overwhelming objective facts.

However she was not alone in her miscalculation and this dangerous complacency is currently shared by the Mayor of London, despite his professional record as a solicitor he has become weak, timid and intimidated by the Empire of the Met. It is a political failure that will ultimately cost the capital dear.

The tension between  London's African and Caribbean communities and the police is evident every single day from the hundreds of encounters in which Met police officers are now facing hostile crowds, many of whom who believe the Met are actively racially profiling and targeting black people.

Having lost the trust and confidence of London's black communities it will only take an single incident, whether the arrest is legal or not, the community perception will undoubtedly be of yet another oppressive, violent racist arrest, and all incidents are now being refracted through that lens.

This is a consequence of the failure of the Mayor and Commissioner to fill the information, confidence and reassurance gap that has spawned over the lest decade. A dangerous vacuum currently exist in London.

With the IOPC investigating Charing Cross Police Station in the West End as a potential hornets nest of police racism, corruption and criminality, the toxic nature of Metropolitan police racism can be seen to be bleeding out of New Scotland Yard onto the streets of London. These Charing Cross officers are alleged to have operated a "Mafia cartel" using the blue badge as cover for their criminality. They racially abused black police officers and suspects, and it is alleged were using drugs, perverted the course of justice and subjected women and vulnerable groups to vitriol, violence and illegal abuse.

As we saw in Romford, with the arrest of the 17-year-old black boy, the Met regularly uses overwhelming and disproportionate violence when arresting black people. It continues to racially target our communities, through a culture of racial profiling executed through the power of stop and search that sees the racial targeting of black people, usually justified by suspicion of low-level drugs possession. This is despite the fact that white people consistently use more drugs than black communities, a fact backed up by British Crime Survey and countless other academic studies.

The police are literally charging black people for crimes, for which white people are receiving a caution. The scale of this activity is widespread and has led directly to the disproportionate criminalisation of our communities under the flags of popular convenience i.e "war on drugs and gangs."

Whether it's as employees within the police service, anti 'gang' workers, who work in partnership with the police, such as Gwenton Dennis Sloley​ or Ken Hinds​ or indeed Labour​ Cllr Dr Mahamed Hashi. All were subjected to police harassment, despite the fact that all of them had extensive track records of positively "working in partnership"  with the Met to improve relations with London's black communities.

Or whether it's black officers within the service facing an edifice of institutionalised racism, that forces them into making a choice of enduring an unremitting wall of racism, being falsely accused and undermined, passed over for promotion or simply leaving the job as thousands of black recruits do within the first two years of their recruitment.

You have to ask yourself why so many are leaving? The answer is as clear as it is stark. Ugly resurgent institutionalised racism within the Met has been allowed to fester and grow utterly unchallenged by either the Mayor of London​ and Commissioner Cressida Dick and has now become a raging monster totally out of control.

The consequences for London are profound, what is required is urgent political recognition of the extraordinary serious nature of problem and a clear plan of action that seeks to reverse the toxic advance of institutionalised racism within policing. The failure to do that will simply lead to further deterioration, of what is already the singularly the most profound crisis of black public confidence in policing in modern times.

Whether you're a black police officer, or a black suspect or a black professional working in partnership the Met to "improve relations", the Met makes no distinction. What is painfully apparent is that, when push comes to shove, whatever our fanciful imaginings and vague pretensions about the Met. the stone cold realty is the institution remains so virulently infected with racism as to present a profound threat to the multicultural democracy know as London.

Politicians, the police and others need to start seriously engaging with communities instead of recruiting and hand selecting those black individuals and organisations who they ruthlessly exploit, as external black cladding, camouflage to mask their institutional racist nature and oppressive behaviour. And many in our communities work with them believing they are committed to change, What the current state of relations tells us is that no such commitment exists at the senior or institutional level, and that those officers who are committed to the programme are in a tiny minority within the force.

The reality is that our communities are increasingly waking up to the dangers constituted by institutionalised racism within the Met. Whether that is the horrendous treatment of black suspects ur  black police officers, the outcome is the same. As we approach the forthcoming London mayoral elections, and indeed face the distinct possibility of a general election, we will need to ensure we have the most robust articulation of major political, civil rights demands, from all the political parties, capable of pushing back, reducing and ultimately eliminating a policing and criminal justice culture (read David Lammy's excellent report) that produces more negatively disproportionate outcomes for black Londoners than the Boer Police of South Africa delivered under the apartheid regime.

There can be no greater illustration of the extent of racism within British policing and criminal justice services, that it can without specific codification of racism into law, outperform the predations of a apartheid policing and criminal justice system. That's Olympic standard racism.