London Metropolitan Police (Wikipedia Commons)
By Gary Raynaldo – DIPLOMATIC TIMES
Institutional racism, misogyny, and homophobia is rampant within the London Metropolitan Police department, a report released this week has found. A year-long review of the Met conducted by Baroness Casey concluded that representation of Black, Asian and other ethnic minority officers falls far short of the diversity in London’s communities; women are not treated equally in the workforce, with new women recruits resigning at four times the rate of all probationers; and a third of Met women surveyed reporting personally experiencing sexism at work, with 12% reporting directly experiencing sexual harassment or assault. The independent report was commissioned after Sara Everhard, a 33-year-old woman was raped and killed by a serving officer Wayne Couzens. The review said the Met force may still have more officers like the killer Couzens there. A similar public inquiry held in 1998, headed by Sir William Macpherson, that examined the original Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) investigation into the death of Stephen Lawrence issued a damning report concluding the force was ‘institutionally racist’.
Metropolitan Police Grapples With ‘Institutionally Racist Label’ 30 Years After Death Of Stephen Lawrence
Source wikipedia commons / / In 2012, nearly 20 years after the death of Stephen Lawrence, (above photo) two men, Gary Dobson and David Norris, were found guilty of the 1993 racist murder of Lawrence and were jailed for life.
A similar public inquiry held in 1998, headed by Sir William Macpherson, that examined the original Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) investigation into the death of Stephen Lawrence issued a damning report concluding the force was ‘institutionally racist’. Lawrence, 18, was stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack in 1993 by a gang of white youths as he waited at a bus stop in Eltham, south-east London, with a friend. The case became a cause célèbre and one of the highest profile racial killings in U.K. history. After the initial investigation, five suspects were arrested but not convicted. It was suggested during the course of that investigation that the murder was racially motivated and that Lawrence was killed because he was black, and that the handling of the case by the police and Crown Prosecution Service was affected by issues of race.
In 2015, the Met acknowledged ‘some justification’ to claims the force is ‘racist’ according to the BBC.
“ You’re very much more likely to be stopped and searched if you’re a young black man… I can give you reasons, but I
can’t fully explain it,”Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, head of Metropolitan Police, BBC.com
Black Female MET Officer Claimed Racist and Sexist Harassment in Lawsuit
Photo Source / Daily Mail.com /Corbis / Matthew Styllanou / Former London Met Police Officer Carol Howard won a race and sex discrimination claim against the department and was awarded £37,000 in 2015. Howard is photographed with her Heckler & Koch semi-automatic rifle capable of firing up to 800-rounds per minute.
Former Scotland Yard Police Officer Was A Rising Star In MET’s Elite Diplomatic Corps
The Met really blew it with 35-year-old PC Carol Howard. With her cover-girl looks, yet steely persona, PC Howard was a literal poster woman for a more diverse London police force. Howard moved up the ranks during her 10 years with the Met, eventually joining the elite Diplomatic Protection Group, guarding VIPs including the Prime Minister. Howard exemplified the type of tough police officer assigned to protect London during the 2012 Olympics. Howard claimed her career came crashing down around her in late 2012 when she was assigned a new superior, David Kelly, who singled her out and harassed her for almost a year. Howard claimed Kelly constantly reprimanded her in an aggressive manner in front of colleagues, “telling me I wasn’t up to their standard.” Howard was the only black woman on the elite DPG team and only one of two in the entire DPG. Howard lodged a formal complaint against Kelly, who she claimed then retaliated with an intimidating verbal attack.
‘He cornered me, pointed his fingers in my face and shouted at me in a threatening manner. He was carrying his Glock pistol, and I was genuinely frightened about what he would do. By the time I left, I was in tears,’
Carol Howard told the Daily Mail.
Number of Black and minority MET police officers stand at just 5 percent
With estimates suggesting the BME population of England and Wales will be 14 per cent by 2026, the London Met would need to recruit 17,000 officers from those communities in order to achieve a more representative profile. Out of almost 130,000 full time police officers in England and Wales, just 6,500 came from an ethnic minority, representing a mere five per cent, according to The Telegraph. Speaking at the National Black Police Association’s (NBPA) annual conference, Assistant Chief Constable Richard Bennett said the service needs to recruit 17,000 BME officers to be representative of the population by 2024.
