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

 

Brixton police station candlelight vigil to mark Sean Rigg 5^th memorial 

Date: Tuesday 20 August 2013

The family of Sean Rigg are set to mark the fifth anniversary of his tragic death by holding a peaceful candlelit vigil, this Wednesday 21^st August from 7-9pm, outside Brixton Police Station where he tragically lost his life back in 2008 while he was in urgent need of mental health care.

This fifth anniversary event comes as the Rigg family continue the campaign to ensure that the recommendations made in his inquest verdict are fully implemented.  

Supporters of the Sean Rigg Justice and Change Campaign are expected to assemble with the family at the tree planted outside Brixton Police Station this Wednesday evening, which has become a memorial, not only to mark the tragic death of Sean Rigg, but also many other innocent men from the community such as Ricky Bishop and Wayne Douglas who also lost their lives at Brixton Police Station.

As well as marking five years since the singer and songwriter’s death soon after being picked up by officers while he was in urgent need of mental health care back in August 2008, this memorial vigil also marks a year since the damning inquest verdict into this case.

The jury at Southwark Coroners Court returned an inquest verdict that the failings of both the Metropolitan Police and South London and Maudsley NHS Trust (SLAM) more than minimally contributed to the singer and songwriter’s death.

On the back of this the IPCC commissioned former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Dr Silva Casale to conduct an independent review of its original investigation into this case. Recommendations in the Casale report included considering bringing misconduct proceedings against officers involved in this case. Three officers are currently under investigation for perjury. The Met Police have also conducted an independent review into how it deals with people with mental illness.

Marcia Rigg, Sean Rigg Justice and Change Campaign said: ‘ On Wednesday 21 August we will be outside Brixton Police Station between 7-9pm at the time when Sean was arrested.  He died at 8.24 according to the inquest jury and left Brixton Police station in an ambulance at 9.00pm.

At this vigil we’ll also use it as an opportunity to update the community and supporters of where we are with the Sean Rigg campaign  because is five years on as we are still waiting to see whether the IPCC will refer this case to the CPS for charges of misconduct or criminal proceedings.  We are also waiting to see how the recommendations made the by the coroner will be fully implemented by SLAM. Five years is a significant milestone but we are nowhere near closure yet, it has been very taxing on the family but we have had no time to grieve.’

Matilda MacAttram director of Black Mental Health UK said:  ‘This memorial is of great significance, to those from the community who use mental health services and their families who been following this case closely. Data shows that black people are 50% more likely to be referred to mental health services via the police

The Sean Rigg case is one that also resonates with almost every family from this community as data shows that black people are 50% more likely to be referred to mental health services via the police, also 50% of those who lose their lives in police custody are mental health service users.  All of the coroners recommendations that came out of the Sean Rigg Inquest verdict need to be fully implemented by the police and SLAM if are not to see another tragedy like this one.’

Lee Jasper Chair of London Race and Criminal  Consortuim said,

" Each year we gather in the hope that the lessons related to many cases of suspicious deaths in police custody will be learned and further such  tragedies can be averted. Each year we gather and each year we are disappointed that progress is slow and incremental and each year the number victims continues to rise. We will be here every year until that changes. 50 years after Dr Kings world famous " I have a dream speech " we are still dreaming of a vision of Britain becoming a society where justice reigns and equality is afforded to all. 

The Peaceful candlelit vigil to  mark the 5^th anniversary of the sad passing of Sean Rigg will be held from 7-9pm on Wednesday 21 August 2013 outside Brixton Police Station at 367 Brixton Road, Brixton SW9 7DD.

There will be minutes silence at 8.24pm, the time that the jury found that Sean Rigg has sadly passed away on the evening.

End

For interviews call BMH UK Newsdesk on: M: 07947 189 682

Notes to the editor

- Black Mental Health UK is a human rights campaigns group established to address the over representation of African Caribbean's within secure psychiatric care and raise awareness to address the stigma associated with mental health.

- Detention rates for people from the UK's African Caribbean community have doubled over the past five years during the period of 2005 – 2010.

- Almost half the deaths of people in police custody are mental health service users.

- Deaths of those detained under the Mental Health Act account for 62% of all deaths in state custody

- A disproportionate number of deaths following contact with the police since 2004 are of black people.

- People from the UK's African Caribbean communities are over represented among those who lose their lives while in police custody or when detained under the Mental Health Act.

Tutu Foundation UK

The Tutu Foundation are engaged in some fantastic work in demonstrating how the the African concept of  Ubuntu can provide a model for peaceful conflict resolution and the maintenance of  harmonious community relations. In addition their work in relation to the concept of Truth and Reconciliation provides a global template for resolving local tensions,  providing a unique safe space for the pursuit of peace, learning understanding and reconciliation.

Their most recent newsletter provides more detail on the activities of the foundation and how you can support and get involved. I commend this to you and in an effort to maximise efforts to raise public awareness of their work I ask that you circulate this newsletter to you contacts and advertise this newsletter on your various social platforms.

Lee Jasper

Winning the debate on immigration.

Here am I at the Dangerous Times Dangerous Ideas Conference that took place in London this summer speaking about the need to defend immigrants form the  most virulent attack seen in recent times. If you are interested in working on this issue then contact @SlimCampaign on twitter or visit the blog here 

I AM TRAYVON MARTIN UK RALLY 27TH JULY 2013

UK Black communities witness massive rises in unemployment. Coalition Governments austerity budgets are increasing racial disadvantage.

                 

Black Activists Rising Against the Cuts (BARAC) have long predicted the disproportionate impact of public sector cuts on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women. For the last four years we have been campaigning around the country highlighting the awful consequences of Government cuts on Black communities some of whom are the most deprived in the UK.

Black communities are are among some of the hardest hit by the Government’s programme of spending cuts according to a ground-breaking new report published today by the Centre for Human Rights in Practice at the University of Warwick, Coventry Women’s Voices, Coventry Ethnic Minority Action Partnership and Foleshill Women’s Training.

 

The ground breaking  report entitled,  Layers of inequality: a human rights and equality impact assessment of the cuts on BAME women in Coventry examine the impact of cuts  BAME in a range of areas including  employment, housing, welfare benefits, health, social care, education, legal aid, violence against women and voluntary organisations.

BARAC believes that these figures are reflective of the anecdotal evidence available to us from around the country, that confirms that the cuts to public sector and local authority budgets are having a hugely damaging effect on already deprived communities across the country. 

 

In the UK, largely because of the racism in the employment practices in the private sector, black women are more likely to work in the public sector.  They are largely located in the lower and junior administrative roles and its these post so have been disproportionately affected by job cuts and pay freezes. 

The scale of the economic devastation is without precedent. At no point in modern British history  have black communities faced such a high level of economic exclusion. This local study has found that  Unemployment among BAME women in Coventry increased by 74.4% between 2009 and 2013. Unemployment among white British women increased by 30.5% during the same period. ⁽¹⁾ 

The consequences of the economic firestorm that is englufing our communities has seen Black youth employment rise to 56%. Government has been slow to provide up to date statistics in  an easily digested form. We estimate that  nationally black youth unemployment are now pushing 65% and rising, in some local ward this rises as high as 75-85%. 

The awful reality is that this deeply damaging, hugely disproportionate economic pain is just the beginning. 

With yet more swingeing cuts to local government budgets announced in the recent Spending Review will lead to further job cuts for BAME women. Welfare benefits cuts are yet another area where Black communities are being very badly impacted. The Coventry report identifies that " BAME women are much more likely to be poor and receive a higher proportion of their income from benefits and tax credits. Cuts to welfare benefits will cost all women in Coventry £76 million a year out of a total of £112 million⁽²⁾. BAME women are among those hardest hit – the Government’s assessment of the benefits cap concluded that 40% of families affected would include someone who is BAME."

 

Lee Jasper Co Chair of BARAC responded,

" The majority of our communities are already living in islands of poverty, debt, deprivation surrounded by seas relative wealth and prosperity.  Black communities have for many decades inhibited an economic twilight zone, where they suffered greater levels of unemployment, poverty, ill health, poor housing, worse schools alongside the resulting violent criminality. Black communities exist precariously on very edge of a deep economic abyss prior to the current economic crisis

These figures now confirm our worst fears. The full impact of the Government economic policies is resulting in a deepening and heightening racial disadvantages. Desperately poor Black communities are being condemned to watch their local neighbourhoods become deserts of hope and opportunity, that will see the rapid descent into a dank economic abyss. 

The consequences of this precipitous economic decline will be catastrophic for black communities and the country at large. All of the social ills that affect our desperately poor communities will be grossly exacerbated, aggravated becoming  toxic swamps of desperate poverty, tragic violence and deep despair. 

Black communities nationally need to wake up to the danger they and their children now face before areas like  Brixton turns into the Bronx."

 KKindy Sandhu from Coventry Women’s Voices who authored the report said:

"Our report shows that BAME women are among the hardest hit by public spending cuts across many areas. Now the spending review is making a bad situation worse. BAME women will lose more jobs, more money and more services. This is a big issue for Coventry since a third of our population is BAME, but it will be the same for BAME women across the country. We did not cause this situation, but we are paying the price for it."

When Black women are hit hard the knock on effect is to undermine the whole family. With many black women bringing up children on their own we will see whole families being sucked into acute levels of poverty. 

Local authorities are breaking the law by failing to conduct Equalities Impact Assessments in accordance with the Equality Act. Unfortunately the Equality and Human Rights Commission has become a toothless poodle and is refusing to use the courts to enforce the law. BARAC is of the view that if the EHRC is refusing to act then Trade Unions must legally challenge the obvious racial disproportionality of both local or public sector cuts. Failure to do so will be leave vulnerable communities subject to racism without any recourse to legal protection. 

Dr James Harrison of the Centre for Human Rights in Practice and  co-author, added:

"The combined impact of cuts to benefits and services will disproportionately affect many of the poorest and most vulnerable BAME women in Coventry. Public authorities both nationally and here in Coventry have legal obligations under the Equality Act and the Human Rights Act to promote equality and protect human rights. They need to take these obligations very seriously when making decisions about budget cuts."

 

Varinder Kaur from Coventry Ethnic Minority Action Partnership commented :

The announcement that job seekers must learn English in the spending review seems designed to demonise us. The problem is not that people refuse to learn English – the problem is that it is getting harder to get on an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) class. The Government seems to be deliberately creating the impression that  the problem is about people who don’t speak English but claim benefits, even though they must know that the proportion of people who are claiming benefits and can’t speak English is miniscule, far smaller than the proportion of people who want to learn English but can’t get on a course.

 

Christine McNaught from Foleshill Women’s Training said:

At Foleshill Women’s Training we provide health and employment services to women in one of the poorest parts of Coventry. The women who use our centre are suffering increased poverty because of benefit cuts, longer waiting times for medical treatment and cuts to local services. And because our funding has fallen from £450k in 2010/11 to £190k in 2012/13 we have fewer resources to support them.

 

BARAC info@barac.gmail.com

Kindy Sandhu 07921 904212/ 024 77677994or email kindy_sandhu@yahoo.co.uk

Notes to editors:

A full copy of the report is available at: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/chrp/projects/humanrightsimpactassessments/women/

1.      Source: Nomis (2013) Job Seekers Allowance  Claimants data for Coventry  by ethnicity, age, gender  and duration February 2009 to February 2013,

2.      Calculated based on the conclusion of work by the Fawcett Society that 68% of the cost of welfare reforms would hit by women. Fawcett Society (2012) “How have Coalition budgets affected women?” Cost of benefit cuts in Coventry based on  Beatty, C. and Fothergill, S. (2013) “Hitting the Poorest Places Hardest: the local and national impact of welfare reform.” Sheffield Hallam University. See page 4 for a link to a spread-sheet showing cuts by local authority.

3.      Source: Coventry rent market summary (2013).

 

The Centre for Human Rights in Practice provides a focus for academics, students, practitioners and activists who wish to advance the study and promotion of human rights at a local, national and international level. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/chrp/

Coventry Women’s Voices works to ensure that women’s voices are heard in Coventry when policy is made.www.coventrywomensvoices.wordpress.com

Coventry Ethnic Minority Action Partnership works with people, organisations and agencies to improve the delivery of services to Ethnic Minority Communities in Coventry. www.cemap-coventry.org.uk

Foleshill Women’s Training are dedicated to helping all women in Coventry and the surrounding areas through social, health and economic programmes. http://www.fwt.org.uk/

BBC poll confirms worst fears: London’s Black communities no longer trust the Metropolitan Police

A recent poll published by BBC London has highlighted the devastating lack of trust in the Metropolitan Police Service particularly but not exclusively among Black Londoners.   The poll was conducted in the aftermath of the allegations in the Guardian from ex Met undercover officer Paul Francis. He alleges that the police had a covert Special Demonstrations Unit who wanted to smear the Lawrence family and their supporters at the time of Stephens murder, his story is simply devastating.

The BBC London poll suggested a quarter of all those surveyed believe the Met is still institutionally racist. This rises to and incredible 38% of black and minority ethnic people. A huge 25% also believed there was widespread police corruption. Nevertheless 85% of those polled said they trusted the Met overall.

These figures confirm that the awful reality that we are witnessing the single worst period in police and black relations in the last 30 years. I have repeatedly put that charge to both Commissioner Hogan Howe and Mayor of London Boris Johnson over the last three years. Both have routinely dismissed my claim as being ludicrous and politically motivated. These figures confirm that relations today are in fact at their lowest point in decades. Both men have determined that the Met is no longer an ‘institutional racist’ organisation a statement so far removed from the truth as to constitute a lie, given what we know such an assertion defies all logical understanding. 

The dramatic and unprecedented finding of  the public inquiry into the Met killing of Azelle Rodney that concluded the Met had 'no legal justification' for his shooting will seriously aggravate these already severely strained relations. If the police officer concerned is not prosecuted and there is every chance they wont, then we will enter Rodney King type territory.  

In looking at these figures Londoners should be concerned, very concerned. It is precisely in this type of febrile atmosphere that makes civil disorder more likely. In August 2011 London and other parts of the UK burned and riots erupted after the shooting by police of Tottenham man Mark Duggan.

With relations so shot to pieces, it really only takes one minor incident on the streets combined with good weather and London could be burning again only this time, largely because of cuts to the GLA budget ordered by Boris, there are lot less police officers and firefighters to deal with any sustained disorder.

What these figures tell us that London is a multicultural city where race equality has been eviscerated from the Mayors list of political priorities. Johnson believes he can simply charm his way to a safer city without seriously engaging with Black communities. This is an error so fundamentally wrong and so catastrophic for the city as to constitute a crime.

Good community police relations take time to build and mature. They require constant care and attention and the adoption of a strategic approach that builds and deepens community partnerships in the fight against crime.  This must amount to more than simple rhetoric, a couple of jokes and few Latin references. It requires that the Mayor acknowledges these pressing realities and starts the long slow process of rebuilding trust and confidence with a political focus that matches the scale of the problem. As these figures demonstrate that problem is now of staggering proportions.

From 2000 – 2008 whilst Director of Policing for London the levels of trust among London’s Black communities increased year on year. That was a result of a determined policy of community reassurance and engagement alongside a real priority to tackle institutional racism within the Met. The result were spectacular, not only did trust and confidence reach the highest levels ever among black communities, but for the first time in the Mets history the majority of police officer  applications came from Black communities. We increased the number of Black officers by 100% in that period. We also ensured that the Mets Senior Command Team looked more like London and that the maintenance of community police relations was a number one priority. In terms of Mayoral appointments to various London strategic boards and committees that are within the gift of the Mayor, our equalities policies ensured that Black and ethnic minority representation reached its highest level of any city anywhere in the UK.

The fight against crime requires communities to enjoy good relations with our police officers increasing the extent to which people feel comfortable and confident about reporting crime.. The majority of crime is solved as a result of information and intelligence received from the wider public.  Crime will increase where confidence in policing remains so fragile. The failure of Boris Johnson and Hogan Howe to recognise the political priority attached to race equality has cost Londoner millions and tragically as we saw in August 2011 can have deeply tragic consequences.

The reality is that the August 2011 riots could and should have been avoided, The failure was largely a political one. Boris’s senior team has no one from London’s Black communities to advise him and being an instinctive Tory is blindsided on the issue of race and race equality. This is a costly and critical error. London is one of the most diverse cities on the face of the planet and yet the senior staff teams at both the Mayor’s Office and within the Met itself have seen a deterioration of diverse representation. Black people are being airbrushed out of the picture. 

When Boris was elected in 2008 the Greater London Authority and the Met Police were the most diverse public sector organisation in the UK. In the senior positions London was the most diverse it had been since the abolition of the Greater London Council.

The Mayor’s Office and the Met looked increasing like London of the 21^st century. Five years on Boris’s has reversed those gains through a combination of ignorance and arrogance. Today the Met is experiencing a net loss of Black police offices  whilst the Mayor’s office suffers from what the Black community calls the Guinness syndrome.

Boris allowed Stop and Search to get out of control, failed to spot growing tensions arising as a result of the increase in the number of black men dying in suspicious circumstances whilst in police custody. He failed to deliver his much vaunted but now discredited Black Boys Mentoring Scheme, failed to maintain Black recruitment, and promotion within the Met or his office.

He dismantled the jewel in the MPS’s community police relations crown,  Operation Trident that has now  lost every last shred of its credibility as a result of his instance that it be turned into a ‘ gang unit’. Boris abolished the London Hate Crimes Forum and then saw both racial and religious attacks in London increase as result. Against the backdrop of recent events in Woolwich  we have seen increasing rates of Islamophobic attacks on Muslims particularly women. Mosques and other religious buildings have become targets and the EDL is seeking to ferment religious and racial conflict across London.

He has effectively abolished the borough based Police Community Consultative Groups brought in under Lord Scarman post the 1986 disturbances. These were designed to help maintain and promote understanding, partnership and trust and confidence. Boroughs like Lambeth for example are entirely reliant, for maintenance of good order on the local PCCG, whose 30 year track record in acting as a pressure valve for local policing concerns has been essential. You would have to be really stupid to do away with these forums but that what Boris in his glorious wisdom has decided. Foolish boy.

Part of the civic culture of a multicultural city relies on ensuring that the diversity and cultural dynamism of London is highlighted and promoted. This is necessary to build cultural capital that can be utilised at time of crisis to maintain a sense of collective citizenship and solidarity. The promotion of diverse cultures not only educates but raises awareness of the reality of our global city and reinforces the city sense of itself. The Mayor’s Office is critical to setting that tone however this Mayor has been distinctly monocultural .

Boris cancelled Black History month and spent the money on America Day, cancelled the anti-racist Rise Festival and Africa Day. Cultural event such as these promote understanding and community cohesion.

Under Boris Black Youth unemployment is at highest level in a generation and adult rates are rising fast as a result of public sector redundancies and voluntary sector project closures as a result of local authority cuts with consequent increases in rates of child poverty in the capital

The brutal reality is when one looks at these social and economic indicators London is quite clearly a less tolerant city, less equal city under Boris Johnson than it was under Ken Livingstone.

My guess is that most white people in London have no idea of the reality of the nature of the Black or Muslim lived experience in London or recognise situation. The political disjuncture and chasm between the Tory Mayor, the Met Commissioner and London Black and Muslim communities represents a critical fracture in London political landscape. Like animals who can anticipate an earthquake before the first human feels a single tremor so I give London fair warning of the ructions to come.

These failures must now be seen as catastrophic errors of huge proportions .Political errors such as these have a delayed effect that are not immediately discernable.

All of these types of issues are slow burners, initially ignited by political ignorance or prejudice  build up slowly but have an almost irreversible momentum. Once built up they tend to take years to reverse. The portents for the future of the capital are not good and I believe we will see even more civil disturbances in the medium term as a direct result of the political failure of this egregious and affable Mayor.

Race equality in London. is not then, some politically correct ideological project of the loony left as so often portrayed by an irreverent Boris Johnson, but a solidly pragmatic, hardnosed political reality, an essential political requirement in a hyper diverse city such as London.

The Mayor of London failure to grasp this reality, his failure to ensure his team has the credibility and the skills to effectively represent all Londoners and his rude opposition to tackling racism and ensuring real diversity in London senior appointments has been a disaster the consequences of which will plague the city for a decade or more.

These figures indicate that a new approach to race equality in London is urgently needed however Boris and the Commissioner are bereft of people who have the necessary experience and credibility to begin the painstaking process of rebuilding trust and credibility between London’s Black communities and the Met police. In the mean time I would hope for the best and prepare for the worst it’s going to be one hell of bumpy ride.