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More than 250 Met officers facing racism allegations
Ellen Widdup and Justin Davenport1 Jul 2009
A total of 255 Metropolitan police officers are facing accusations of racism, according to new figures.
Some 238 complaints were submitted by members of the public and a further 17 involve internal allegations of misconduct.
The figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act record the number of complaints of racism made against officers in individual boroughs and police squads. The unit which received the highest number of allegations is the Met's Central Operations group, with 30 claims.
The unit includes the Territorial Support Group, the back-up squad which helps control large-scale events such as protests and violent behaviour.
Officers from Hackney received the highest number of complaints of any borough with 18 allegations. Enfield and Westminster officers recorded 13 and Lambeth police nine.
Two recruits from Hendon Training College are also facing misconduct allegations. The figures reveal that in the past five years eight officers were dismissed from the Met for racist behaviour and 54 were disciplined.
Out of these, six either retired or resigned, one was sacked and three were required to resign. Others were given warnings, words of advice or fined.
Alfred John, chairman of the Met's Black Police Association, said the figures were not surprising. "I expect half of these cases will amount to nothing but it is still a significant amount of cases in a police force that is no longer supposed to be institutionally racist."
The figures have emerged weeks before the Metropolitan Police Authority is due to deliver the findings of a Race and Faith inquiry into racism in the force.
This was launched after a series of race allegations last year, including claims by two high-ranking ethnic minority officers of discrimination at management level in the force.
Shabir Hussain, temporary Deputy Assistant Commissioner, accused the Met of having a "golden circle" of senior white officers while Tarique Ghaffur, former assistant commissioner, settled a race claim against former commissioner Sir Ian Blair with a £310,000 deal.
The study comes 10 years after the Met was accused of being institutionally racist in the Macpherson report into the failed Stephen Lawrence inquiry.
Scotland Yard emphasised that the numbers represented a small percentage of the total 32,000 Met officers. A spokeswoman added that the complaints had not been proven and in general only 1.5 per cent of all complaints against officers were upheld.
She added: "The Met treats each occasion where an allegation is made about a member of its staff seriously."
Reader views (9)
And how many of these are by white officers, or are they not protected in this country?
- Brandon Thomas, SW7, London, 02/07/2009 04:52
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Police officer to gang member: "I'm arresting you for..."
Bad guy who happens not to be Caucasian: "You're just picking on me because I'm (insert shade of skin)!"
Police officer to gang member: "No, because we just caught you breaking the law"
Bad guy who happens not to be Caucasian: "Racist!"
- Rogan, Irving, 01/07/2009 15:50
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Gosh there is another surprise. Let me think - we have very large compensation payments for racism, no win no fee lawyers, this is one of the few crimes where it appears the burden of proof is left with the Met to prove that they are not raciest, rather than proving a racist incident has taken place. We have a Black Police Officers Association, whose only function appears to be to combat racism. So really we have a lottery where the complainant (and their lawyers) take home a nice pot of money if they win (or settle out of court) and if they lose – no financial penalty against the complainant, so he/she can try again and again and again. This is a no win situation for the Met - and who pays for all of this - we do the taxpayers!!!!!!
- Jeremy E, Home Counties, 01/07/2009 11:57
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It's getting very boring that white people are the only one's that are racist.
Open your eye's and look around the world and tell me which race is not racist ?
- Joe, Swanley Kent, 01/07/2009 11:42
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The MacPherson enquiry gave the definition of institutional racism as "the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin", which "can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness, and racist stereotyping which disadvantages minority ethnic people." So that tends to rubbish Alfred John comments immediately. All his organisation seems to spend its time doing, is taking pot shots at Met. 98.5% of racist allegations disproved?? Thats bloody good. You take a hundred people off the street and see how many are actually racist in comparison, it'll be more than two.
It seems that more and more that the MBPA is spending its time trying to keep its members in their jobs due to their OWN shortfallings and behaviour.
- Tom, London, 01/07/2009 11:18
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A recent TV program on the Police showed a man who was being held for driving his car with no license or insurance suggesting he had been stopped because he was Black.
The reason he had been stopped was he had passed through an ANPR(Automatic Number Plate Recognition) checkpoint and the camera and computer upon reading his number plate had decided no insurance was registered on the vehicle. So we now have racist computers, and of course the fact that he had no license or insurance was just a side issue.
- Steve M, LONDON, 01/07/2009 10:05
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Taken freely and with some adaption from the blog of Nightjack (an English detective). 'Survival guide for decent folk'.
When arrested always make complaints against the officers and try to work in a homophobic or racist angle. Get your accusations in early to muddy the waters.
Seems Nightjack was VERY accurate indeed. Which must be why his Constabulary wanted the Blog taken down (now done) asap and disciplined the author.
I guess that 99% of these 'cases' will turn out to be piffle. Sad thing is it will make the true 1% hard to deal with properly because imo it discredits the whole race thing.
Over to you Metropolitan 'Pink with Yellow spots' Police association? PC Mr Blobby?
- Ethan, UK, 01/07/2009 09:52
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"Alfred John, chairman of the Met's Black Police Association, said the figures were not surprising."
Mm, will you be reporting the Met's White Police Association's take on this?
- Croyboy, Croydon, 01/07/2009 08:57
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The Government, together with the senior police and media who disseminate the ridiculous ideology of political correctness have created a situation where many people feel obliged to make accusations of racism whenever something happens that they don't like, [like interference with their criminal activities]. The police have [under pressure from the politicians and media] bought into the race relations industry and now the 'chickens are coming home to roost'. The Metropolitan Black Police Association and numerous senior ethnic officers have sought to make huge financial claims against their employers at the expense of the tax payer. No one can take allegations of racism seriously anymore because as your report points out in 98.5% of cases there is no evidence to substantiate the accusations. Alfie John of the Black Police association has done the black and ethnic minorities of London a disservice by asking black people not to join the police......Great logic there Alfie! One day the public will get tired of paying huge sumns of money to these quangos who encourage the public and their members to use accusations of racism to serve their own interests.
- Patricia, London, 01/07/2009 08:53
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