Racism in the NHS: A low level localised fever 'bubbling away in the background" or a toxic and deadly epidemic?

Please Share. #RacismAtKings 

The Richard Hastings now famous case, that of a former IT manager at Kings College who was sacked by his employer after 19 yrs. Loyal service and eventually won £1 million compensation at Employment Tribunal is just one of many such examples I have discovered of a culture of workplace racism within the National Health Service.

Richards's nightmare experience in many ways characterises a common experience as related by many black NHS employees. In the 1950/60's the Windrush pioneering generation frequently were met with racial hostility and hatred.


Many faced comments such as being told to, "wash that dirty black off your skin", and face the most profound racial and physical abuse.

Kings CEO Dr Clive Kay 

Seventy years on, although many things have changed in relation to NHS black workers, facing awful racism in the workplace, that reality remains an all too familiar tale today. Whilst the crude racism of yesteryear has all but gone from the NHS, there remains a thriving culture of racial privilege proving racism is alive in the NHS.

There is a deep irony that an institution whose purpose is to cure illness and disease appears to be an incubator of this enduring malady – but it comes as no surprise to thousands of black staff working there.

Over the course of making my soon-to-be-released documentary #RacismAtKings (more about that later) I interviewed very many current and former staff, who are or have worked at Kings College Hospital London. In this documentary, I feature Richard and others

The narrative I heard back from all was horrifyingly consistent with Richards's own terrible experience. Time and time again I heard workers speak of trying to confront racism and finding themselves becoming targeted by management as a result.

And these are not isolated examples, there is a much deeper systemic problem in Kings. That problem is reflected more broadly in the NHS nationally. Next time you have the opportunity to chat with a minority ethnic NHS worker, casually drop into the conversation "How are things for black people working in your hospital?"

No doubt some will be initially reluctant to speak badly of their employer – after all let's not forget most are there out of a sense of vocation, not self-interest. But with gentle encouragement, these NHS Black workers will withdraw their finger from the NHS dyke and a rush of fetid tales will wash away your disbelief.

Black and Asian nurses have a strong reputation for going the extra mile for patients. Doctors from all BAME backgrounds take a Hippocratic oath to do no harm "premium non-nocere,".

So much real and lasting harm is being done to black staff and patients inside the walls of our much-loved health service -  which leads us back to Mr Hastings.

Let me briefly reiterate that the events that engulfed him making the point that these are are neither rare nor exceptional instances. A recent report by the NHS Leadership Academy states "racism is bubbling away in the background"

The report shows that things are in an incredibly bad way within the NHS with a massive 81% of acute hospital trusts, reporting a higher proportion of BAME staff, as compared to white staff stated they had "personally experienced discrimination" from their supervisor or colleagues, and there were similar results at 80% of ambulance trusts, 87% of community trusts and 73% of mental health and learning disability trusts.

The Workforce Race Equality Standard. A series of national, race equality progress reports, published annually to show the extent of progress made, also found a higher proportion of BAME NHS staff experiencing harassment, bullying and abuse from both patients and the public, responses constituted a staggering 44% of acute trusts, 60% of ambulance trusts, 65% of community trusts and 80% of mental health and learning disability trusts.

The majority of BAME staff questioned in the study, also said that they did not believe their organisation offered equal career progressions for BME and white staff this was true for black staff at 86% of acute trusts, 50% of ambulance trusts, 80% of mental health and learning disability trusts and a shocking 100% of community trusts.

All of this information is well documented, is in the public domain and widely reported. One has thousands of very serious questions given these appalling figures, is why despite all of the NHS commitment to tackling racial inequality over the last 20 to 40 years does this situation continue to exist?

The real reason for such stunning lack of progress, is that the leadership of the NHS including senior staff and the public treat racism like a common cold – it's irritating, rub song Vicks on your chest, take some cough syrup and wait for it to go away.

It is not until pneumonia claims a life that the system reacts with any sense of urgency. When a leading NHS Trust, such as Kings College Hospital in London, is ordered to pay £1m in damages to a former employee for outright and blatant racial workplace discrimination – what this case and these reports demonstrate is that the NHS, doesn't have a common cold, it has acute pneumonia misdiagnosed as a common cold.

The case. 

Dawn Broderick Kings Executive Director Workplace Development 

Richard Hastings was an IT manager with King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, in south London. Mr Hastings was accused of assault after an affray with a contractor and delivery van driver in the hospital's car park in 2015.

This particular incident began one bright morning when Mr Hastings, who was in a loading bay at the hospital, waiting for a parking space to become free. As he waited he became involved in a minor parking dispute and was subsequently sworn at by a white van driver. When Mr Hastings approached the van, which contained three men, he said the driver made a number of racially charged comments during a "war of words". In the heated argument, Mr Hastings said the contractor told him about his skin colour, telling him: "Careful it doesn't come off".

Mr Hastings said that when he gave the driver his name the white van man reacted with disbelief, apparently shocked that Richard had such an "English-sounding name". When the contractor found out he was a manager at the hospital, Mr Hastings said he exclaimed: "Look! They'll let anything happen here" yet another racially charged comment.

At one point the white van driver placed his hand on his forearm and he reacted by lifting his and in so doing unintentionally made contact with the contractor's face. Mr Hastings called the hospital's security office for help during the confrontation but nobody came to his aid. Black hospital staff take care of the nation's sick but frequently find themselves deserted by their employers and institutions when suffering from racist abuse or physical attack at work.

This begs the question who takes care of the black care-takers??

After the incident, Mr Hastings told colleagues what had happened and with their encouragement he reported it. But after an allegation was made that he assaulted white van man he was summarily suspended.

After a formal investigation by Kings, which the tribunal found was tainted by "unconscious bias", Mr Hastings was dismissed on the grounds of gross misconduct.

Kings had sacked him after an " investigation" that ignored his allegations that he had been subjected to racist abuse. Their flawed disciplinary process was also found, by the tribunal to have unfairly painted Mr Hastings as "the aggressor", based on their own preconceptions of him as an aggressive black man.

This is a common stereotype deployed against thousands of black male staff, but thankfully for Richard, on this occasion, the hospital car park CCTV footage showed the contrary.

Despite being the real aggressors the white van contractors were seen by the Trust as "the victims" during the investigation process. The tribunal found, as a matter of fact, that during the investigatory hearing Mr Hastings provided hard evidence of racial abuse and of foul and offensive language being directed at him, but this was not investigated. In fact, in reality, that evidence was ignored.

The employment tribunal quite rightly concluded, "by failing to investigate this the claimant was treated less favourably because of race."

Mr Hastings has been left "completely broken" by this experience. He has so far failed to re-establish his career despite applying for many jobs, had lost weight and had trouble sleeping. He told the Guardian newspaper at the time: "It was very hurtful but what was even more hurtful was the treatment from the organisation I'd been with for nearly 19 years. I was devastated. Each part of the process left me even more helpless. This whole thing over three years has taken a tremendous toll on my physical and mental health. It was totally unnecessary."

The tribunal said his evidence, "as a black man of Caribbean origin, was treated with unwarranted distrust and disbelief". By contrast, the tribunal found him to be an honest witness while identifying numerous inconsistencies and flaws in the opposing evidence.

A spokesman for the trust said: "The trust has apologised to Mr Hastings and we would like to extend that apology once again." He said the trust had implemented changes to improve support to staff. But haven't we heard this many times before, over the last 40 years?

These well-used platitudes are facile and an insult to the 200,000 black staff working in the NHS. As taxpayers we are the ones who foot the bill for the millions that are spent by incompetent managers, defending indefensible race claims.

As customers of the NHS, we are the ones who ultimately suffer because staff performance drops when staff are feeling abused, harassed and discriminated against. At a time when the NHS is casting its net around the world, to fill the current shortage of doctors and nurses, Can we really afford an NHS with a reputation for treating black people like tainted goods?

My best wishes go out to Mr Hastings, we shall continue to advocate for his colleagues at King's and tell their stories.

In coming weeks I am reaching out to Elliot Browne and others who are part of the £1m plus NHS compensation club to learn their views on how their cases have impacted practice in their former trusts.

In future blogs, I shall be throwing a searing spotlight on hotspots of bullying and racial harassment. Send me your stories. I'm hearing there is something "bubbling away in the background" in Berkshire – it shall come to light right here - watch this space.

If you have a case you like me to cover, that further exposes racism suffered by black workers within the National Health Service then please do contact me directly by emailing me all reaching out on social media.

That which is done in the dark must be brought into the light if we are to finally bring an end to the appalling working conditions black and ethnic minority workers within the NHS.

Lee Jasper will be speaking at the Unite branch meeting to take place on June 11th at 1pm taking place at Kings College Hospital, the boardroom. Contact Unite Branch Secretary Frank Wood for more details email frank.wood@nhs.net

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.

Black Bean Counting Fails to Cure Epic #NHSRacism

Black Bean Counting Fails to Cure Epic #NHSRacism  

There is an epidemic of racism within our beloved NHS. It is not only harming the career prospects of BAME staff it is literally killing some of them. 

The more I looked into this area the more of a scandal appeared before me.

Aside from the recent case Of Richard Hastings previously of in Kings College Hospital  London, an interesting case that garnered national headlines (my forthcoming documentary #RacismAtKings will be launched in the next few days), and as I have recently discovered there have been very many other standout cases. 

One such case is Eliot Browne a 55-year old manager who was dismissed in 2008 by Central Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. He was deemed by an employment tribunal to have suffered racial discrimination at the hands of his employer, and received an award of almost £1 million in damages. The Trust apparently never apologised to Mr Browne, and appealed against the tribunal decision. It subsequently lost the appeal. It was reported at the tribunal that witnesses for the Trust closed ranks and that disciplinary action was commenced against Mr Browne to get him sacked. A union official commented, “The systematic intimidation and bullying of a single individual, the like of which I have never seen in my career as a regional union officer, was breathtaking and callous”. Mr Browne is reported to have stated, “It is scandalous that this kind of behaviour should exist in an organisation whose prime purpose is to care for others”.

Of course Black people have not just been content to be punching bags in the battle for fir and decent treatment. The NHS BME Network gave an outstanding account of themselves in the fight for many years. The Network was led by Dr Vivienne Lyfar-Cissé a Principal Clinical Biochemist in Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals (BSUH) NHS Trust. During the early years she stood out as an unflinching advocate for race equality in the NHS. She Chaired a number of BME Networks including the Surrey and Sussex BME Network; the South East Coast BME Network and was the Transitional Lead for the NHS BME Network before being elected Chair of the Network in        2012.

Under Vivienne’s leadership The South East Coast BME Network published The Equality Service Reviewreport July 2008. It was not easy to acquire the data from the Trusts in the region but against incredible odds the review was completed and showed statistical evidence of the huge disparity in the experience of BME staff compared to their white counterparts. Vivienne went on to form the NHS BME Network which began the work of holding the NHS leadership to account at national level. The Network at its peak held conferences in Mayfair hotels attended by NHS leading lights with audiences of over 500 NHS professionals. There was a famous moment when David Nicholson (then NHS CEO) was summoned from his office by Network’s Annual Conference, subsequently mailing his apologies for not taking the time to appear in person. 

Unfortunately, as with many black movements, internal and external political pressures caused fragmentation and its eventual decline.

Vivienne and her colleagues Dr Isaac John, Kenny Dhun, Henry Oblie, Nolan Victory and Joel O’Loughlin are the unsung heroes of the current approach to race equality watch out for forthcoming interviews with them on my You Tube Channel. 

The report they published in 2008 established the basis for measuring the BME experience and led to 3 Trusts being issued Compliance Orders by the Equality & Human Rights Commission. This meant they were in breach of the Race Relation Amendment Act (2000) failing in their duty to tackle institutional racism. The methodology was picked up by Roger Kline a researcher in Research Fellow at Middlesex University Business Schoolwho published old wine in a new bottle in a report called ‘Snowy White Peaks’. The premise of the title is the higher you climb up the NHS hierarchy the whiter it gets. Roger went on to become the Director, Workforce Race Equality Standard (Research and Engagement) at NHS England. - Vivienne fell from grace and was fired for discrimination.

 

The NHS made implementing the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) a requirement for NHS commissioners and NHS healthcare providers including independent organisations, through the NHS standard contract in 2015. From 2017, independent healthcare providers were also required to publish their WRES data.

The first WRES report, was published in June 2016, followed by the 2016 WRES report on 19 April 2017. In the first two years, not all the Trust provided quality data and what was produced showed appalling disparities which evidence systemic discrimination. It’s hard to criticise an evidence based approach to tackling a persistent blight on the NHS, but counting beans is useless unless you marry it up with action to make things better. There has been a marked lack of such initiatives. and today the NHS is experiencing an epidemic of racial discrimination and bullying of BAME staff.

It is time for the NHS to stop counting black beans and do something to kill the virus of discrimination which is making us all sick. Watch this space for news on my drive to flush the system of the virus and purge the NHS of racism.

If you are an NHS professional and have a personal story of racism or bullying get in touch here

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.