Alliance for Police Accountability (APA) Issues Open Invite to Met Commissioner Candidate's Nick Ephgrave and Mark Rowley To Meet London's Black Communities. .

 

As the founding Chair of the newly formed and yet to be launched Alliance for Police Accountability (APA), we wrote to the Home Secretary, pointing out the need for community oversight and involvement with the Met Commissioner recruitment process. 

We pointed out that Black and Asian women and the Lesbian and Gay communities - which constitute the majority of Londoners, have no public trust or confidence in the Metropolitan Police Service. Many communities lived experiences and perceptions are that they are just another systemic institutional brick in Britain's hostile environment.  

We told the Home Secretary that with Londoners confidence at all-time catastrophically and unprecedented low levels, it was vital that the community has some involvement in the process. 

She refused, and in response, I wrote this article exclusively for the Voice.  You can read The APA press release below. 

The APA New Met Commissioner: What Do Londons Black Communities Want? Limited Places So Book Your Place Here ASAP. 

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. 

The police gun lasers beams were dancing around my 12 year old sons head and chest.

This is a nightmare no parent would want to face. 

Her home was raided by a SWAT team all because of a toy gun. Hear firsthand in this exclusive in-depth interview the horrific trauma suffered by Mina Agyepong, her 12-year-old son Kai and her two daughters as they were held at gunpoint by Metropolitan Police Service

Unbelievably, and despite all that she and her family have been through, she has received no formal apology from the Met. 

We also ask why @Unilever is brutally exploiting Kenyan tea plantation workers and farmers and has monuments depicting enslaved Africans outside its London HQ? 

#LeeJasperDriveTime #BlackLivesMatter

Lambeth Metropolitan Police officers raid the home of murdered teenager, Louis Johnson.

 

Louis Johnson was just 16 years of age, and tragically was the victim of a brutal murder, a knife attack that took place at East Croydon station on 27th January 202 as he made his way back to his family home. 

 

Needless to say that this cruel and savage attack on this young teenager left his family, mother, sister, elder and younger brother utterly devastated. 

 

The background of his tragic death is illustrative of the failure of local authorities to implement safeguarding and risk assessment measures for homeless families. 

 

Louis and his family were living in temporary accommodation provided by the council and were, unbelievably moved a total of nine times in five years across several London boroughs. The family found themselves living in a variety of different postcodes and having to change school continually, Louis faced threats of gang violence, both within schools and his local neighbourhood.

 

What this case reveals is that there are considerable implications concerning safeguarding issues and risk assessments for families being moved by local authorities from one postcode to another and issue we intend to take up. 

 

Louis was making his way home that fateful January afternoon waiting for a train at East Croydon station when another youth fatally stabbed him. He died at the scene at 4.45 p.m. despite receiving urgent medical attention. 

 

His family received a call from Croydon Council's, social work team telling them that their son had "been injured" at around 6 p.m. that day. The social worker informed the family that they had no more information other than Lewis was wounded and that they should ring around London hospitals.

 

The family in total and utter confusion, shock and disbelief hurriedly rang as many hospitals as possible but could not locate Louis. 

 

The British Transport Police (BTP) who were investigating the case updated their Twitter account at 8 p.m. and yet they still had not formally contacted the family, to inform them of Louis's death. 

 

Some agonising four hours later, the BTP arrived at the family home to tell his mother and brothers that Louis had been murdered. Unbelievably, the British Transport Police had failed to inform the family before they announced his death to the world. 

 

The consequence of that was the family were left speculating whether the unidentified person cited on the BTP Twitter account as having died at East Croydon station, was, in fact, their beloved son and brother Louis.

 

One can only imagine the sickening terror that gripped the family as they frantically rang hospitals and waited for someone to tell them what was happening.

 

The British Transport Police apologised profusely to the family telling them they "had dropped the ball" by failing to inform his family immediately. A chilling understatement of a catastrophic error in communications and one utterly exacerbated on what was the worst day of this family's life.

 

On 5th March, Mom attended Charing Cross Police Station to collect her deceased son's belongings and provided the Police with a copy of his death certificate.

 

But this wasn't the end of this family's tragic ordeal.

 

On 19th March 2020 and 8:30 a.m. while the family were asleep at their home, five Lambeth based, Metropolitan Police officers smashed their way into their property, screaming "it's the police" detaining all in the house and kicking off the bedroom door of Louis's 15-year-old brother.

 

Mom, who is disabled with a chronic illness, could hear her younger son shouting, panicked she rushed from her bedroom to find out what was going on. 

 

She found her way barred by a police officer. Louis eldest brother, who was sleeping downstairs, also heard the screams of his little brother but could do nothing. 

 

The youngest brother was bundled, manhandled and cuffed by police officers, and it was only then the officers told the family, they were looking for Louis. His younger brother had been managing his grief by wearing his deceased brothers' old football shirt, and one can only assume the Police wrongly thought the younger brother was Louis.

 

How did this happen? Louis was arrested in 2019 for riding a stolen moped and had been placed on bail. Mom provided the Met with a copy of his death certificate shortly after his death. However, this information was not passed onto Lambeth. 

 

So a family still grieving their loss had their world shattered as Police officers stormed their family home. The response of the officers to being told that Louis was dead was to retort, "Yeah, we've heard that one before."

 

It was after Mom produced a death certificate that the officers shocked began to calm down and retreat, offering apologies and condolences.

 

The family were left traumatised by the event that was all over in 20 minutes flat. 

 

The Police left them shaking, crying in both fear and disbelief as they left the family home. The Police issued no paperwork, and no one contacted the family to explain. Mom had to reach out to the lead investigation officer handling Louis's murder, BTP officer Sam Blackwood to find out why they had been raided.

 

That day the family received calls from Lambeth Borough Commander Wingrove who wanted to come and personally offer apologies to the family.

 

The family, still in shock and seething with anger declined the offer of a visit because they believed any such apology would be insincere and lack any real conviction.

 

The following days and weeks saw the family's trauma deepened as they sought to come to terms with what had happened to them. Such was the level of fear and anxiety every time the doorbell rang, or a car pulled up at their home they'd panic revisiting the trauma of the raid.

 

Mum's illness aggravated by the stress of this incident became much worse. Her two sons were left deeply traumatised by this whole event. 

 

The entire family now needs on-going therapeutic support and attempt to make sense of what has happened to them. 

 

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick, requested if she could personally apologise to the family. Given these tragic circumstances, the family's grief and shock as a result of these horrific events, there were in no mood for a police whitewash and synthetic apology.

 

While the Police have apologised and rightly so, that's not enough on this occasion. Police apologies are viewed by many in our communities as both routine and mostly insincere. 

 

Ethics dictate that they should pay for the counselling the family requires and offer financial compensation for the stress and damage caused. Also, the bodycam footage of the officers involved should be released to the public.

 

We intervened, in this case, putting pressure on the authorities to resolve their housing situation and we're glad to report the family have now been offered and accepted a new home. 

 

The matter was also looked at by the Independent Office of Public Complaints, (IOPC) who referred back to the Metropolitan Police Service to investigate themselves. 

 

We believe this to be a wholly inadequate response and call upon the IOPC to undertake an independent investigation and ensure community oversight through establishing an independent community reference group.

 

With Police community relations in London at crisis point, this case will further damage severely strained community tensions. With film footage of aggressive, and wholly disproportionate stop and search incidents appearing daily, set against the backdrop of a 45% increase in the use of the power since March, things are agitated on the streets. 

 

Against the backdrop of the tragic murder of George Floyd in the U.S and the massive Black Lives Matter demonstrations in London, it is safe to say the Met no longer enjoy the mandate of policing with consent regarding the African and Caribbean communities of London.

And in addition Harinegy, Police recently tasered a black boy climbing a wall who the fell and broke his back. The local community is seething with anger as a result. 

 

The Mayor and the MPS have been intensely lobbied and advised by several key community individuals of theses rising tension across the capital. As a former Deputy Mayor of London, my view is that we are one incident away from a significant backlash. Disproportionate use of Covid19 powers and the massive rise in the use of stop and search, use of section 60 stops and have gravely exacerbated community tension, and people are angry.

 

African and Caribbean communities, according to the Mets own public confidence survey has recorded the lowest level of expressed public confidence since records began. 

 

The Mayor alongside local authorities like Lambeth, (the borough that has the lowest level of community confidence in the Met of all the African and Caribbean communities in London) Haringey, Hackney, Southwark, Brent, Croydon, Lewisham and Newham must now engage with local communities in co-producing a new framework for police accountability and improving community confidence. 

 

Failure to do so would constitute a catastrophic failure of leadership that will come at an enormous cost to the capital. 

 

A new police-community compact based on agreed community demands should be developed, setting out a new way forward. Any unilaterally top-down imposed political strategies/solutions will ultimately fail. 

 

It is in the detail of how the Met and IOPC respond to incidents such as Louis Johnson family, and the many other events now recorded on film that will set the tone for what happens next. Let us hope good sense prevails. 

 

London's immediate fate as we head towards the summer now fate hangs in the balance. 

 

Gwenton Sloley's Case Thrown Out By Senior High Court Judge.

Gwenton Sloley the man they tried to silence.

This week saw the case bought against Gwneton Sloley by the Metropolitan Police Service and the Crown Prosecution Service, that charged Gwenton with serious criminal offences,  was thrown out of court by Judge Kieth Rayner after six days of intense legal argument at Woolwich Crown Court, South London. 

The Met has engaged in an 18-month deep-dive, forensic investigation into every aspect of Gwenton's life and financial affairs, an investigation that eventually saw serious criminal charges brought against one of the UK's leading gang intervention practitioners. After crawling over every detail and minutiae of his life, including seizing his financial assets, all his computers, iPad, his children's phones and bailing him nine consecutive times throughout their investigation the case collapsed through lack of evidence.

The police bizarrely charged him with making a false allegation of burglary, perverting the course of justice and having £1,985 at his home, which they allege was money from the proceeds of crime. Seizing his assets left him and his family in thousands of pounds of debt.  You can hear Gwenton's full explanation of what happened to him, below in the linked videos so I shall not rehearse the detail here, but I wanted to explore some of the wider issues through this article. So do forgive me this is not a detailed article simply because it is far too complex an issue to cover here and their accompanying video links to provide you with that detail.

As a consultant of high standing and national repute, Gwenton had many local authority contracts right across the country. The Metropolitan police rang every single one of these local authorities and organisations, falsely smearing his name by informing them that Gwenton was a drug dealer and had been arrested. The result was he lost tens of thousands of pounds in contract opportunities.

Gwenton on set at Lee Jasper Drive Time

Gwenton is one of the countries foremost anti Gang practitioners and his work has been acclaimed by Lewisham Council, the Met Police and the home Home Office. I have covered this case extensively on here is part one Lee Jasper Drive Time Channel, part two can be viewed here and the latest exclusive interview with Gwenton just days after the court case can be viewed here.



Despite having experienced police conspiracies to maliciously prosecute many people over the years, including Mangrove Nine and Eleven, M25 and Cardiff Three, Delroy Lindo and Stafford Scott, and to many more to mention,
I have been shocked and horrified at what I've witnessed in this case.

We see, time and time again, that leading black people who are working hard to partner and address issues of crime, violence and seeking to improve police and community relations are being targetted by the very people they are trying to help, the police themselves.

And it's not just community members who find themselves targetted in this way. Exemplary black police officers, such as former superintendent Leroy Logan  (he fought the law and he won) and more recently Chief Superintendent Robyn Williams, and exemplary officer of the highest ethical and professional standards have found themselves unfairly investigated and in Williams case, prosecuted by the Police. As we stand today I think every one of the Met's Black Superintendent's. bar one is currently under investigation.

The case heard at Woolwich Crown Court was held in secret and no members of the public were allowed inside the courtroom and reporting restrictions were imposed. That means I cannot comment on the detail of what was revealed in the Courtroom itself. On the six days of legal argument, where the Met Police and Crown Prosecution Service tried desperately to prove their case, downstairs the case of Julian Assange was taking place, the whole Court was in virtual lockdown. Two very different cases and maximum security on both.

What I can say is  that the outcome was extremely clear, the judge threw out every single charge against Gwenton determining that the charges had no basis in either fact or law. Six days this went back-and-forth and the prosecution simply could not prove their case.

The dogged insistence of the Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service to continue to prosecute this case,  despite them having no objective evidence is a consistent feature of the Crown Prosecution Service's and British Police differential standards when it comes to either prosecuting or defending black suspects and black victims.

Just take a look at the case of 13-year-old Christopher Kapassea and then compare this to the case Gwenton. You will see the glaring inconsistency and racial bias, that is most dramatically revealed by the profound contrast. What is clear is that had Gwenton been found guilty of these trumped-up charges he would have gone to jail of that there is no doubt.

Gwentons case has profound implications for all who work in the twilight world of gang interventions, where individuals are tasked, by the Police, local authorities and Home Office to work with some of Britains most dangerous criminals. There are no guidelines for this work, no protection for the practitioners and no professional and ethical standards that regulate or provide legal protection for those doing this work.

These gang workers and anti-violence interrupters are doing work nobody else can do,. However, they work in a completely unregulated space often at great personal risk to both themselves and their families.

And we've been here before. Who now remembers the Manchester scandal of the 1990s when anti-gang workers during the Doddington and Gooch Close era, were set up and deeply compromised by Greater Manchester Police and as a consequence found themselves facing death threats by local gangs?

Then there is the critical issue, that I believe gave rise to Gwentons brutal persecution, an issue that has the gravest implications for all those working in this field.

Gwenton publicly challenged the fact that Lewisham Council, Lewisham Police Service, and MTC Novo, (an American parent company responsible for London  Community Rehabilitation Company) all failed in their strategic responsibilities to ensure the safety of a Lewisham family who was put at risk, as a result of their son being released from prison.  Every single practitioner in the field should read and share this article.

Efe Urhie Mother of  7yr old Joel

The Urhie family of Lewisham feared their sons coming home from prison would see them become a target of gang retribution and pleaded for the authorities to move them. And they were right, once their son was released from jail he was shot at in an attempt on his life. The mother of the family Efy Urhie pleaded with the local council safeguarding team to protect her family and provide them with alternative accommodation.

Joel Urhie, a perventabel death. 

A meeting was held on 31 July of all of the statutory safeguarding agencies, and the London Community Rehabilitation Company, the company contracted to provide probationary services including risk assessing the release of ex-offenders back into the community where all these issues were discussed.

The Urhie family home 

Gwenton had raised the need to move the family immediately at this meeting. That call fell on deaf ears and on 7 August the family home was firebombed and seven-year-old Joel Urhie died in that fire.

Subsequently, Gwenton went public charging the agencies with failing in their statutory duties to urgently move the family. They singularly failed to do so.

Joel's death was a murderous tragedy that was completely avoidable.

Both Gwenton and I believe that he became a target for the Metropolitan Police at this point.

Gwenton subsequently had his home raided with all the furniture being smashed up, his gas boiler tampered with by police officers, putting him in his family's lives at risk. Once arrested he was abandoned by his employer employers, Lewisham Council. The police initially denied they were responsible for the break-in and Gwenton reported the incident as a burglary,  although his home was vandalised, nothing of value was taken. He was eventually charged with falsely reporting a burglary despite the fact, that it was the police who raided a smashed up his home.

The implication of this scenario is deeply worrying because what it means is that those working in partnership with the police, in tackling serious violent criminality and gangs are being intimidated and forced to keep silent when there is serious safeguarding failure that can led to loss of life.

One has to wonder how many other deaths have occurred where statutory safeguarding authorities have had prior knowledge of extreme risk to life, and have failed to act?

The organisation carrying the heaviest responsibility for the death of seven-year-old Joel Urhie is the London Community Rehabilitation Company owned by the American company MTV Novo and made up of a consortium of British organisations and charities such as;

• Catch 22
• Advance (a woman's crisis intervention charity)
• Novous (a social enterprise employment charity)
• Penrose (an ex-offender employment charity)
• St Mungo's (a homelessness charity)
• St Andrew's Healthcare (mental health support charity)
• The Single Homeless Project
• Band of Brothers (ex-offenders project)
• Thames Valley Partnership ( restorative justice project) 

MTC Novo is the parent company of London Probation Rehabilitation Company, the organisation that has had the least exposure and accountability for this little boys death. Reading the current news reports this week on the collapse of the case against Gwenton there are no references to Joel. There is a £25,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest and successful prosecution of those who murdered him.

Chief Exec of MTC Novo

In addition to finding the killers, we must ensure that this case is not swept underneath the carpet now that Gwenton has been exonerated.

This consortium of charities are collectively responsible for Joel's death and each must now place maximum pressure on MTC Novou to publish a detailed report on exactly how they failed to protect this family. Questions must be asked in the House of Parliament to bring transparency and accountability to this organisation's failures.

Gwenton did the right thing and both he and his family have paid an enormous price as a result. Thinking about it seriously, how many of us would have blown the whistle in the same position?

I, like Gwenton, have suffered malicious accusation and forensic investigation. I know the toll it takes on your body, your mind and your relationships with your family. It is an experience that can drive you to the brink of mental ill-health, some to suicide, others to divorce and financial ruin. Your paranoia becomes insane, the emotional toll on you and your family is devastating, and although you may eventually clear your name, you are never quite the same as a consequence of suffering such grave injustice.

Given the outcome of the case, I think it's a right to express my concern that he may yet again become the target of abusive please practice in seeking to further tarnish and reduces public reputation.

Gwenton enjoys his freedom. 

The conclusion of this case will be substantive civil action seeking full compensation for the pain grief, professional damage to his reputation and substantive loss of income suffered by Gwenton as a consequence of this malicious prosecution.

The consequences for those working in the field of antiviolence, gang reduction are profound. They need urgent legislative protection,  clear and unambiguous clarification around their safeguarding and tasking by police and local authorities, proper training and clinical supervision. There must be an urgent review around their employment conditions, their responsibilities and the legal protections they so desperately need.

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.