London Assembly: Refuses to report back on Grenfell Tower fire police investigation,

 

Boris Johnson Plans to Devastate Police Community Engagement in London.

Boris Johnson attempts to tackle Met crisis by silencing critics.

It’s an act so incredibly stupid as to defy belief; the Mayor of London has withdrawn funding for London’s locally accountable Community Police Consultative Groups (CPCG’S) and replaced them with a new body, local Safer Neighbourhood Boards.

Here I speak as veteran human rights, race equality activist, challenging police racism of some 30 years standing and as the longest serving Policing Director of London and a pioneer of police community engagement.

Given that Londoners will have little or no knowledge of how London police community engagement works or how much they have contributed to maintaining London’s peace and safety over the last 30 odd years, most people will be unaware of the real significance of this decision.

Their abolition by the Mayor will not, I suspect, make huge headlines given he enjoys  the uncritical support of some London media, nevertheless l believe this will rank as one the least known, yet most damaging decisions made by this Mayor. Much like the decision to stop dredging the Thames River, thought by many at the time to be innocuous, outside of a few knowledgeable specialists was, once the weather changed, a decision that proved to be critical.

Lord Scarman 

CPCG’s were created by Lord Scarman in response to the Brixton Uprisings that took place on Friday 11^th April 1981. With over 32 boroughs in London some of these groups acted as gatekeepers largely uncritical of the police, whilst in other areas, particularly in inner city London, they were a dynamic force for good, fiercely independent and vigorous in holding police to account.

Brixton April 11th 1981

Back to the Brixton Uprisings, it is now some 35 years since the oppressive and brutal Police Operation SWAMP 81 that saw three thousand police officers, descend on central Brixton, stopping and searching over 1000 people and arresting hundreds in people in a 10 days period.

Operation SWAMP 81 triggered the open resistance of an entire community in response to what was seen then as a profoundly corrupt and racist police force. This uprising resulted in 299 injuries to police and 65 injuries to members of the public; over a hundred vehicles were burned, including 56 police vehicles; and almost 150 buildings were damaged, with 28 burned. There were 82 arrests.

The then Home Secretary Willie Whitelaw launched a public inquiry and in November of that year Lord Scarman was appointed to lead the inquiry. Six months later he published findings that identified, among many things, the disproportionate use of the massively oppressive and dreaded SUS law as one of the causes.

The Scarman Report, though ground breaking at the time failed to identify the institutionalised nature of police racism and stated that "complex political, social and economic factors" created a "disposition towards violent protest". 

His report highlighted problems of racial disadvantage and inner-city decline, warning that "urgent action" was needed to prevent racial disadvantage becoming an "endemic, ineradicable disease threatening the very survival of our society". He cited the lack of community based forums that facilitated discussion, monitored police activity and ventilated complaints as key.

Scarman called for substantial improvement in police community communication and the establishment of local forums that ensured people could air their concerns, grievances and complaints against their local police service.

The Lambeth Consultative Police Group, was one of the first to be established. In the last 30 years this group has pioneered some of the leading community engagement and police accountability strategies in the county.

Leading the way on deaths in custody, domestic violence and rape, the illegal and unethical use of police informers as lead to the establishment of the now discredited 

Operation Trident, the placing of video cameras in police vans, and stations, the creation of independent custody visitors, mental health nurses in police stations, racial harassment monitoring, are all issues where LCPCG has distinguished itself as making a unique and valuable contribution to improving police practice and community relations. These initiatives were born out of deep police/community partnerships in the context of police service that accepted they were institutionally racist and in doing so provided the space for deep enduring partnerships. 

Today no such context exits and the post Scarman and McPherson settlements between the Government and black communities has been betrayed by those in power.

Let us not forget that CPCG’s have prevented any number of critical policing incidents escalating into serious disorder. Members are unpaid volunteers, often on the streets in the early hours of the morning mediating between communities and the police in potentially very dangerous situations.  I know I’ve been there, holding back armed police from rushing in where angels fear to tread and in doing so have helped positively resolved thousands of potential flash points.

They hold open public meetings once a month where anyone in the community can attend and hear about what local police are doing to tackle crime and challenge officers on issues such as deaths in custody or stop and search.

These open access meetings provide a unique safety valve, allowing a community to legitimately progress concerns and complaints in an open and public forum. CPCG groups also provide another unique function, borough wide analysis of policing performance, helping to identify trends in policing, asses the allocation of resources and police officers in the borough and evaluate overall police performance. Not only do these groups inform, they also educate both the police and members of the public, on the complexities of tackling crime, dealing with Police complaints whilst maintaining community confidence.

Boris Johnson is many things, but even as one of his arch critics, I didn’t think he was this stupid.

London is a fabulous multicultural city, with enormous strengths and weaknesses, huge contrasts and great inequalities. In such a city, ensuring that those who govern and rule are diverse is not just some ‘loony left’ cosmetic equality, tick box exercise, but a critical requirement for a world city, multicultural metropolitan city like London.

Those that govern London need to ensure we are a representative democracy, one that makes decisions that are informed by the differentiated experiences of distinct cultural, ethnic, gender and religious groups in the capital. One of the most important areas where such diversity is absolutely critical is policing and the administration of criminal justice.

Following the riots of August of 2011, in the aftermath of the shooting by the Metropolitan Police of an unarmed black man and father, Mark Duggan, one would have thought the Mayor of London would have ensured that the maintenance of effective police community relations would be one of his top priorities for London.

During the 2011 riots lives were tragically lost, people’s homes and businesses destroyed in addition to millions of pounds of criminal damage. At the time, the Association of British Insurers said they expected the industry to pay out, nationally in excess of £200 million. Estimated losses in London were in the region of £100m. Such losses, both human and financial were, entirely avoidable.

I believe that the absence in 2011 of anyone with the necessary experience and understanding of the fraught historical realities between police and black communities in the capital came at enormous cost.

This lack of diversity and cultural competence at City Hall and New Scotland Yard cost the country and London dearly. In a tragic error of judgment, no one in these two institutions was alive to understanding the context of the police shooting a black man from Broadwater Farm Tottenham.

All white is not alright. City Hall London

This acute political and professional failure to understand the wider realities of policing multicultural London, is a direct consequence of ideological hostility shown by Boris and the Commissioner for radical antiracist and equality policies that are central to giving effect to the critically important principle of ‘policing by consent’. Majority white senior management teams at City Hall and New Scotland Yard reflect a London of the 1940’s not the London of the 21^st century.

Whilst the Commissioner talks of adopting ‘affirmative action’ type police recruitment policies, he has presided over a net loss of fully warranted BME police officers over his term of office. 

Whatever ones view about the real causes of the August 2011 disturbances, I think we can all agree that’s it’s a no brainer to conclude that ensuring that those areas and communities, where public trust and confidence in the police is dangerously low, should have assumed an urgent political priority for both the Commissioner of Police Bernard Hogan-Howe and Boris Johnson.

‘Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.’ Marcus Tullius Cicero

The public and professional reputation of Metropolitan Police Service is facing the most profound crisis in its 185 year history. A legion of high profile cases of serious police corruption, institutional racism and sexism, police brutality and indifference have all combined to deal, what I believe is a near fatal blow to London’s largest and most powerful public sector institution.

Suspicious deaths in police custody, Plebgate, racial profiling, stop and search, the shredding of masses of documents relating to police corruption, the scandals of their treatment of Daniel Morgan and Stephen Lawrence families, the mass criminalisation of black youth,  disproportionate use of police violence,  fiddling crime figures , , failure to prosecute domestic violence abusers and rapists, I could go on and on but I dare say you get my point, all these examples and a few more besides have added to the massive reputational damage  to the Met.

Now more than ever the confidence of communities need to be restored by effective engagement and that may well require us to fundamentally rethink and reshape institutions ranging from the Police to the Independent Police Complaints Commission

The replacement of CPCG’s with local Safer Neighbourhoods Boards is a monumental error.  Unlike CPCG’s they are made up of local Councillors , Chairs of the now dysfunction Safer Neighbourhood Ward panels, and a number of other organisations that will be vetted, nominated and agreed by Boris Johnson at City Hall.

Critically important groups such as the Stop and search working groups and Independent Custody Visitors (ICV’s) will now be handpicked by SNB’s locally, vetted and controlled by the Mayor himself, rather than elected in an open forum by local CPCG’s. ICV’s were given 24 hour access to police stations and suspects to provide reassurance to communities with concerns about the welfare of suspects in police stations. 

They have now been told by City Hall and local Borough Superintendents that cuts to officer numbers mean they can visit police stations once a month by appointment only.

SNB are not required to hold regular public meetings, nor is there any requirement for the public to have access to these meetings, nor are they required to publish minutes.

The Mayor has now assumed full responsibility for police community engagement in London. The decision to abolish CPCG’s is a wilful act of municipal vandalism that will increase black community anger and alienation towards the Met.

The Mayor and Commissioner both appear utterly clueless when it comes to these issues as demonstrated by this bizarre decision. The fashionable hostility against race equality policy, both agree that the Met is no longer an ‘institutionally racist organisation’, both have majority all white senior management teams, both are failing London.

When those critical policing incidents occur at the dead of night, it won’t be members of the SNB who come out to mediate between the community and the police. They will not have the commitment, the expertise, nor the community credibility to do so.

Whilst the Mayor seeks to restore the Mets credibility by removing a key platform where members of the public can raise grievances, get support and enjoy some level of real accountability, he should really be focusing on tackling the real crisis in the Met instead of shooting the messengers.

In Lambeth we intend to fight this incredibly dangerous decision all the way. It will be our communities that suffer when the Mayors idiotic plans fall apart. For London’s sake I hope we are able to convince enough people to support our case for retaining the principles of local accountability, full transparency, and public accessibility. We cannot allow the Mayor to destroy the legacy of both the Scarman and McPherson reports by removing one of the most effective mechanisms to improving trust and confidence in the police.

NB: I will be discussing these and other issue raised by this article on my radio show on www.ColourfulRadio.com between 7-10 am Friday 11th April 2014

Chicken Run 4 starring Boris Johnson. Shot on location at City Hall

                                                        Uploaded by BorisJohnshen

A black day for Boris Johnson.




ListRa Dawn Gilzene protesting  Boris's hijacking of the conference

It was an eerie atmosphere as we waited for delegates to arrive at yesterdays Boris Johnsons “Not the London School & Black Child” Conference.  As we held placards and fired up the megaphone preparing to engage and explain, it quickly became apparent that black people had voted with their feet and decided to boycott the event.

Lee Jasper

In previous years this important conference (the brainchild of Diane Abbott MP) was a standing room only, sell out event. Usually held at the Queen Elizabeth Centre it attracted over 3,000 attendees. Yesterday at the Institute of Education, barely 150 people attended.

The eerily empty conference - black people voted with their feet and stayed away

It was ever going to be thus. The political dynamics behind this once major black education conference provide an insight into the soul of City Hall and its attitude to black Londoners. Reported to me by a senior city hall insider it reveals a shocking degree of political cynicism, informed by a deeply patronising view of black Londoners.

How the event was stolen from Diane Abbot MP.

Speaking to an insider after the conference, I was provided with a fascinating insight into what actually happened on the top floor of City Hall. My authoritive source reported a poisonous and paranoid atmosphere at City Hall.

 “The long shadow of Lee Jasper still haunts the 8^th floor any mention of your name sends them into complete panic.”  I found to that to be very amusing and was somewhat reassured that my criticism of the Mayor was at least hitting home.

Moving onto how the Mayor forced out Diane Abbott MP from her own conference, this is what I was told:

“The arrogance of Boris and his team of advisers led them to believe they did not really need Diane. Given they were funding the conference they assumed that they could call all the shots. They wanted to remove race as a component of the conference and demolish the idea of institutional racism in education.”

A protester spells it out clearly for Boris Johnson

How Boris failed London’s black communities.

Boris advised by his electoral guru the Australian Lynton “race card” Crosby, was told he needed to win back the black London vote and that private polling indicated this had virtually evaporated. This must in part be explained as a direct result of his failure to deliver on his manifesto policy on youth violence and his failure to introduce policies that addressed racism and our broader concerns.

Huge rises in stop and search rates of London black youth, 100% increase in suspicious black deaths in custody, massive rises in black youth unemployment, the August riots, increased levels of youth violence, abolishing London’s civic black cultural programme, the debacle over his mentoring scheme that has become mired in controversy all now constitute a solid critical black political narrative.

The mentor scheme has attracted serious accusations of cronyism and nepotism. These are some of the policy/issue based areas where Boris has not only failed to deliver but where his failure to act has contributed to making things immeasurably much worse.

Boris was told that the conference presented a perfect opportunity to stem the collapse of support across London’s black communities. 

My source continued,

“Lynton and Edward Lister (Chief of Staff) told Boris that he should use the conference to begin the process of shoring up the black vote. Boris handed this off to Munira Murza (Mayoral adviser) who then met Diane and demanded complete control of securing speakers and the conference database. Despite attempts by Diane to compromise they were having none of it. In the end Diane decided to walk”

“What was most shocking in the whole thing was the way in which Munira Murza treated Diane. She was particularly vicious… treating her with a degree of public contempt that was frankly gobsmacking!”

Boris summarily dismissed the longest standing black elected women in Europe Diane Abbott MP and stole her conference idea. A conference that she conceived and built up to be one of the premier conferences on London’s black political calendar.

 

 

London Schools and all our children conference.

As for the conference itself it was interesting at times: an amusing mixture of patronising guff and brilliant inspiration.

Boris’s usual “sunlit uplands” speech was received with embarrassingly tepid applause.

Surprisingly Boris made several references to me.  What had upset him was the Mail Online article that appeared that day. In it I accused him of “culturally cleansing the capital of all race specific initiatives”.

Eton glare.

I noticed both he and the Secretary of State of Education who sat on the stage in the small auditorium were glaring at me for long periods of time as I sat in the audience. I thought it was the Eton equivalent of an intimidatory stare as Boris fixed his steely blue-eyed gaze on me. I can only assume that this was some genteel Eton version of intimidation. To be honest I found their sustained gaze hilarious if not a little embarrassing.

Racially insensitive Boris puts his foot in it.

Boris responded to the article and seeking to explain why he removed the word “black” from the conference title told the majority black audience that as far as he was concerned “I don’t give a monkeys “about the name change. It was a huge mistake. The audience clearly thought so and a loud murmur erupted in the auditorium as they viscerally reacted to his arrogance and racial insensitivity.

Gove speaks to black people like simpletons.

What was to follow was worse. Michael Gove treated the audience as if they were complete and utter fools.

“School starts at 9am, make sure your child is on time!  “Uniforms are important” he went on and on and on… "Homework?  Make sure your child does it ". You could tell from the patronising nature of his remarks that he thought the audience were a bunch of black simpletons.

 

Institutional racism dismissed in favour of black division.



Tony Sewell: divisive

 Tony Sewell enhanced his reputation by seeking to divide the black community by negatively comparing Jamaican and Nigerian cultures. Tony’s view was that Jamaican culture had lost it discipline and no longer valued education.  According to him it is that, parental failure and peer group pressure which explained why black boys of Caribbean descent were failing in schools. In contrast West African children were doing well in schools and that he argued was because of the positive culture of Nigerian and West African families.

I found this most offensive. It was a concerted attempt to dismiss the extent of institutional racism and drive a wedge between black communities and as such was unforgivable. More worrying Sewell is set to head up an independent inquiry on behalf of the Mayor into London schools.

What always makes me smile with Tony is the fact that he is his own biggest fan’ He told the Mayor in relation to choosing him to head the inquiry “Mr Mayor I have to tell you that you made the right choice.”

Boris simultaneously alienates and divides London’s black communities.

Boris had managed to reduce a once major policy conference on race and education, attended by thousands into to a right wing ideological assault on the concept of institutional racism in schools and Caribbean culture. No wonder hardly anyone turned up.

The Mayoral electoral team have destroyed an event that, had they left alone, and worked in partnership wit Ms Abbott MP could have been an excellent opportunity for the Mayor to demonstrate his balanced commitment toward improving the educational performance of black children in London schools.

Instead he achieved the exact opposite and has now completely alienated himself from all but a small cadre of loyal blacks and those on his pay roll.

If you ask me, and this won’t be easily understood by many or the Mayor’s Office itself, but yesterday was a significant indicator that whatever black support Boris enjoyed in the past, has now collapsed through a combination of ignorance and inactivity on the issues that matter.

Incompetence and the failure to implement schemes such as the mentoring project, the rise of black deaths in custody and stop and search rates, massive rises in black unemployment and youth violence, failure to moderate Coalition cuts to London frontline public and voluntary sector services, eviscerating black cultural events, all go to represent Boris’s blindness on race issues. All have now led him to this pretty pass.

By Lee Jasper

All photographs by Lester Holloway.