Alliance for Police Accountability (APA) Press Release. Black Londoners Issue Open Invite to New Met Police Chief Shortlisted Candidates.

Press Release… Press Release… Press Release… Press Release.

                                             Immediate Release Sat 11th June 2022 

London's Black Communities Issue Open Invite to Shortlisted Met Police Chief Candidates. 

The Alliance for Police Accountability (APA), a UK national African and Caribbean heritage organisation formed in response to the murder of George Floyd, has extended an open invitation to the two shortlisted candidates for the Metropolitan Police Commissioner to meet London's Black Communities. 

The APA is holding its second London Black communities' consultation event, Met Commissioner: What do London's Black Communities Want? on Thursday June 16th at 6.30 pm at the IDPAD Empowerment Centre, 18-24 Lower Clapton Road, London E5 0PD

The APA conducted a consultation on this question among its members in February 2022, followed by a very successful public event held in Brixton on March 2nd 2022, with 4,000 people either attending or taking part online. 

You can watch our first APA consultation event held in Brixton here and book your in-person place for this second event in Hackney here. 

The Home Secretary, Boris Johnson and Mayor for London Sadiq Khan will interview the two shortlisted Met internal candidates on June 20th, 2022. Current Met Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave and Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley are the shortlisted candidates.

In April, the APA wrote to the Home Secretary requesting that London Black communities be informally involved in the recruitment and interview process through the London Mayors' Office. That request was acknowledged but essentially ignored by the Home Secretary.

In March, the Brixton consultation expressed the unanimous view that any new Commissioner must accept the reality of police institutional racism. This was seen as essential if he was to repair the deep, inter-generational damage to Black public confidence in the Met, currently at an all-time low.

Public confidence figures clearly show that the Met does not police London's Black communities with consent. 

Any new Commissioner will need to secure the support of London's Black communities if we are to avoid a severe further deterioration of what are already profoundly strained relations. 

 Lee Jasper, former Director of Policing in London (2000-2008) and Chair of the APA, said, 

"It's important that these candidates meet and hear from London's Black communities. Given the level of public distrust of the majority of Londoners, a majority of which are Black and Asian communities, Women and Lesbian and Gay communities. So, we've extended a genuine invitation to both candidates to attend this meeting. 

We believe post-George Floyd, there needs to be a paradigm shift away from the toxic past practices, and there needs to be much deeper community engagement with this process. In some US states, this is an elected, not selected, position. 

Though the government has ignored our demands, we believe that these candidates need to demonstrate that they hear, understand, and fully appreciate the depth of London's black communities' anger and concerns.  

Therefore, both candidates are invited to come and have an informal chat, engage, and hear directly from London's Black communities themselves. Attendance would demonstrate that the candidates understand the importance of establishing a significant break with the past while respecting London Black communities. 

Whatever the Home Secretary's views on institutional racism in the Met, the new Commissioner, if they are to be successful, will need to sufficiently demonstrate the independence of mind, thought, and action necessary to win back a lost community to the police. They will need to be brave, very brave. “

All APA panellists are available for interview call 07984 181979 to arrange. 

Editor’s note. 

The Alliance of Police Accountability (APA) is a new and powerful network of Black organisations responsible for delivering a two-year national policing consultation exercise with African Caribbean heritage communities in England and Wales. 

The APA will revisit, critically address, and reinforce the founding principles of policing as established by Sir Robert Peel and the core principle of policing with consent. 

The Project recognises both the historical and contemporary growing tensions between English and Welsh black communities and the police following the death of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. 

The Project will address two broad but essential questions. 

• What do black want from policing, and what do we see as the core community policing values that address institutional racism and the lived experience of black communities? 

• From a Public Health objective, what are our primary responsibilities in seeking to reduce serious violence in our communities? 

We aim to explore the black experience of policing, co-produce a Black community policing public health framework, and develop an action plan that addresses these two critical issues. 

The APA Project was developed by the Black Men 4 Change network and is chaired by Lee Jasper of Blaksox, who conceived the Project. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gang Worker Targeted by Police After Whistleblowing on Safeguarding Failure That Led to the Death of 7yr old Joel Urhrie.

You will no doubt remember the case of  anti violence practitioner, Mr Gwenton Sloley found himself subject to police harassment and arrest after blowing the whistle on the serious failures of Lewisham Council and the Metropolitan police service in responding to pleas for help, that desperate mother who feared her home would be targeted for attack, on the release of her wayward son from prison.

She pleaded with the powers that be to move her and her child from their Lewisham home, those pleas went ignored and when Gwenton raised the issue of this total and utter failure to protect a young child's life, he found himself the victim of police harassment and malicious allegation.

This is a update and part two of an interview, the first of which is also on this blog.

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.

Romford Mother Speaks Out on The Beating Of Her Son by Met Police.

Introducing my new You Tube channel, an exciting collaboration between myself and Arapat TV committed to my weekly show  #LeeJasperDriveTime Forgive me, I’ve been a bit slow in updating the blog recently, all thats about to change and I invite you to subscribe to the channel to get the latest content. 

This week's show is an exclusive interview with the mother of the Mum of 17 yr old black boy, who along with his 14 yr old brother, was arrested in #Romford recently. 

Harrowing testimony of what happened that day with new harrowing details and a mother demanding that @MayorofLondoninstructs the @metpoliceukCommissioner to #SuspendPCKevinRawley

Filming in #Romfordthe other day for this film and I was approached by two white white cockney women, and asked what I’m doing, I tell them I’m filming in relation to the incident the other day, and they told me the biggest pile of crap, that they said, they'd been told by police.

So there we were chatting, firstly they told me that arrested boy lives above their shop and stinks of cannabis all the time. Secondly, they said the black boy who was arrested, had assaulted a police officer, prior to filming beginning. 

Thirdly, the second black boy who had run off, was a "known drug dealer" or else why would he run off?

They also told me, that it was it was " common knowledge" that Black boys with knives are “committing most of the crimes in their area.” 

When I asked where they had got their information, they told me their local @metpoliceuk officers had briefed them “on the circumstances of the arrest " and from that information, it was absolutely clear " the boys were drug dealers."

When I told them, the arrested black boy did not in fact live above their shop, that, in fact he had no previous criminal record, and his "drug dealing mate" was in fact his 14-year-old brother who ran home to alert the mother, their response was instant and shocking,"Well we don't know about that, but we all know is black kids committing all the crime around here."

When I showed them their borough crime profile that proved otherwise, they said "you can't trust the police figures most people don't report crime".

When I pointed out the disproportionate use of violence by police in arresting black youth, and the differential ethnic charging regime for the possession of cannabis it made not one jot of difference. They said "I'm not being funny but you are the racist, not the police officer"

It was a staggering level of ignorance, these woman simply refused to be moved off their prejudice. What's clear is that @MPSHavering #Romford are running a covert smear, propaganda campaign against the boys. These women said they have been fully briefed by local PCs.

So not only have the @metpoliceuk refused to #SuspendPCKevinRawley they're running a covert propaganda campaign to discredit these two young black boys. What is the @MayorofLondon and @SophieKLindendoing about racist propaganda misinformation campaign?

So my question to @MPSHavering is what action are you going to take to investigate precisely what locals have been told by Romford PC's ? @  and why is Met PC Kevin Rawley still in work despite being under investigation by the @IOPC_Help? Such is the level of anger in the black community that failing to suspend this officer constitutes a definitive provocation and will lead to conflict on our streets. 

Dear Met Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick please stop racially  targeting our children.

Here are your officers, publicly searching a young black girl child in east London, we all know that this should've been be done by a policewoman. Have we now decided that white male police officers can search teenage black girls?

Watch the video here.... A

This occurred in East London, and on the 23rd May there is a strategic, #StopAndSearch meeting taking place in Hackney, this meeting will set out a strategic community framework for the use of stop and search powers and the policing of cannabis, in London. (See below for event details)

The sponsoring organisations, hope to collectively agree on a manifesto demand, setting out a policing agenda for the forthcoming, London mayoral elections, due to take place in May 2015.
Stop and search will loom large in that election, and with your support, we intend to make it so.

Can you imagine, if this is taken place with a 14-year-old Muslim girl in Tower Hamlets? The response would be overwhelming. What that tells us is there a differential policing styles, operating in London and bringing differential policing to distinct ethnic groups, in accordance with favourite prejudices, terrorism for the Muslims and cannabis for the Blacks.

Dear Mr Mayor of London​ Sophie Linden​ I and indeed many others, have consistently and repeatedly warned you about your failure, to focus on the ever-worsening relationships between London's African, and African Caribbean communities and the Metropolitan police service, during your time in office, you have chosen to ignore and reject any idea that the Metropolitan police service could in any way be illegally, and en masse, racially profiling London's black communities.

You're now massively increasing stop and search at a time when public trust is it lowest Level in recorded history, and as a result of your continued failure to interject, restrain and where necessary confront, the deep institutional bias that is residual in the core policing operational practice. to be honest, I find this quite bizarre, given you were a practising solicitor for many cases of police racism and yet we can find virtually no political response to the challenge of racial profiling in stop and search.

Can you imagine, a Labour London Mayor, being outflanked by a Tory Prime Minister who insisted that the burning injustices our communities face, at the hands of London police officers, must come to an end?
Whilst she spoke boldly, you in stark contrast, have remained utterly silent. That deafening silence may come, at enormous cost to you, the capital and indeed the country at large,

Institutionalised racism within the police service, has produced "soft apartheid" like policing culture, where any and all police racism, can be legally justified and explained away, under the existing law.

While the police and the Home Office, research and statistical analysis on ethnicity and the use of, stop and search figures and cannabis cautions/charges, have long demonstrated that your our officers are targeting black youths using this age-old racist, policing prescription.

There is growing anger at this burning injustice in our community, and that includes your own particular failure, as the head of the police service, to tackle institutionalised police racism, racial profiling, stop and search, disproportionate charging and the failure to tackle police officers engaged in gross and often violent racist arrests.

The response of the public, seen here in the video below, is a testament to the fact that the police are no longer trusted by many in our community.
The Met hs lost our public trust and confidence as they continue to abuse and harass young black boys and girls, using their catchall convenience power of stop and search, with the usual add-on, "I smell or suspected she was in possession of Cannabis or illegal drugs." Let us remember that the British Crime Survey, has consistently shown all the last 30 years, that by their own admission, white people are the biggest user of cannabis in the United Kingdom by a country mile.

After the Romford arrest (please see my latest exclusive interview with the mother) the final vestiges of any trust, that remained have now evaporated under the glaring heat of institutional police racism. It can be a long old hot summer if the police of the beard like this once our young people break up from school

And yet, research tells us that the police are disproportionately targeting black youths for #StopAndSearching charging, and sending youth for possession of cannabis, yet in contrast, the figures show that London's white youth, are routinely given a caution when the amounts of offences and the remarkable the research shows that this discrimination exists, and this is important, even when the number of drugs, and the number of previous offences of suspects, are exactly the same.

What this means is black youth are being, Illegally force-fed into the criminal justice system, where they then begin to see racist racism and disproportionality ramp up at every stage of the criminal justice process. This is exactly what David Lammy MP described, in his recent report on racism within the criminal justice system.

What this demonstrates, and listen to me well, is that the police are using a combination of disproportionate stop and search and the suspicion of cannabis possession, as the rationale for over 80% of all stop and searches that take place in London.

It's got to stop, any one of these arrests could be a catalyst for wider civil disturbances as communities erupt under the constant pressure of racial profiling and police violence. Our communities are now pressured cookers building up a head of steam, and Mr Mayor the inevitable truth for you, as you head into the last 12 months before the mayoral elections is stark and gravely worrying.

Having failed to rein in the worst excesses of institutionalised racism in policing practice you're administration has allowed this situation, a situation that was clearly avoidable and could have been diverted, to build up such momentum, that I suspect there is very little you can do to avoid the now almost inevitable outcome.

Any incident triggered by racist policing and police brutality, whether real or imagined, can cause widespread disturbance, such is the level enmity few in the community are now prepared to stand by and believe London's police officers when they say they are not targeting black youths.

The figures don't lie. The awful truth is, and here we see a country and a capital city that refuses to learn from its history, that if LondonLondon does not learn, then London will burn, and the primary responsibility for this epic tragedy, will live at the door of the mayor's office that is willfully and consistently refused to challenge Metropolitan police racism

With thanks to Peachey Mcqueen​ and Tears Carpenter​  for posting the video. And if anyone knows this family Id like to talk to them so ends them my way. Please share this information, as they avidly read my page to gauge public opinion. So like, share and leave your comment, I guarantee anything you write here, will be seen by the powers that be. Time to speak truth to power.

Black British Bus Driver And Rasta Queen Marcia Carty Is London’s Rosa Parkes.

Mary Carty 10 years driving London buses.

54-year-old Londoner and Jamaican, Marcia Carty has worked at Metroline buses for the last 11 years; she is part of the much talked about, magnificent, Windrush generation, a Jamaican woman who has lived in the UK since she was a child. 

The recent, deplorable and illegal deportations of black British pensioners is indicative of a change in atmosphere, a change in the mood music, here in the England. Post the Brexit referendum, black people across the country are reporting seeing huge increases in hate crimes and this is further validated by a massive upsurge in the anecdotal reporting of increased racism targeting black British people. 

Whether it's immigration officials, police officers, schools or employers, black people are witnessing their rights constantly being undermined, ignored or simply taken away. This is particularly galling when one considers the enormous contribution of the Windrush generation and our fore-parents, contributed to the making of modern Britain. 

Marcia is part of that golden generation and is a proud Rasta Queen. She has worn her head wrap and Rasta colours of red, gold and green, now for over a decade, whilst working as a public servant as a London bus driver. Eleven years of good service, wearing her head wrap and her colours, and all without any problems, that is until now. 

I recently met her, and her brother, on a busy summer afternoon in central Brixton. I wanted to hear first-hand, her story. What promoted this meeting was the fact that Marcia so you are a lover, had over the last few weeks, been featured in several news articles, after her trade union, Unite warned the Metroline Bus Company, to end, what it called ‘religious discrimination’ against 

her and potentially other London Rastafarian bus drivers. 

Mary Carty and brother.

Typical of that generation, Marci of all and her Rasta brother, are hard-working, law abiding people, both polite and with a quiet, modest, but steely determination to secure her religious rights and the rights of all fellow Rastafari in London, to practice their spiritual faith, without undue and discriminatory, interference or intimidation from wider society. 

Rastafarian’s have long been a part of British culture and thankfully, gone are the days when dreadlocks were seen as unusual, however the status of this spiritual movement has, routinely met with resistance and dismissal from British society at large. 

From the days of slavery, to the fight against British colonialism, and coming right up, to the Windrush scandal today, Rasta has always been at the centre of our historic resistance and rebellions against against racism and oppression.

Organised ‘religion’ is an rejected by the Rastafarian faith. They believe all Africans are born Rasta’s and that his Imperial Majesty, Haillie Selassie I, is the one true living God, Jah Rastafari.  Dreadlocks are also deeply symbolic, in a complete rejection of western aesthetic, norms and values; dreadlocks can also be, like a Nuns habit or the hijab, an outward sign, of inward piety and devotion. 

While Britain loves Rasta Mouse, and most are more than happy to have funky dreads on their MTV flat screens, they often baulk, when real Rasta turns up at their school or work place.  

It’s long been argued by westerners, that Rasta does not constitute a ‘real religion’, and as a consequence does not enjoy the protection of Human Rights legalisation that seeks to protect, only those ‘traditional’ faiths, considered to be the worlds mainstream religions.  

Marcia, surprised at being asked to remove her red, gold and green head wrap, after a decade of no complaints, responded to management instruction to stop wearing the colours, offered a compromise solution. She suggested she wear a blue head wrap, requested by the company with a small red, gold and green coloured badge. After being approached several times by her manager demanded she remove her colours, Marcia was forced to take time off with the shear stress of the situation.

Marcia sensible compromise was refused by Metroline, so Mary appealed the management’s decision and that appeal was heard in recently, and sad to say. that appeal was rejected. The situation today is that Marcia has to stop wearing her colours or face future disciplinary action. 

Of course, the obvious problem here is that historical development of international and domestic law and jurisprudence on the issue of religious freedoms and universal human rights, has always been an exercise in maintaining the status quo and confirming the total marginalisation of Africans' around the globe. 

There is not one, original spiritual African faith recognised as a major world faith, anywhere in the world. This reality simply reflects, the deep racism and prejudice that exists right across the spectrum of Western legal, political and theological thinking, the legacy of which we still discern today, and can be seen reflected in Metroline’s decision to demand that Maria remove her Rastafari colours. 

For those with little or scant understanding of the movement, I shall explain the significance of their colours to Rastafarians and black people worldwide. 

These colours adopted by the Rastafarian movement and many African nations are seen as being deeply symbolical of the central tenants of their faith and pan African politics. 

Red; to symbolise the blood of our people, those alive today and our ancestors who suffered the indignity and brutality of 400 years of slavery and colonialism. 

Green; to symbolise the earth, the glory of natures bounty and and the necessity for humanity to live in harmony with the natural environment. 

Gold; to represent the sun and all its life-giving properties. 

Consider these colours as equivalent to the Jewish Star of David or the Cross in Christianity. These colours are believed to provide a link to our past and given related to African independence, the optimism of the future. 

But, first let's distinguish the wheat from the chaff. There is a Rasta; a spiritual movement, a grounded in faith and spiritual belief around the tenants of ‘one love’ and repatriation to Africa, and then there are people who wear dreadlocks, but who are not practising Rastafarians, everybody from follow fashion, funky dreads to Christafarians. 

Tube driver Harvey Mitchell wearing his red, gold and green tam. 

Its important you know the difference, because the wearing of dreadlocks for purely religious reasons is a fundamental human right, whilst wearing dreadlocks to look cool, is not. Marcia Carty is a devout Rasta, and there are many Rasta’s and supporters working on London’s public transport day in day out.  

Remember Tube driver Harvey Mitchell the tube driver that stopped his tube, on the anniversary of the Grenfell fire. Harvey halted his tube on Latimer Road Bridge, North Kensington, London to wave his green Grenfell flag in salute of the Grenfell fire victims? 

Other London bus companies or London Transport do demand that Rasta’s hidden their colours. In these companies Rasta’s are free to wear their colours with pride and without fear.

In a multicultural city like London, the prevailing culture is one of live and let live. London Transport and the Mayors Office need to intervene now and instruct Metroline to fall in line with other London bus companies, and allow Marcia to wear her colours.  

It is unacceptable in 2018, in a multicultural city like London, that a worker who otherwise has an impeccable record of professionalism and public service, should be threatened with losing her job simply because her  particular faith is not recognised  or valued by this employer. 

Marcia however is not the 1st to feel the backlash against Rasta. From police harassment, to school exclusions to workplace disciplinary’, Rasta’s have being the subject of abuse and oppression. That cannot continue or at the next generation and all Rasta’s must be respected as any other religion working on London transport systems.

In 1993 Trevor Dawkins was refused a job as a van driver after being told to cut his dreadlocks. Trevor refused and won his case after the employment tribunal ruled that Rastafarians constituted a distinct ethnic group. This decision was appealed by the Department of Environment, in the Court of Appeal.

Lord Meston, representing the government, was reported in the Independent newspaper as saying, in open court that Rastafarians were no more than  a relatively short lived “sect, cult or movement” with “quasi political and religious tenants.”

Then, much more recently, there was the case of Chikayzea Flanders a 12-year boy who was told, by Fulham Boys School, to cut of his dreadlocks, as reported in the Metro.

And,  more, recently, in the House of Commons. Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) MP, Anne McLaughlin, whose partner is a Rasta, called for Cannabis to be legalised in recognition of the importance and sacrament of Marijuana in Rasta faith. 

Surley in a modern, multicultural, democratic city like London, we should be leading the world  on innovative equality policy.  

Thankfully, this a simple matter that can be resolved at the stroke of a pen by the Mayor of London. 

All that Sadiq Khan has to do, is issue an instruction to Transport for London to instruct  Metroline, to change its policy or lose its contract. It's that simple. We are asking that you sign, share and support this petition, to the Mayor demanding equal rights and justice for Rasta's  working for London.

And surely in a progressive, modern city like London, we can reflect the reality of our hyper diversity by ensuring, that as far as practical, employment policies in London should not seek to discriminate, marginalise nor opppress public sector workers who choose to express their faith. 

This law already applies, to various other mainstream religions including Muslims, Sikhs and Jewisih ardherehts to the faith.  There is no reason why a policy accommodation cannot be made for the thousands of public sector workers, many of them working on London Buses and Tubes, are either Rastafari themselves, or, have Rasta in their family or are sympathatic to Rasta faith. 

This case has the potential to become a huge problem for the Mayor and Metroline. In many ways in refusing to take off her colours, Mary is echoing the definiant resistence of black women from Nanny of the Marrons and more recently, Rosa Parks. 

I believe this case cannot stand and good sense should prevail, to that end we are asking you to sign a petition in support of Marcia and requesting the Mayor to intervene.  We hope you will stand with Marcia and defend Rasta livity. 

One Love.

Lee Jasper 

Momentum Black Caucus.

The Public Death Of Rashan Charles and Black Community Confidence in the Met Police.

Rashan Charles tragic and brutal death on screen is haunting the powers that be like a wailing banshee. 

Things are not going well for the Metropolitan Police Service, the Independent Police Complaints Commission nor the Home Secretary.

Met Police and Black community tensions continues to build. Its a bit like a slow underwater leak into an already full dam. The damage may not be immediately discernable, but sooner or later that dam’s going to crack with devastating consequences.

The radio silence maintained by the Met Police and the IPCC in relation to the death of Rashan Charles is deafening. 

I suspect we are witnessing a concerted cover up and an information clamp down about a case, that should righty cause outrage and uproar.

And I should know, since tweeting a #Justice4RashanCharles meme I've had legal notices sent to me by Twitter and some restrictions placed on this tweet being circulated in the UK.  

I suspect this legal challenge has come from the Metropolitan Police Service who don’t want the image of the officer circulated.

Trying every single trick in the book. 

Trying to clamp down on the truth. 

This legal intimidation is as a result of the Police recently applying to the Corners Court for an “ex parte” hearing. They applied for and were granted, reporting restriction on the naming of two police officers (we only know of one… so that’s interesting) and the member of the public who assisted the officer in restraining Rashan.

Rashan being brutality detained 

I’m informed the Charles family were not informed of this hearing and were not given any opportunity to challenge the Met’s demand for anonymity for their officers, so much for genuine police accountability and due process.

Some three months on, and despite the much-vaunted claims of ‘police bodycams’ leading to a new climate of openness and transparency in the aftermath of the shooting of Mark Duggan, the Met police have reverted to type and closed down all avenues of information on the Rashan case.

Where is the Met’s footage and why hasn’t it been released? Why do the Met want the police officers names to be publicly withheld? Don’t we pay their wages?

So little is known about this incident, that one has to truly wonder if the Charles family, cannot get clarity from the Met about the precise circumstances leading up to the death of Rashan, what will it take for the Met to be truly accountable to Londoner's?

Let's look at what we do know. We know that Rashan was a passenger in a car that was stopped by Tactical Support Group (TSG) police van.

Was Rashan's detention unlawful and illegal? 

We don’t know why the car was stopped or what legal powers were used. 

We don’t know what powers the TSG officer who chased Rashan relied upon to detain and restrain him. 


Months later, despite this being a case that attracts huge public interest, we know virtually nothing of the legal circumstances surrounding his detention. 

This is deeply distressing for the Charles family who are becoming increasingly frustrated with a process of inquiry and accountability that appears to be building a brick wall between them and the truth.

I suspect we still don’t know what happened today because this was an illegal stop and search and the police don't want their recently announced increases in the use of the power to be fatally undermined. 

That’s the difficulty the Met face, telling the truth now means they would be forced to admit, that Rashan’s forcible detention and arrest fell well below the standard legal and professional requirements. 

Think about it…why else would the Met refuse to comment, in the face of overwhelming public criticism, on the precise legal rationale for his pursuit, restraint and arrest?

I believe the Met Police and the IPCC want as much time and distance to have passed between the incident itself and the full disclosure of the facts, most of which they have in their possession now. Were this true, this would constitute a cynical media management campaign, prosecuted against the public interest and at the expense of the a grieving family. 

They are deeply worried about the Charles case, not simply because we have a video that cant lie, but because the full facts, were they to be revealed now are so shocking, as to constitute a threat to their policing legitimacy. They're also aware of another important reality, they face a formidable Charles family, demanding justice.

A fact largely unknown in the public domain until now, is that Rashan’s uncle is a retired Metropolitan Police TSG Sargent with 30 years service under his belt. I’ve met and spoke with him on many occasions and he says of Rashan restraint, he’s never seen anything like in 30 years in the job. He’s a big man and in many ways, is a typical policeman’s policeman, a dedicated professional officer and a Police Federation rep for many years.

He told me that throughout his 30-year career he’s restrained hundreds of people suspected of swallowing drugs without a single compliant or injury. He was also a trained Firearms Officer, and a Borough Operations Manager. And he knows instinctively what legal restraint looks like. Public Order trained to level 2 this man was responsible for training his fellow police officers.

He is shocked, angry and disappointed that neither the Met Police nor the IPCC are offering any explanation as to the legal basis of Rashan’s detention. The Charles family are also disappointed with the chaotic, foot dragging response of the IPCC. You can see the anger and disappointment in his eyes, this is a man who believed in the system would work and now he knows it doesn't, he’s devastated.

Another curious thing, where’s the delayed pathology report into the cause of Rashan’s death? Why is it, some two months later we still have no public explanation as to the official cause of his death? 

I was contacted recently by a reliable contact that tells me that the Pathologist has in fact found that Rashan died from strangulation. We shouldn’t be shocked, you don’t have to go to medical school to reach that conclusion, but what’s really shocking if true, is that I’m told that the pathologist is currently being lent on by the Met Police and Home Office to withhold and amend this report.

My information is the pathologist concerned is desperate to tell the truth but is being subjected to massive pressure to keep silent.

Ask yourself, why is it taking so long to publish a pathology report into Rashan death? 

The reason could be the Met don’t like the conclusion. If true, then this may have certainly lead to serious concerns being expressed in the Met, the Mayors Office and Government itself, that it's publication, citing strangulation as the cause of death, would lead to widespread social unrest and delegitimise the use of the power of stop and search.

Whatever the conjecture and speculation, there remains one objective truth in all of this, and that is the video can’t lie.

That three minute plus tape has told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, leaving the assembled authorities of denial, blinking at the screen, mortified and desperate to know what to do and desperately seeking a lawful and reasonable ‘explanation’ of events capable of reinterpreting and reframing the plain awful truth.

We are being asked to believe their explanation that the police officer was simply trying to save Rashan from swallowing a package of suspected drugs, that turned out to be nothing more than caffeine and paracetamol.

There are those, particular the army of on line police trolls, who are determinedly active in seeking to discredit Rashan and justify the officers actions I’ve now named them, the Police Troll Support Group #PTSG. My twitter TL is infested with these full time, troll agents. I have written about their activities before after they targeted me and conspired to have me removed from Twitter. 

It’s quite remarkable that we’re being asked to believe the Police   narrative, rather than believe our own lying eyes, remarkable, but not surprising. As Black people we know that racism is a powerful hallucinogenic drug capable of inducing extreme denial in the face of objective truths.

The officer concerned has now been served ‘misconduct papers’ a term that suggests some kind of minor misdemeanour, as though he was late for work or insulted the boss. It certainty doesn’t equate to being questioned for the possible murder of an innocent man. Why cant police officers be arrested like the rest of us, where there is compelling evidence of serious criminality?

The Met are standing by their man and refusing to suspend him from duty despite the enfeebled IPCC request for them to do so. Instead they’ve placed the officer on restrictive duties.

Now let me ask you this, on what planet are we living on when a police officer, who may have been responsible for the death of a member of the public, goes back to work the next day and continues as normal? In any other profession that person would be suspended until an investigation had concluded and determined all potential criminal responsibilities and legalities.

Another anomaly in this case is why has this officer has given a preliminary statement to the IPCC, that say’s nothing about the legal grounds for his actions? The IPCC Commissioner Cindy Butts whose investigating this case needs to recognise the public need answers now, not in three years time. 

This officer will now of course be formally interviewed under caution, unbelievably at a time of his choosing, having been served his IPCC initiated misconduct papers, and will be surrounded by his Federation lawyers and no doubt retaining his right to silence.

In a statement in response to the Met's failure to suspend this officer, the Charles family issued this statement;

The video clip of 20-year-old Rashan Charles shows him thrashing around, desperately gulping, trying to breath as he is ‘restrained’ by a Metropolitan Police Officer in Dalston, east London.

Rashan died on the 22^nd July 2017 almost three months ago and his death has opened many people’s eyes to the reality of the police brutality and racism faced by many black young people on a daily basis.

The conclusion reached by the majority of objective people who watch the violent scenes unfold is that Rashan was strangled to death. That simple and objective truth is both crystal clear to most who watch Rashan take his final breath.

There is no controversy around these events. The film does not lie.

The TSG police officer chases Rashan into a shop, wrestles him to the ground, and then with the assistance of a member of the public, proceeds to place his neck in a forearm lock, exercising a lethal lynching like vice grip, that literally crushes his neck, cutting of both vital oxygen and blood supplies to the brain.

You can see the most urgent and tragic desperation of Rashan as he thrashes around struggling to suck in oxygen, suffocating under the sheer weight of both the police officer and a member of the public.

As you replay this scene from Dante’s hell, you can feel the oxygen draining form one’s own lungs and your breath is literally taken away, as you watch Rashan fall limp.

One has to ask where is the Mayor of London and the London Assembly in all of this? We’ve had the death of Edir Frederico Da Costa and a young 16yr old black boy from Lambeth, Tyresse Johnson who riding on a scooter with no helmet and being chased by police ‘fell off” and subsequently died from severe head injuries.

There is no mention of these issues at City Hall. No expression of concern from the Greater London Authority, the London Assembly members, not a word from Mayor Sadiq Khan, nor his Policing Advisor Sophie Linton nor his one and only black deputy Mayor.

And so, on these most important matters, we have total silence from the office that is ultimately responsible for the Met Police. Where is the voice of Londoners?

It should be of no surprise to anyone that not one of these mourning black families have not received a formal apology from the Met police. Their contempt is palpable. 

Hard to imagine such contemptible callousness and lack of basic compassion, but black lives remain cheap in London and have no political significance for the Met Police, the London Mayor or the London Assembly. For them its simply business as usual.

All of this, and to make matters worse, we have no locally elected Police Consultative Groups in London. Abolished by Boris Johnson they were a vital conduit for communications between the police and public at times of great tensions. Lord Scarman recommended their creation in aftermath of the 1980’s Brixton uprising. He felt it was important to address the obvious communication, trust and confidence gap that led to public anger about unrelenting police racism.

The consequences of their abolition means that local police accountability has been slowly eroding ever since. Unelected Safer Neighbourhood Boards have taken their place and simply failing to fill the gap. Their minutes are private and they operate largely in secrecy and anonymity, the London Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee is a pale imitation of the former Metropolitan Police Authority it replaced. 

The result of all of this is? We’re left with the same information vacuum identified by Lord Scarman and cited as a key contributing factor to the civil disturbances that took place, post the shooting of Mark Duggan in 2011.

Today we remember that that stop and search has increased by a factor of ten since 1986 and as a direct result we have the highest level of tension and public mistrust between London’s black communities and the Met seen in decades.

London is refusing to learn the lessons of its recent history and is therefore destined to repeat the tragic mistakes of the past. No community can long withstand, without tragic social consequences, 

such profound political marginalisation, 

police oppression and injustice.

People, politicians, the police and Government really need to wake up and understand that Londoners’ need answers now and that any further delays will only exacerbate already growing police and community tensions in the capital.

As was once said by someone very famous "Without justice, there can be no peace"