How The Metropolitan Police Force Undermines The Black Communities Fight Against Violence Part 3  Watch this Exclusive Interview with @StaffordScott Speaking Out On #PoliceRacism.#Matrix

UK Black Communities Undermined In Fight Against Violence PT2

Three prominent British black men, working with the Metropolitan Police Service  to better relations and reduce violence, speak of their arrest, all were harassed or arrested by their Police 'colleagues'.

Hear from Dr Mo Hashi, Lambeth,  Ken Hinds, Tottenham and Gwenton Sloley discuss the state of police, black/community relations in London. and how they ended up being harassed by the Met.

The implications for London are devastating.

You will not believe what you will hear on this video an 7 year old boy lost his life as a result of the failure of the authorities to safeguard the family. They pleaded for protection.

The current relations between Met police and community can be described as toxic.

Please share #PoliceVsBlackPeople #PoliceRacism #YouthViolence #MetPolice

Its going to be a long hot summer.

Dear Mayor of London, 

27th July 2016. 

This is an open letter to you. I'm not sure you'll even see or even read it, but it's a genuine attempt to avoid the continuing deterioration of Met Police/Black community relationships over this summer. 

In my experience in dealing with thousands off demonstrations over the last 30 years, I find the police, when faced with an information vacuum, have a tendency to let their worst fears haunt them, and as a result, can adopt aggressive policing tactics. I've seen the wrong tactical options and decisions, chosen by inexperienced, sometimes racist, senior Police officers cause mayhem on more than one occasion. 

As you may know, I've been Head Steward for some of the largest and most militant demo's in the UK and again in my opinion, and backed up with formal confidence surveys, the level of distrust between the Metropolitan Police Service and black youth has now become almost endemic. Public trust and satisfaction surveys show a year on year decline in the extent to which black people have trust and confidence in the Met. 

Currently, those figures in the major London boroughs of Brent, Lambeth, Hackney, Newham, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, Greenwich, Croydon, Southall, Westminster RBKC are London's most multicultural boroughs are the lowest on record. Ask them if you don't believe me. 

Now, I know that the Met Commissioner, you Mayor of London and your Deputy Mayor for Policing Sophie Linden are all concerned and an emergency meeting has been conveyed. 

The Met believes, as a result of their lack of community engagement and the race prejudice, that the Black Lives Matter Movement US has become ' terrorist' in nature as a direct result of the recent shootings of police officers. 

Of course, they're wrong, but sharing intelligence with the Pentagon has reinforced their view that Black Lives Matter UK, or elements within its ranks or close to it are planning major attacks on police. The recent Hyde Park fiasco reinforced that view. It appears when they saw the size of the crowd, they overreacted and they had no-one on the ground to talk to, nor did they have anyone they could call. 

In the ensuing panic, chaos broke out and fight broke out where two youths were unfortunately stabbed. 

As a result, all Met Police leave has been cancelled and they are in danger of allowing their uninformed fears dictate their operational tactics. 

Good advice is in short supply and as a result of their decision to dismantle the McPherson Inquiry policy and monitoring forums, they are now operating in an information vacuum. As a result, they are making huge contingency plans for serious disorder focussing on the events below. 

Reparations March, Mark Duggan March, and Notting Hill Carnival. 

The other day the Daily Mail, ran an article from out of nowhere, citing me as an 'anti-police rabble rouser' citing my critique of policing tactics at Hyde Park and my comment that its look like a ' long hot the summer'

I was referring to the fact that if the wrong policing tactics, aggressive rude, violent policing predominates, then this summer will be long. In the context of the on going racially profiling and criminalisation of black youth, you can not expect black young people to face racist policing Mon to Friday and make exceptions for Sat and Sunday. 

Upping the ante at these demonstrations is a classic Police mistake that results from the Met refusing to engage with hard core activists with credibility, on the ground in their communities and instead surrounding themselves with complaint black people with little to no experience of demonstrations or the history of tactical policing options used over the years. 

The Mayor seems to have no one of credibility giving him this advice so here it is for free. 

I would advise that you too stand down the TSG and abandon the offensive policing tactics currently being put into place at New Scotland Yard. I would advise that ensure that you are personally engaged with this issue and that any move by the Met to move towards offensive policing is authorised buy you after proper consolation. 

I would convene a number of black credible representatives (not me I know I am persona non grata ) who can be called upon at these events, to respond to any escalation of tensions or critical incidents. I would insist that these people are deployed to assist and inform your community liaison on the ground at each of these events. 

I would avoid having those with out expertise, credibility and community authority, they cant help you. These are fig leaves for Met Police indiscretions, for which they are usually paid very well. Choose wisely on this. 

Given the global rising tensions around police/black communities in the US, the targeting of EU capitals for terror-related attacks, the general, historic. but now acute distrust of London's black communities in the Met, alongside the perceptible rise in racism and hate crime in the UK and the recent death in police custody of Mzee Mohammad, my strong advice Mr. Mayor is avoid taking as sacrosanct alone. the operational advice and intelligence offered by the Met.

I say you should triangulate the information. 

Under the current Met Police Commissioner, the institution has abandoned its commitment to race equality and declared itself a 'post racist institution' in July 2009. 

As a result of this catastrophic error the Met has now lost both its corporate memory, best practices and as a consequence of age, some of its most experienced senior officers. 

The other worrying fact Mr Mayor, is that we have the lowest number of experienced 'street craft' officers and the highest number of probationer officers than at any other time in Met history. You may recall that Lord Scarman quoted the information vacuum and the high number of Probationers Constables on the streets unaccompanied by experienced officers as key reasons why Brixton 86 occurred. 

The Met, left to their own devices, will always police according to their fears. That's the danger, compounded by the failure to maintain effective communication with black communities and its most ardent critics. 

This, in addition to a retreat from local real police accountability and the ethos of policing by consent, set against the closure of the borough based Consultative Groups, has all resulted in a total breakdown in communication. which is why local Police Consultative Groups were initially recommended by Lord Scarman after the 1986 Brixton uprisings . 

Your predecessor Boris abolished them, largely I suspect because of people like me, consistency challenging and holding senior officers feet to the fire. 

I once predicted disturbances in January 2011 after the death n police custody of Smiley Culture. I was ignored, ridiculed and summarily dismissed by your predecessor, Boris Johnson and in August 2011 the country exploded after the police shooting of Mark Duggan. 

Boris was on his summer holidays in the Algarve at the time. I did a Sky TV interview on the evening of the protest amid the anarchy and demanded to know where the Mayor was while London was burning. 

He was forced to return to London immediately. 

Take note and enjoy your summer holidays Mr.Mayor 

Mayor. 

Warm regards 

Lee.

Police Brutality 2015 Notting Hill Carnival

Police brutality at the 2015 Notting Hill Carnival. Watch as a brother is punched and pummelled by the Metropolitan Police for no reason. The brother is under control and there is no threat to the officers. 

He is punched repeatedly whilst on the ground, then as he is being led away on handcuffs, he is punched again for no reason. This is the type of behaviour that results in communities having little or no trust or confidence in police.

I would certainly offer our support to this young man if you or any of your friends know him then please pass my contact details. 

I think we should all be demanding this be properly investigated at a public investigation and the officers be immediately suspended pending investigations. 

I wonder if any of the officer involved or who saw what happened reported and complained about the disgusting behaviour of  their fellow officers?  I doubt it. Then that leaves us to support this brother who no doubt will be falsely charged with police assault. 

I think its time when marched to New Scotland Yard and demanded answers. Whose with me ? 

Police Operation SWAMP 81 Returns To Brixton This Thursday

No to Operation SWAMP Brixton 2014. (Now cancelled!) 

Saturation Policing Aggravates Police/Community Relations

This Thursday 6th March 2014 will see the return of the discredited policing tactic Operation SWAMP to central Brixton. The discredited policing tactic that saw hundreds of officers literally swamp local communities triggered the civil rights uprising of 1981.

Now refreshed and re-branded as a Lambeth Council led initiative and beautifully named  Brixton Unites, the tactic sees its return under the broad banner of the Met Commissioners Total Policing initiative.

Given the total breakdown of relationships between the Metropolitan Police and the local Black community, the local council has been persuaded to take the lead in an attempt to soften the impact on what will be a extremely aggressive enforcement activity whose stated aim is 'to make Brixton feel safer'.

What is planned is unprecedented in the local area in terms of its scale and the fact that no consultation has taken. No surprise there given the mayor of London and Met Commissioners appalling record on community engagement.

The SWAMP Brixton day will begin with Trident Anti Gang Unit raids starting around 6am and last until the early evening.

In addition there will be drug enforcement units using sniffer drugs in the center of Brixton, parking enforcement will be ruthlessly enforced and Traffic police cars will be stopped and checked for tax and insurance, British Transport Police will check tickets at the Tube and use drugs dogs in the station. Immigration officers from UKBA will be targeting suspected illegal immigrants and Council Officers will hit all the shops with health and safety inspections, rough sleepers will be moved on and street drinkers arrested.

There will be a huge search for weapons. Abandoned vehicles will be towed away and the Truancy team will be targeting children throughout the day. All this will be filmed by the BBC as part of a documentary on the MPS.


What is remarkable is virtually no consultation has taken place with local communities about this massive enforcement operation taking place in two days time.  Neither the Council nor the Police have seen fit to consult in any meaningful manner beyond their usual group of compliant pro police partners.




Given that tensions are running high in the aftermath of the Mark Duggan verdict this operation feels both oppressive and disproportionate. It is beyond belief that no one thought it necessary to consult with the community about this Total Policing operation designed to send a clear political message form the Met "We control the streets" and Council seeking to luck tough on crime in the run up to local elections in May.

This operation must not be allowed to go ahead if the important principle of policing b consent is to mean anything at all. At the last public meeting recently organised by the Mayor Office for Policing and Crime in Lambeth resulted in the Met the sheer anger at the Met and the Mayor was palpable.


It is my view that this SWAMP operation is designed to send a clear message to local communities and that is the Police are a law unto themselves. The focus will be on the Coldharbpour Lane ward where we have seen an influx of new well organised middle class resident,  slumming it from Chelsea and demanding that police and Council take actions

I hear that new residents on Coldharbour Lane are already making noise complaints about established black business of many years standing who for years have played music outside their shops.As these new resident move in they demand the ambiance and policing that they enjoyed in areas such as Chelsea and Richmond.  This SWAMP policing operations also speaks to the politics of policing, post the Mark Duggan verdict, it has a focus on press public relations management, short term electoral gain,  reputation management and gentrification than it has to do with tackling crime.

If this goes ahead,  we need as many people out monitoring and  filming activity, providing rights on arrest cards, immigration advice, taking pictures and advising juveniles of their legal rights. I intend to be out there for the entire day and would encourage others to come and join me. I will be in Windrush Square Brixton from 1pm please join me.

No doubt this operation is more to do with the ongoing rapid gentrification of Brixton than it has to do with tackling crime.

We simply cannot allow these bully boy policing tactics to take place in Brixton, the Council and the police simply cannot be allowed to impose a style of policing upon our local community at the behest of another.

Community consultation cannot be simply dismissed as an unnecessary adjunct to tackling crime particularly in areas where relations with the police are strained. Lack of communication in such circumstances could potentially be catastrophic. We cannot have drug dogs, immigration deportation teams, traffic enforcement cops British Transport police parking officers and many others simply swamp a community where relations are so bad.

There is a meeting of Lambeth Police Consultative group taking place this evening Tuesday 4th March at 5.30 at the Karibu Education Center Gresham Road SW9 where I will be raising these and other issues. Please do come along and have your say.

No to Operation SWAMP Brixton 2014

Stop and Search and the Office of Constable: The Mass Criminalisation of Black Communities

Unless you happen to Black or Muslim.

May I apologise in advance dear reader this is rather long article. It seeks to deal with issues that a rarely covered elsewhere in any depth and so by its very nature has become a complex read. I hope nevertheless you will take the time to read it as I have laboured long in writing this for you. Get a cup of tea, relax and put your feet up.

You will no doubt not completely agree with all I have written here, but in prompting debate its important that there is compelling argument.

I didn’t submit a consultation response to the Governments snap 8 week summer consultation on the police power of stop and search. After 30 years of an almost relentless rise in rates of stop and search under Tory, Labour and now a Tory led Coalition Government and countless consultations I really didn't see much point.

There are number of other reasons why I chose not to formally submit a view, but primary among them was that I, along with many of Britain’s black communities, have zero confidence in the Government’s commitment to tackle racism either more broadly or within the criminal justice system in particular.

Is she serious about reform?

This Tory led Coalition government has engaged in an ideologically driven purge that seen the gradual elimination and eradication of all traces of anti-racism or multiculturalism in Government policy. As far as race is concerned the Prime Minister has adopted the French model I dealing with racism  and determined no special provision, no focus on difference, no special interest group’s agenda’s and has given the issue zero political priority.

This has seen the dismissal of all national Black and ethnic minority consultation forums, the proscription of single ethnic funding for disadvantaged groups and promoted the most disgraceful demonization of immigrant communities. In addition, they have enfeebled the Equalities Human Rights Commission removing Black and Asian Commissioner’s, slashed budgets and sacked workers. They have made a bonfire of legal aid cuts and left black people with no ability to easily or affordably access or enforce our rights to be protected from racism and unlawful discrimination.

The history of formal consultation with black and poor urban communities is a sorry one of raised hopes, dashed aspirations and failed delivery. If our democracy is eroding and it is, (one look at voter turnout rates tell us that) then the process of municipal or statutory ‘consultative abuse ‘as I call it, has played a large part in alienating communities from local authority forums and wider democratic engagement.

After decades of unethical and poorly organised consultation the experience left most poor communities feeling both used and abused.

Statutory consultations are viewed by most living in poorer communities as nothing more than PR exercises that usually take place after the real decisions have already been made, informally or otherwise. Government, Council or statutory consultations are seen as tick box exercises.

Driven by either a legal requirement or political expediency, the outcome for communities is invariably the same. They feel frustration, anger leaving them feeling disempowered, patronised, ignored used and abused.

Consultation now leaves a nasty taste in the mouth and has become a dirty word that is spat out with venom. For me, having witnessed both the good and the bad, the issue of poorly timed, badly executed, patronising, crap consultation is right up there with MP’s expenses, Clegg and tuition fees and Blair illegal invasion of Iraq.

Such consultation is disempowering and acts as a drain on community confidence in statutory process and ultimately, confidence in democracy itself.

Stop and Search Consultation.

I consider this particular effort by the Home Office a joke, an attempt to appear to be listening while kicking the proverbial political football into the long grass. Bear with me dear reader and I will tell you why. Before I do though, it is important to understand the nature of racism in policing. As one of Britain’s most experienced campaigners on this issue I offer you the following insight into the problem we now face.

As a direct consequence  of the misuse of Stop and Search powers Britain's black communities are being criminalised at a persistent and alarming rate. The consequences for democracy and our communities, are simply devastating. What we are witnessing is the return to the pre Macpherson levels of mass criminalisation of black communities by a predominantly white male police force (and I use that word deliberately for this is how they are now perceived).

In the last year, in addition to the myriad of issues arising in the aftermath of August riots of 2011 we have seen a plethora of stories on stop and search. In January we saw Stuart Lawrence brother of Stephen, complained of being consistently targeted by Met officers for no other reason than the colour of his skin. In March a Met police officer was recorded telling a black youth  'You’re problem is you’ll always be a n****r'. 

In July the Met admitted what black communities had known all along, that it fails to investigate race complaints. An Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation uncovered the case of six Met officers sending each other deeply offensive racist texts.

In May the IPCC revealed that it received over 50 race complaints since the 1^st April and these are recorded complaint that are dwarfed by the mountain of unreported incidents that the community simply has no confidence in making.

The view of the influential Met Black Police Association officers is clear and uncompromising that the Met continues to be an institutional racist organisation and cannot be trusted by the public to investigate claims of racism. Then we had the simply devastating news that in the aftermath of Stephen Lawrence’s brutal racist murder, the Met had deployed undercover cops to spy upon and undermine the Lawrence family and their campaign supporters.

Increasingly viewed as an army of occupation by many communities, rather than upholders of the law, the Met have violently regressed on the issue of race, suffering a rampant relapse of institutional racism.

Racism as a social phenomena has endured for 500 years adapting, shape shifting, moving its focus from the crude unreconstructed racism of the 1950’s  to the smooth, barely detectable on the surface, sophisticated type of racism we see today. The impact of racism has morphed form the crude Teddy boy racist attacks and colour bars of the 1950's to school exclusions , job rejection, criminalisation and incarceration. Social mobility in all communities has declined and wealth inequality has increased for all  communities, but particularly, no let me rephrase that,  acutely so for the black community. Those colour bars remain even if the mode of oppression has changed

Whatever the changing face of racism, what is clear that  rates of racial inequality in Britain in the areas of education, housing health. wealth and criminal justice are rising and rising fast.

Racism remains one of Britain’s most contagious and virulent social viruses. Racism remains reactionary, evolutionary and resistant to change and in the current economic austerity climate, promoted by Tory politicians seeking to induce a climate of fear, it breeds a powerful sub culture.

In the institution of policing where racism is given the green light by affable politicians like Boris Johnson it becomes cancerous threat to communities that condemns thousands of black youths mass involvement with a racist criminal justice system.

Boris Johnson much like Mayor Bloomberg in New York, comes across as moderate, charming and affable. Black people In New York thought Bloomberg a moderate Republican and decent guy and yet he too resides over a force, the NYPD, whose deadly racism hides in plain sight. Most recently the NYPD Stop and Frisk policy have been deemed illegal after a federal judge deemed the policy violated constitutional rights of minorities in the City. Johnsons Met is no different in terms of stop and search from the NYPD.

Most Londoners will not be aware of the deep crisis in confidence experienced by black communities when it comes to the Met, but I can tell you things are really very bad indeed. A recent poll found that 38% of Black Londoners polled believe the Met remains institutionally racist and that’s an undercount.

One a lighter note though, the calamitous state of relations between the Metropolitan Police Service and London’s black communities has resulted with Met being renamed by inner London Black communities as the Metropolitan Discrimination Force (MDF). Joking aside, the breakdown in London’s police and black community relations, the sheer anger and outrage that many in our community, particularly young people feel towards the police remains unacknowledged by the mainstream press, media and political commentators.

Mayor Boris and his Policing and Crime Commissioner Mr Stephen Greenhalgh, have not only turned a blind eye to racial profiling within the Met but have demanded more of the same.

From the year the Mayor got elected in 2008 to 2011 he increased stop and search by the Met by a massive 200,000. The erosion of police accountability in London and the abolition of the Metropolitan Police Authority led to the complete dismantling, in line with Government policy, of all policy infrastructure that tackled institutional racism within the Met.

The clear signal sent to the Met by the Mayor was that race was off the agenda and the issue of race equality at the Met was placed on the policy back burner. In the most diverse city in the world that was a catastrophic political error that led indirectly to the riots of August 2011 and has led to a well of deep anger and frustration that has built up and will inevitably burst forth onto London streets. .

The Mayor to be fair had already declared that the Met was a post institutional racist organisation in his infamous Race & Faith report. However, like all resurgent infectious viruses that have failed to respond to an initial course of treatment, the culture of racism within the Met has become resurgent, more powerful than ever.

Such is its power and influence as the dominant organisational culture within the Met, that it literally eats police guidelines, policy and equality legislation for breakfast. It corrupts all before it and lays waste to the empty political rhetoric of equality.

This immense power is so culturally engrained, so deeply rooted in the Met’s DNA as to represent the most acute threat to democracy, levels of peace safety and security of the capital.


As I have stated previously but it bears repetition, I believe the disturbances of August 2011 will be occur again at some point probably before the general election in 2015 if not shortly after, but come they will, with a level of ferocity and venom that will shock and surprise many.

Constitutional discretion in policing drives racism in practice.

The driver of this culture of police racism is in my view directly related to the extraordinary level of officer discretion that in Britain is one of the highest levels of officer discretion anywhere in the western world.

“The police service in England and Wales is almost unique in investing its lowest ranking officers with its greatest and most intrusive powers”

So said, none other than Tom Windsor, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary and it is this Office of Constable that lies at the heart of untrammelled officer discretion, discrimination and disproportionality in modern policing.

Lord Denning, in his judgement in the case of R v. Metropolitan Police Commissioner ex parte Blackburn 1968 gave legal definition to the Office of Constable.;

“I hold it to be the duty of the Commissioner of Police, as it is of every chief constable, to enforce the law of the land. He must take steps so to post his men that crimes may be detected; and that honest citizens may go about their affairs in peace.

So every PC knows that he or she has the sole power to decide what is deemed ‘ suspicious’ and that determination is beyond question by anyone, by authority  given by the Crown.

Lord Denning went on to say,

“He must decide whether or not suspected persons are to be prosecuted; and, if need be, bring the prosecution or see that it is brought; but in all these things he is not the servant of anyone, save of the law itself.

“No Minister of the Crown can tell him that he must, or must not, keep observation on this place or that; or that he must, or must not, prosecute this man or that one. Nor can any police authority tell him so. The responsibility for law enforcement lies on him. He is answerable to the law and to the law alone.”

What these means in effect, is that when it comes to the interpretation of the law of the land, the PC is sovereign.

To change the level of individual discretion that police officers enjoy and abuse, would require the reform of the 12^th century ancient and now unfit for purpose, Office of Constable,  in order to ensure that police officer were personally and professionally accountable for their actions.

Want to lower the number of stops and searches? Amend the police regulations to remove officer discretion for reasonable suspicion and make the disproportionate targeting of black people by individual police officers a sackable offence.

No superior officers nor Ministers of the Crown can instruct officers to conduct less stop and searches and this absolute power forms an explicit part of the PC driven canteen culture of racial profiling that now threatens liberty and democracy. In the Met its the tail that wags the dog.

This mediaeval office is the root cause of disproportionality in the Met, not lack of training or more diversity courses, this archaic power gives rise to ancient prejudice and chronic injustice.

Such absolute power and discretion gives licence to racism and discrimination. The Office of Constable for me amounts to a codification of racism into the very heart of the institution of policing.  This the definition of institutional racism and it exists at the core, the very bedrock of British policing

In recent years Black British citizens are being subjected to the single most sustained and targeted campaign of police harassment ever seen in Britain. A quick look at the figures for Stop & Search shows the focus of police activity post the publication of the McPherson report rising from 100,000 per year in 1998 to a staggering 1.1 million in 2012. 

This despite persistent media reports at the time and subsequently that the police were reluctant to use the power as a result of the Stephen Lawrence report. The Met use of the power is abusive and unnecessary, they rely on this power more than any other force in the UK.  Within the lower ranks it’s seen as defining who runs the streets and in adopting that attitude the Met have become the biggest gang in London.

I urge you to read the excellent Release report on the Met’s use of Stop and Search and drug enforcement policy.

It makes devastating reading. What the reports details is the inescapable fact that the policing and prosecutions of drug possession offences in England and Wales is unduly focused on black and minority communities.

This report looks at racial disparity rates at stop and search, arrest, prosecution and sentencing and clearly demonstrates that the drug laws in the UK are a major driver of the disproportionality that exists in our criminal justice system in relation to the black community. 

Its findings provide the most conclusive and irrefutable, evidence that racism is driving the wholesale, mass criminalisation of black communities in Britain. I along with Release, will be announcing a tour of major black communities across the country to discuss this report and its implications.

If you’re interested in hosting such a meeting then do contact me.

 Race: The political football.

Tory Home Secretary Theresa May is not by nature a committed anti racists. What then, are we to make of her sudden conversion to driving down disproportionate rates of black people being searched by the boys in blue?

In politics, timing is everything as is the mercurial arts of distraction. The timing of the Home Secretary, in publically declaring her commitment to non-racist policing followed the Channel 4 story of an undercover policeman who admitted to spying on the Lawrence family and their supporters. I’ll leave you to join the dots, but for me the whole Government consultation on stop and search is an exercise in distraction, a form of political Aikido if you will.

This is a tactic developed into an art form by the Met. Huge public uproar and scandal, followed by contrition, acknowledgement and apology, followed by consultation and then some small concession. This tactic seeks to absorb the community rage and anger by seemingly taking criticisms on the chin and where there are no legal implications, admitting some level of responsibility and inviting critics in to Scotland Yard to help them get things right.

There an escalating menu of options for defensive political Aikido depending on the specific gravity of the issue. However the general format is the same for all statutory agencies in crisis. Consultants are hired, terms of reference are drawn up, scoping report is produced and a year has passed. Critics are patronised as experts and given a place on the committee.

The current consultation is no different. The Government announces an urgent consultation, Minister’s huff and puff publically on the issue, guidelines are produced, and the healing balm of ingratiating bureaucratic co-option to working groups or sub committees serves both to impress and dissipate communities’ anger until the next time. Communities and campaigning organisation wait three years to find out the guidelines are not working, the recommendations not implemented and the whole process starts again. It’s a political process perfected in Government that perpetuates a cycle of reinvention. How many reports are there on stop and search have been written in the last 30 years, thousands and I mean that, literally thousands.

Scotland Yard and Government must have an aircraft hangar somewhere in Buckinghamshire stuffed to the rafters with reports and consultation feedback all dutifully ignored and left to collect dust, occasionally being cited as evidence of progress.

This stop and search consultation represents, in political terms nothing more than a small diversionary bush fire. The Home Secretary’s more urgent task is one of wholesale police reform and breaking the link in the public’s minds about police officer numbers and the level of crime.

No doubt she will have been advised I’m sure, that Association of Chief Police Officers, MPF and other Police Services are no pushover and she has one of the most thankless tasks in Cabinet. The received wisdom inside Government is that Home Secretary’s job is a hospital pass in rugby terms. There is even a legend “The path to reform of the Police is littered with the white bones of previous Home Secretaries who have tried before.”

The number of political scalps they have claimed in the past is testimony to that. At a time when the Government is committed to ‘reforming’ the police, which in essence means attacking their pay and pensions, any stick to beat the police will do.

The whole thing smacks of political opportunism of the highest order and as black communities we had a gutful of such political posturing at our expense.  So no I didn’t respond to the consultation having no faith whatsoever that anything other will emerge from Government than some new or amended guidelines. These will be dutifully ignored by the majority of street based PC’s and Stop and search disproportionality may dip monetarily but continue on its remorseless rise. There is simply too much money to be made by all in criminal justice system in the mass   criminalisation of black youth snared by Stop and Search in the war against drugs which is ostensibly a proxy for a war against black people.

It is my view that regardless of the outcome of the Government nothing much will change for the majority of black youth. What I suggest is radical civil disobedience to expose the moral hypocrisy of the law in relation to stop and search to force Government to change the law so as to racism in the execution of stop and search.

This is my 24th September Stop and Search Declaration so named to reflect the end of the cosmetic consultation of the Home Office and the beginning of a serious political discussion on how we, as committed black people and anti-racists, finally achieve change.

The article is meant to promote community discussion and offer a way forward out the continual process of history repeating itself leading to yet more oppression and injustice. Information is power and the findings of the Release report are incredibly important we are keen to work with you to disseminate its findings in local communities and develop a peaceful civil disobedience campaign. Here are the suggested proposals. First I think its important to have a declarative statement of intent, followed by some real action on the ground.

24^th September Stop and Search Declaration.

We oppose the arbitrary and discriminatory use of stop and search powers by British police services. We note the disproportionate and illegal targeting of black and ethnic minority communities by some police officers. We commit to challenging the discriminatory and damaging use of Police stop and search powers and the subsequent criminalising of black communities. This is vital if we are to retain the important principle of policing with consent.

We believe that all people should be treated fairly and professionally and without prejudice.

We uphold the right of all people resident in the UK regardless of ethnicity or faith to be treated as equals by British police officers in accordance with British human rights standards. We commit to working with others whose objective is to peacefully confront and expose the racist policing of our communities.

Stop & Search Agenda for Change.

1.    To consider a campaign of civil disobedience. If everyone who was subject to the power initially refused to provide their details the police would be forced to take you to a police station. Once there you can provide your details and no offence would have been committed and you would be released. Such action would fill up police cells overnight causing huge difficulties in police stations across the country.

2.    To mass peacefully in selected symbolic Police Station receptions all over the country. This would have a similar effect as above and again would cause huge disruption.

      3.    To organise mass rallies outside selected police stations.

4.    To organise groups of people to follow street foot police patrols to record and publish their activities

 

5.    To establish, where they don’t exist local Stop & Search Monitoring Groups to co-ordinate local activities.

 

  If  you would like to host a local meeting on Stop & Search based on the findings of the  Release report or would like to comment further contact me

 Lee-jasper@live.com

 

The Met must address its cultural psychosis on race: by Peter Herbert

(Article originally published by the Guardian)

With over 50 complaints made to the MPS in two months, condemnation of police racism is no substitute for action

Police stop and search black youths at the entrance to the Notting Hill Carnival in 2008. Photograph: Gideon Mendel/Corbis

The disclosure that as many as 51 allegations of racism were made to the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) in the two months after 1 April should come as no surprise to anyone who is familiar with the Met's track record of institutional racism. It is difficult for a leopard to change its spots just because a Lord says it should. If the period from April to June is representative of a general trend, this may mean that we'd be looking at an average of over 200 complaints per year, which in itself would only be the tip of the iceberg. As with all aspects of racism, the real figure is certainly a lot higher.

The term "institutional racism" was always a very generous term from the outset. It allowed senior management to claim that there was little or no direct racial discrimination. The reality has always been different. Human beings sadly do differentiate on grounds of race, gender and class in making their everyday decisions. The police are no exception to this general behavioural tendency, but the danger is that given the pressures of their jobs, mere racist prejudice is more likely to result in racist actions than with other members of society.

Police officers have overlooked the development of a culture in which being African Caribbean, and more recently Asian and Muslim, was of itself a cause for suspicion. The disparity in the MPS stop-and-search figures, exceeded only by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) in disciplining rates for black and minority solicitors, suggests a deep cultural psychosis.

The reaction of senior management today is to scramble to deny the problem, and is a widespread one reminiscent of the "few bad apples" comments made famous years ago by former commissioners defending the MPS.

The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who himself paid a less than keen interest in anti-racism while editor of the Spectator magazine, permitting racist articles by the journalist "Taki" not only to be published but also to remain online for several weeks, was himself subject to an investigation by the MPS that was referred to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Johnson recently claimed that "we've moved on" from the term "institutional racism", first defined by the Macpherson report, adding that "I think great progress has been made but there is more to do". This strongly suggests he fails to grasp the seriousness of the issue and warrants some analysis as to who the "we" are.

The mayor may have been referring to white people in power and authority like himself and his former deputy mayor Kit Malthouse, which would explain why so few of the recommendations of the Race and Faith report of 2010 still had not been implemented.

Racism flourishes when permitted to do so. There is clear evidence that the leadership of the MPS, which is still horribly white, these days does not have race central to its core business objectives to eradicate or reduce. Words of condemnation are no substitute for action. The actions against racism are far less vigorous in practice.

In its wider responsibility neither the mayor of London nor the MPS sought to maintain the work of the London Race Hate Crime Forum organised under the former Metropolitan Police Authority. This body, which was able to scrutinise hate crime on a borough basis, was effective in increasing the sanction detection rate of hate crime, doubling up from a low of 19% to 38% in 2008.

Yet it was effectively abandoned and the responsibility returned to the old system, which always lacked effective scrutiny and accountability – despite the fact that in London last year there were over 8,000 racist incidents reported to the MPS as compared to 10,000 reported some three years ago. This is almost certainly an indication that the general public has less confidence to report racist incidents to the MPS than it did some years ago. It almost certainly does not mean that racist incidents have fallen by 20% in the last three years, as some would suggest.

There is inevitably a synergy between the fight against race and religious crime and the internal problem of the MPS. Black and minority communities are less likely to join an organisation seen as soft on race and the same community will think long and hard before reporting racist incidents to a police force with a racist ideology among a significant minority. The real answer lies not in the one officer who utters racist comments but in his colleagues who pretend not to hear. That is the culture that has to change.

By Peter Herbert for the Guardian.