UKIP, the Metropolitan Police Service and high corruption .

I apologise for the font confusion here. Ive tried to correct but for some reason Im unable too so Ive taken the decision to publish as is, until I can sort this out,

Over the past year or so, I have found myself in the rather strange position of supporting a woman, originally a staunch Tory, who the defected to UKIP and has subsequently returned to the Tory party fold.  

For me, a black, socialist activist, usually to be found defending poor people, facing institutional racism and gross injustice, this was very strange territory indeed.

In the course our discussions it became apparent to me that the woman who sat before me, appeared to be the victim of a concerted, organised smear campaign designed to completely discredited her, led by leading members of UKIP.

What makes this case so compelling is their appears to be strong prime facie evidence, of the existence of a small cell of UKIP supporters, certainly based within the Metropolitan Police Service, maybe within the Crown Prosecution Service .

I can’t say for certain what’s going on, but my long experience and professional instinct, tells me that there is something rotten at the core of this peculiar and often bizarre story.

An uncommon friendship.

Jasna Badzak is a former press officer for UKIP. She started work for Nigel Farage and Gerard Batten MEP in November 2010 and around a year ago; she was convicted of defrauding UKIP of some two thousand five hundred pounds in October 2013.  Around a year ago Jasna rang me seeking support for what she claimed, was a miscarriage of justice. I was intrigued and decided to meet Jasna.  

I must confess, on one level I was definitely interested in anything that might expose UKIP, a party infested with racists. On the other hand, I was simply curious as to what an ex Ukipper and former, now returned to the fold true blue Tory, could possibly want to see me, of all people, about?

We met on a lovely spring day over coffee.  Jasna, arrived, a tall woman with definite sense of fashion. We chatted and she told me a little of her background. She had fled former Yugoslavia as a refugee some 20 years ago. Her family includes Nazi holocaust victims.

She had reached out to me in desperation, hoping that I may be able to see the injustice she had suffered and help her in some way.  The stress she was suffering was clearly etched in her face but what struck me was her determination and obvious strength of character.  She intrigued me.

Jasna began to tell me her story and what I heard amazed me.  As an experienced campaigner, in my time I’ve heard some outlandish conspiracy theories and what I heard that day, would shock me to the core.

A criminal conspiracy.

Jasna believed she was the victim of a possible criminal conspiracy to set her up, orchestrated she suspected by Gerard Batten MEP in an alliance with officers within the Metropolitan Police Service, aided by the Crown Prosecution Service. But before she could tell me more I had to ask the really obvious question; how come you didn’t know that UKIP was a racist party?

Gerad Batten MEP 

She told me that when she joined UKIP, she assumed the accusations of racism, were just the overblown claims of a hostile press. However as the months passed she became increasingly concerned. Once she had read the draft of Gerard Battens UKIPs Charter for Muslim Understanding, Dismantling Multiculturalism, a rancid and deeply disturbing document, that amongst other things, required all Muslims to be required to sign a code of conduct. At that point she was left in no doubt about the core beliefs of UKIP and the awful truth dawned on her. 

From then on, she knew precisely what Gerard Batten was all about and she was rightly, appalled and disgusted.

Confronted with claims of racism Farage did nothing 

Naively, she began to complain bitterly to Nigel Farage, whom she assumed would share her disgust about Batten’s obvious racism. She told me that although Farage was both frustrated and apparently sympathetic, in the end, Farage did nothing.  

Jasna confided that Farage had eventually told her, that nothing could be done as he and Batten shared ‘mutually destructive information about each other’, that ultimately meant that Gerard Batten couldn’t be touched.

That would certainly explain why Farage, a politically savvy operator, has long tolerated Batten. Good sense and political expediency suggests he should have been sacked, representing as he does, a distinct and dangerous electoral liability. I suspect that Farage failed to act because he fundamentally shares Battens deeply offensive views.

As a social justice campaigner, I’ve been around long enough to know, that sometimes such claims, can be claims the product of mental health conditions such as deep delusion or depression, paranoia or conspiracy theory fanatics.

Nevertheless, I listened intently to her story and though I was very skeptical of her claims and not entirely sympathetic, given her politics, nevertheless she struck a chord with me.

What I concluded was here was a deeply damaged, credible and sincere woman, whose life has been utterly destroyed, the victim of what appeared to be false and malicious accusation and a concerted smear campaign. Her character, her demeanor and steely determination to prove her innocence and expose UKIP racism and corruption impressed me. I knew what she was taking on in seeking to challenge her perceived injustice.

Going up against UKIP, Farage, Batten and the police, was very brave thing to do. Putting aside my own political prejudice, I decided I should explore her claims further.

What she told me that day blew me away. Transcending party politics, we connected on a human level, as two people who shared a commitment to challenging injustice. Jasna experience in Yugoslavia cemented her hatred of racism and fascism. She knew first hand the dangers of allowing racism and fascism to take root. I did however had to let a wry smile slip, when she told me of her previous role on Boris Johnsons 2008 Mayoral campaign.

Despite my obvious reservations, what was absolutely crystal clear to me was there were several unexplained facts, which gave some credibility to her claims.  Whilst at that stage I did not agree with some of her conclusions, I had to agree that something’s just didn’t add up.

Here I must apologies in advance of the length of this article. It’s a complex story and necessarily needs some detailed explaining, but bear with me dear reader, it’ll be worth it. 

First, it’s important to understand the sequence of events that preceded and then led up to Jasna’s eventual arrest.

Background.

Jasna started work for UKIP in November 2010 after defecting from the Tories. By the spring of 2011 Jasna discovered, what she describes as the ‘racist and fascist underbelly’ of UKIP. She says that UKIP was producing material she believed, constituted a criminal offense i.e. incitement to racial hatred. She was aware that Gerard Batten was meeting with European extreme right wing racists. She was also concerned at what she described as ‘ monumental EU expenses fraud’ taking place within UKIP.

Here in the UK, she became increasingly aware of Battens association with the now, all but defunct, English Defence League and British National Party. 

With the evidence mounting Jasna, was so concerned that she made a number of official complaints to the Met, citing what she believed were a range of potentially serious criminal offences.

In March 2011 she formally complained to the Met, that the Charter of Muslim Understanding and Dismantling Multiculturalism taken in concert with Battens association with extreme racist and fascist’s organisation, constituted a clear incitement to racial hatred.  

As UKIP press officer, Jasna claims that, over time, her day-to-day work experience proved beyond any doubt that UKIP was both a ‘racist and proto fascist party’. In May that year she provided the police solid evidence that backed up her UKIP EU expenses fraud allegations. 

That same month she reported another leading member of UKIP for possession of child pornographic images. 

All of her complaints were being handled by a Metropolitan Police Officer, one Detective Sargent Shaun Reardon. Despite repeated requests for updates on what was happening to her complaints she had no response from Reardon.

Annabelle Fuller 

Finally in July 2011 she then provides a devastating witness statement that alleges that UKIP Annabelle Fuller, Nigel Farage’s personal press officer, knowingly made false allegations of sexual attack in relation to Tory MP Andrew Bridgen.






Violent intimidation.

It was then that Jasna and her family then begin to suffer direct violent intimidation. From October 2011 to November 2012 she intermittently endures a series of visits to her home, by random groups of strangers, who threatened her and her son. 

She believes that this was organised harassment by EDL supporters with whom Batten was meeting seeking an EDL/UKIP alliance.

She reported this intimidation to the Met and was surprised to find out that yet again these complaints were being refereed to a Detective Sargent Shaun Reardon, the very same officer who had failed to investigate her initial complaints of UKIP racism and EU fraud.

Worried about escalating violent intimidation and seeking to cope with her own failing health, Jasna then seeks a restraining order court injunction against Batten in Feb 2012.

Met officer supports UKIP.

Here’s where the begins to get interesting, MPS Detective James Galvin turns up at court, embraces Gerard Batten proceeds to tell the court that the MPS has no record of any allegations against Batten nor were there any current, active police investigation into him. 

That was a lie and, as the MPS has now admitted Galvin, had no authority to represent the Met or attend court. Her case was eventually dismissed as a result.

Gerard Batten, then formally wrote to the MPS on October 5^th 2012 reporting his fraud allegations against Jasna. He actually wrote his allegation on UKIP letterhead, which must constitute and attempt to politically influence the investigation. 

The Met having failed to investigate any of Jasna serious previous allegations, then acted immediately upon receipt of Battens complaints. 

Jasna was subsequently arrested on 29^th November 2011, when surprise, surprise, Detectives Constable James Galvin and Detective Sargent Shaun Reardon both, attended her home. They wanted to arrest her there and then, but she Jasna was so ill, it was decided to take her to hospital instead.

The Met formally denies the existence of two serving police officers misleading the Prime Minister David Cameron.

Subsequent to her eventual arrest and charging, Jasna wrote to the Met Commissioner Bernard Hogan Howe asking, why her many complaints to the MPS had not been investigated? This she pointed out, was in total contrast to the Mets swift and immediate response to Battens complaint.

This lead to another key question, why had DC Galvin had turned up at the injunction hearing, defending Batten?  

The answer, when it came, was as shocking as it was unexpected. The Mets Department of Professional Standards informed her that the Metropolitan Police Service employed no such named police officers. Shocked and alarmed she persisted and again she was told again that no such officers were employed by the Met.

She then wrote to the Independent Police Compliant Commission who after some time, wrote back, confirming, that after discussions with the Met, they too  confirmed that no such officers existed.

Jasna at this stage was completely frustrated and wrote to Mayor of London, Boris Johnson and Prime Minister David Cameron. Both men wrote to the Met and both were told, in writing, that no such officers worked for the Met.

Prime Minister was mislead. 

The fact is the Prime Minister, the Mayor of London and the IPCC, were mislead and possibly willfully mislead, by the Met DPS about the existence of these two officers. 

This begs they very important questions as to precise circumstances that led to two of the most senior Tory politicians in the land were provided with inaccurate and misleading information?

                                                                               I then looked at the evidence against Jasna and came to conclusion that the prosecution evidence seemed incredibly flimsy. The only evidence offered was a bank statement, which Jasna is alleged to tampered with, she denied this allegation and points to the timing noted on her on line bank statement that indicated that both statements offered in evidence were printed off within one second of each other.  

Evidence produced in court proved that Jasna logged on to her bank account at exactly 8:11:02 and her bank statement was printed 8:11:03 as recorded on her computer and accepted by the police. Did she really amend her own bank statement in one second?  Unlikely to say the least.

Jasna has consistently contended that she was the victim of malicious counter complaint by Batten as a result of whistle blowing about UKIP’s racism and EU expenses abuse. Further she told me that the EU always paid late and they never knew from one month to the next, when they would get paid.  Batten and UKIP at that time were in the eye of a media storm focusing on the racism of their candidates. As a result UKIP were in utter disarray and an administrative shambles.

She points to this culture of incompetence and confusion by way of explanation. In short, this was an administrative error and as soon she realised she offered to pay the full amount back. This was rejected in favour of prosecution. In addition and hampering her ability to defend herself, in the months prior and after her arrest, Jasna was recovering from major heart surgery.

Then at the trail, the very same officers who she had previously been told, did not work for the Met, DC James Galvin and DS Shaun Reardon appeared in the Court and testified against the Jasna.

Under cross examination the officers said they had no idea why Jasna, the PM, the Mayor and the IPCC had received written confirmation that they were not serving police officers. 

They produced their warrant cards and the Judge simply dismissed the matter.  

0n the 7th October 2013 she was given a 1-year suspended jail sentence for 2 years and 4 months, plus an unsupervised curfew order. For a woman with no previous convictions this sentence seems excessively harsh. 

That same day as the verdict was announced, Gawain Towler, UKIP Chief Press Officers feeds inaccurate stories to Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail to further destroy Jasna now battered credibility.

In January 2014 Jasna Badzak then receives a written witness statement from UKIP insider, stating that Batten had been openly boasting, of stitching up Jasna Badzak for fraud in order to destroy her credibility, as well as reporting that Gawain was heard boasting about the coverage the story received.

He is reported to have said he was pleased at the reception the article received, particularly as he had actually written said article in September 2012, almost a year prior to Jasna’s conviction.

The Met finally takes action against suspected officers with links to UKIP.

During the spring of 2014 I start raising questions and highlighting the details of this case. I conducted a long radio interview with Jasna and started tweeting my concerns and my general support for her. Then in March 2014 Jasna is suddenly contacted by Superintendent David R Manning from Charing Cross police station who indicates that they are intending to now act on Jasna earlier complaints, that pre dated Battens fraud allegation and were now reopening a total of five separate UKIP investigations.

The following month both Jasna and I attend Charing Cross Police Station where we are told that the Met now plans to open a formal police investigation in conspiracy to pervert the course of Justice against DC James Galvin, DS Shaun Reardon.

Subsequently we have found out that DC James Galvin appears to be a member of UKIP and has attended a UKIP rally.  His name, along with his wife, also appears a leaked BNP list.

At this meeting we gave the MPS additional evidence in relation to a Detective Inspector Fleming and another officer, DC Tony Holden. We had strong witness evidence that both contacted prominent journalists threatening them with arrest if they published any negative stories about UKIP. This group of officers is now being investigated on suspicion of the harassment of journalists and possibly perverting the Course of Justice.

Met police harassment continues despite their assurances.

Then in June 2014, Jasna while at the cardiologist and attached to an ECG, Jasna receives series of emails DS Christopher Page sent to Badzak’s lawyer Atkins ordering her to surrender herself by 10 July 2014 to Charring Cross Police station to answer ‘very serious allegations’. This date also happened to be Jasna’s son’s 16^th birthday adding to the family’s harassment and distress.

Later she receives a telephone call from the DS Christopher Page again demanding she come in for interview under caution for the ‘twitter harassment of Gerard Batten’. 

Jasna is then called to a meeting with the Mets, Department of Professional Standards with Inspector Fran Polllard and DS Helen Thomas. Superintendent Manning was relived and replaced by these two officers. We are told later that Manning had been moved after Bernard Hogan-Howe received direct orders from MOPAC and Boris Johnson to get to the bottom of this case.

Jasna and Atkins attend police interview under caution with DS Christopher Page.  

DS Page full of himself reads MIRANDA to Badzak and then hands over to Graham Atkins A4 page note containing following statement:

 “Jasna Badzak has been harassing Gerard Batten with false newspaper stories, tweets that he stole £51k with help of Police in January, 09 May 2014 article in Sunday Times saying perverting the course of Justice, tweets about Islamophobia, lies about Batten attending 1^st Counter Jihad Conference in Brussels in 2007 and talking to Lee Jasper.”

Jasna solicitor Graham Atkins stunned at the nature of the accusation asks for disclosure. Page refuses saying that is only disclosure he will get. Page asks Jasna about background to Batten’s complaint.  Refusing to be intimidated Jasna states for the record

‘UKIP is criminal fascist organization.  I stand 100 % behind that and under Article 10 of European Convention of Human Rights incorporated in British law as Human Rights Act 1998 I have a right to freedom of speech and there is nothing you can do about that.  You can also not order me to keep quiet or not to tweet.  I know you would like to silence me completely, to muzzle me but you can’t despite your telephone threat not to tweet’. 

Page then lies, saying that he never ordered Jasna not to tweet about Batten. Fortunately Jasna recorded his telephone call and tells a stunned Page that she has irrefutable evidence that he did order her not to tweet about Batten or talk to me. Page is immediately subject to an investigation

Conclusion.

In summary, I suspect that there may have been an active conspiracy involving members of UKIP, Metropolitan Police Service, possibly the judiciary to falsely criminalise and character assassinate Jasna Badzak. If true this would represent the most serious threat to the very basis of our democracy.

Should it be that UKIP members or sympathisers, in statutory agencies are conspiring together to criminalise, harass and intimidate people UKIP disagree with, then this would require the most urgent intervention from the Home Secretary and the Prime Minister.

Along with the Plebgate revelations of deep systemic corruption within the MPS, this case raises the most profound concerns about the nature and accountability of the Metropolitan Police Service. If Police Officer’s are engaged in targeting moderate political activists from both the left and right, then that has to be an issue of acute concern for us all. 

With evidence of the Met spying on families campaigning for justice such as the Stephen Lawrence, Sukedv Reel or Rolan Adams families to name just a few, the Plebgate incident, undercover officers having sexual relations, fathering children in the line of duty alongside rampant institutional racism and the routine abuse of stop and search powers, such allegations if proven, would be so serious as to require the resignation of the Commissioner and Deputy Mayor Stephen Greenhalgh.

We will await the outcome of the Mets internal disciplinary investigations. Such investigations have no real credibility with police investigating themselves and we believe there is strong and compelling case for IPCC to conduct an independent investigation into these matters.

The Met and the Mayor and the really need to answer the serious questions raised by this incredible tale. Whatever our personal politics, I think we can all agree, this case raises fundamental questions and there is a strong and compelling case to answer.

NB.

Nikki Sinclaire, a former UKIP MEP who left the EFD fascist group in the EU Parliament because she disagreed with sitting with fascists and has been very vocal critic of UKIP was arrested in January 2012 and charged 23 July 2014, as soon as she changed lawyer to Graham Atkins.  

We believe that arresting officer in this case Officer DC Paul Griffiths may be a member of UKIP.

Support @JasnaBadzak facing political persecution attend court on 26th Nov 9.30am West London Magistrates Tollgarth Road, Hammersmith #justice4jasna #UKIP

Nicky Jacobs Old Bailey Acquittal of the Murder of PC Blakelock

For immediate use,

Lee Jasper, former Policing Director for London and Chair of London’s Race and Criminal Justice Consortium  responds to the acquittal at the Old Bailey of Nicky Jacobs of the murder of Police Constable Keith Blakelock,

He said,   “This case has made a mockery of the notion of fair British justice and should have never have been brought to court. The evidence was non-existent and relied on the word of a man who had been paid by the police and given immunity from prosecution for serious drug charges, despite his long and serous criminal record. 

He is the same man who lied in all previous trial seeking a prosecution on this matter and for the police to rely on him again, demonstrates the Met will go to any lengths, above and beyond the law, to secure a prosecution in this case.

Nicky’s acquittal should now result in the immediate suspension of all Police officers and Crown Prosecution lawyers who were involved in bringing this ludicrous case to court. This travesty of justice has seen another nail in the Coffin of the Met Police and the Met Commissioner and will further exacerbate fraught police community relation. All those involved should be suspended immediately and be subjected to through criminal and disciplinary investigations.

What we have seen is in this case is ‘noble cause’ corruption that has sought to convict an innocent man of murder of a police officer, Nicky and his family life has been destroyed and the family of PC Blakelock have endured yet another botched attempt to secure a conviction in this tragic case.

The Commissioner Bernard Hogan Howe under whose watch this terrible travesty of justice occurred and who has to be held personally responsible for the malicious prosecution of an innocent Black man should be forced to resign. He is discredited, worst still incapable of inspiring confidence, has presided over the worst period of reputational damage in the Mets history.

I would like to pay special tribute to  my friends and colleagues Stafford Scott and Suresh Grover of The Monitoring Group, who supported Nicky from the outset, their work has proved invaluable to his cause and ultimately has helped exposed that Met campaign to convict anyone for the murder of PC Blakelock."

End 

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