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A total of 549 police officers are being investigated following accusations of racism from members of the public.
Another 42 officers have been accused of racism by colleagues.
The Met accounts for 43 per cent of the cases with 223 officers accused, and 13 facing internal allegations. Offences include wrongly searching people, racist and religious jokes, racist emails and racist language in interviews.
The figures, from a Freedom of Information request, come 10 years after the Met was accused of being ginstitutionally racisth in the Stephen Lawrence murder inquiry. Stephenfs mother Doreen rejected claims by Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson that racism had stopped.
She said: gUnless you admit something needs fixing youfre not going to be able to fix it.h A Met spokesman said the figures involved a fraction of the Metfs 53,000 police officers and staff.
¡ Charities including the NSPCC and Amnesty International have criticised plans to close the Metfs human trafficking unit. They have written to Sir Paul saying specialist policing is needed to help victims trafficked for sex, labour, and domestic servitude.
Reader views (11)
All you have to do is arrest a blackman and you will be on the receiving end of accusations of racism.
We have all seen the TV Police documentaries. Even being caught red-handed a blackman will cry racism. Pathetic.
The call of racism has lost all weight and meaning because it has been misused and abused. Change the record.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 08/10/2009 09:12
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Hmme, whats percentage of this is the big bad white race responsible for, 100% anybody?
- Dirk Diggler, Soho, London, 08/10/2009 02:27
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I too am quite surprised by the small percentage of bad apples considering the level of bigotry within the general population. In fact despite the fact that i am often critical of the police and in particular the incidents when inocent members of the public have been killed by armed madmen in uniform i beleive that the Metroplolitan police are honestly trying to put their house in order.
- Andrew White, Brighton,Sussex, 08/10/2009 01:51
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There are white racists, there are black racists, there are asian racists. I assume some of the racism is against whites?
- Tonyy, London, 07/10/2009 21:33
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Yet another cost to us all due to mass immigration.
- Michael, London, UK, 07/10/2009 19:15
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Damm, that is carnage out there!
- Gary, London, 07/10/2009 18:35
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People are getting sick to the back teeth of being called racist. Employers are racist if they don’t give blacks or Asians jobs. If they do employ them they usually end up being sued because they are not promoted quickly enough. Police in ethnic areas are called racist if they stop and search too many blacks or Asians. No one is happy in this country now, because of this constant PC bullying. Years ago if anyone had told us we would end up with this terrible violent mess, we would have laughed our heads off. None of this is working, but no one has the guts to actually say it.
- Sylvie, Epping Essex, 07/10/2009 17:23
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The Metropolitan Police has 31,500 police officers, 2,500 special constables and 4,200 community support officers, this means that the 223 officers accused make up about 0.5% of the total number of personnel. Taking into account that a proportion of the allegations are going to be either false or not proven the figure really means the Met is doing pretty well.
- H, London, UK, 07/10/2009 16:20
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Racism exist in most walks of life in society if we are honest about it. What puzzles me is why the police have been specifically singled out for this criticism. I am suspicious. I wonder if the real motive is to demoralise and undermine the efficiency of the police.
- Graham Rodhouse, Helmond, Netherlands, 07/10/2009 16:00
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These figures are meaningless without giving the context, what stage they are at or the time period within which they were made. That number could have been made in a day given the population of London and the over representation of young black males in the criminal justice system in London. The race card has always been played and is anyone surprised that so called 'colleagues' are also playing said card when they see the gains professionally and financially that such actions can provide. Some more facts and less sensationalism would be useful in such articles - just 'cos Doreen says it is awful doesn't mean it actually is!
- Ranter, Maidstone, UK, 07/10/2009 16:00
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As a fair percentage of unruly youths in London are now black or asian it's to be expected I suppose.
- Steve, London, 07/10/2009 15:27
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