Metropolitan Police and Are They Racist - Assignment Example

?Running Head: Metropolitan Police and are they Racist? Metropolitan Police and are they Racist? [Institute’s EXECUTIVE SUMMARYPolice are the protectors of the people they are policing. They are seen as close to perfect as possible. Therefore, their conduct should be such that they show justice, respect everyone and deal every case with the same due diligence and efforts. However, it has been repeatedly seen that Metropolitan Police Service is racist. Members of the Metropolitan Police Service have been seen passing racist comments and delaying investigations if the victim belongs to the minority group. This approach is not only unacceptable, but also shameful. Therefore, this research aims to find out with the help of data whether this hypothesis is true or not. Analysis is made on the basis of a detailed discussion about the history of racism and its roots. It then looks into various incidents of racism that have taken place in history and Police’s involvement in them. Besides, it takes a closer look at the August riots and its various causes. In the end, a conclusion is presented that sums up the discussion and gives out some recommendations on the basis of it. TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 INTRODUCTION 4 Research Background 4 Aims and Objectives of the research 4 Rationale for the selection of the research 5 Research Question 5 Hypothesis 6 Review of the Key References 6 Key references for this study include the website of metropolitan police service and BBC website from which statistics of the August riots have been taken. Discussion about history of racism and introduction to institutional racism and its history, Macpherson and Scarman report and different incidents of police acting racist have been taken from various books and journal articles. These books include Racism and Borders: Representation, Repression, Resistance, Institutional Racism: A Primer on Theory and Strategies for Social Change, Racist Victimization: International Reflections and Perspectives and many others. 6 Justification for the selected research design 6 DISCUSSION 7 Some Statistics and Background Information 7 History – Britain 7 Racial Profiling – a history 9 London Riots, 2011 9 Some Popular instances 12 ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION 14 Racism in Metropolitan Police Service – An analysis 15 Conclusion 15 REFERENCES 17 INTRODUCTION Research Background No matter how much everyone condemns the idea of racism but it is seen that everyone encourages it in one way or the other and intentionally or unintentionally acts like a racist. The phenomenon is so spread that even Metropolitan Police Service is not protected from it. There have been numerous incidents in the past that show that Metropolitan Police Service is racist in its attitudes and actions. Racism is the act of discriminating different races on the basis of different stereotypes attached with the races. Individuals have attitudes that they discriminate between people on the grounds of their races. When this discrimination takes the form of some kind of action and becomes inseparable with the acts of the institution then only it becomes institutional racism. This term will be used repeatedly in the course of this report (Scott, 1974, p. 6). Metropolitan Police Service, popularly known as the Met, looks after the territory falling in Greater London and deals with the crime and its causes in its territory. It also has the responsibility of helping in with the national targets of counter terrorism and protection of the British Royal Family and Government officials. Aims and Objectives of the research This research aims to identify instances in the past to verify whether Metropolitan police service has done racism in its actions or not. The research aims to look at some background information and history of racism in Britain and different developments made throughout the history in order to deal with this evil in the society. Furthermore, it aims to view some of the popular instants in which police showed racism in its conduct. It then aims to look closely at August riots of 2011 and aims to look deeply into the causes of those riots. It then looks at the total number of suspects and arrests along with their nationality. The research then follows a thorough analysis of the proportion of the minorities caught as suspects in all the cases and its frequency over various incidents. The report then derives a conclusion on all the data presented in the report and tries to form a conclusion that whether Metropolitan Police Service is racist or not. In the end, the report aims to give recommendations to deal with racism at all levels. Rationale for the selection of the research The word ‘police’ is synonymous with words like integrity, justice, rigorous investigation and being firm in decisions. However, this is not always the case in the real world. Therefore, the purpose of choosing this topic is to find out whether Metropolitan Police Service’s actions and behaviour is consistent with the definition mentioned above or not i.e. whether metropolitan police service is characterised by the traits of integrity or justice or if it is otherwise. It is seen that police discriminates people on the basis of their races. This is also seen in their duties. Many police officers have been seen passing racist comments and making personal attacks on people belonging to other races. Police is the caretaker of the people living in the area they are policing so behaviour like this is totally unacceptable. It is said that everyone is equal before the law but this is not the case in reality. In other words, a huge gap is seen between what is expected of the police and the way they behave. Therefore, there is an immense need in today’s time to shorten that gap so that people belonging to every race and nationality feel safe and secure. Research Question Has the Metropolitan Police been doing discrimination in its actions because of the race of the people? Do the police take longer in investigation if the victim belongs to the minority group? Hypothesis  H1: Metropolitan Police is not racist Ho: Metropolitan Police is racist Review of the Key References Key references for this study include the website of metropolitan police service and BBC website from which statistics of the August riots have been taken. Discussion about history of racism and introduction to institutional racism and its history, Macpherson and Scarman report and different incidents of police acting racist have been taken from various books and journal articles. These books include Racism and Borders: Representation, Repression, Resistance, Institutional Racism: A Primer on Theory and Strategies for Social Change, Racist Victimization: International Reflections and Perspectives and many others. Justification for the selected research design The research design is very data-centric. The data in this research is primarily gathered through news articles on London riots of 2011 and different books about institutional racism and its incidents in the history. Then, all the data for different sub-topics have been compared with data of similar nature found in other sources and it is tried that a thorough analysis on the basis of the data can be put forward. This research design has been chosen due to the limitation of time and budget. However, it is made sure that all the news taken and statistics used are valid and are not exaggerated. The result is analysed with the help of charts and graphs. DISCUSSION Some Statistics and Background Information History – Britain Since the early 1950s, when this colour problem was first identified, it was regarded as a psychological misunderstanding or culture clash. Initially, when new immigrants from the new commonwealth started to settle down here, the problem was seen as xenophobia, which is fear of strangers. It was thought that as the immigrants would get familiarized with the locals, this misunderstanding would go. However, it started to keep developing and reached the form of race riots that first happened in 1958. This then led the government to make policies dealing with integration and outlaw discrimination as the time progressed (Penketh, 2000, p. 9). Blacks found out later on that the problem was not only with the locals acting differently with them, but the system was unwelcoming to them as well. Whether it was police, or education system or judicial system or others, each one of these discriminated on some grounds. The Scarman report, however, revealed that Britain did not have institutional racism i.e. the police as an institution did not have specific and racist direction and motives. Nevertheless, this discrimination surfaced on streets if the officers were young and inexperienced. He rather referred to it as racial disadvantage. This means that the difficulties the immigrants were facing in getting an access to education, housing, safety and other public facilities would make their coming generations less equipped and thus disadvantaged. The 1975 white paper introduced this concept but it failed to explain as to whom the culprit for this is and ways to address this problem. This made the shift from the whole black community to the individuals feeling disadvantaged. Macpherson report saw racism in a different light. It saw that the problem was with the system. No matter if one increases number of people belonging to a minority class in a certain institution, but if the policies do not change then the institution would not be able to separate itself from the notion of institutional racism. This meant that something needs to be done at the big level, i.e. at the institutional level. This report even made 70 recommendations as to how to deal with this institutional racism. These included training of the officials, creating good relations with the family of the victim, investigating racial incidents in a timely fashion and showing just as equal concern like incidents of other nature and the like. The Scarman report saw the minorities as a problem and talked about ways to deal with those problems and managing them. On the other hand, Macpherson report emphasized that the nation as a whole is a problem. This moved the sentiments and helped creating awareness in the masses that something is going wrong and needs to be corrected. This report drew some outstanding results. Everything from recruitment and retention policies to investigation policies changed. The effects of Macpherson report were so far reaching that the results of this report served as a benchmark for all the institutions. Many institutions carried out conferences after the release of this report to evaluate the existence of racism in their institutions and they ran racism audits etc. This was the first time in Britain that so much was done to deal with the problem of institutional racism. Something that is missed out in Macpherson report is state racism. It is the executive; the legislature and the judiciary that needs to make and implement laws and policies that are neutral. This issue is important to cover because policies and laws have a trickledown effect on organizations – small or large. Therefore, if the policies are not correctly shaped at the state level then there is always going to be a problem in other institutions, whether government owned or privately owned. Civil society cannot flourish if racism is prevalent among the individuals and this racist thinking would stay in the minds of the individuals unless proper measures are taken to revisit the policies and laws on the state level and on the institutional level so that the individuals look up to those laws and reshape their attitudes and behaviours. Racial Profiling – a history Institutional Racism is a term that is used to refer to practices, procedures and policies made and followed by institutions to favor the people of one race, specifically Whites. This leads to causing harm or doing injustice to the people of other races due to the various stereotypes attached with the race and because of the implied belief of considering them inferior or below. Institution in this sense refers to government bodies, police and other organizations in general (Better, 2008, p. 11). The history of racial profiling goes back to 1990s when US officials developed profiles of drug couriers to aid them in investigation. Thus, these profiles led police to look for certain ethnic groups and scrutinize them as suspects. Some people think that it is alright to make investigations on the basis of race as it makes the search easy considering the fact that some crimes are common in certain races. However, many others argue that this is a form of discrimination therefore it should be avoided and stop/search should not be made on the basis of race or ethnic background (Better, 2008, p. 41). London Riots, 2011 London riots which are also known as August riots started because of an unjustified action of police. A local named Mark Duggan was shot dead by the protectors of law – the police. This made the crowd angry on such an action of the police as no senior officer came to meet the protest or tried to come forward clear it (Luther, 2011, p. 5). However, there were many other reasons of looting and vandalism at this massive level. Although, death of a local moved the sentiments of the public but other causes of this riot cannot be ignored. These include unemployment, a weak police response and above all racial profiling. People belonging to the minority communities have always found themselves at a greater risk of being searched, charged or insulted. One would agree that police is notorious for giving racist comments, insulting, and attacking minority groups more than whites. Actions that police have been taking in order to deal with such racist officers include either suspending them or limiting their duties. However, other serious measures are needed to be taken in order to deal with these issues. Some of the statistics of the August riots are alarming. According to these statistics, only 42% of the total people arrested were white. The remaining 58% belonged to minority communities. Specifically; 46% were black, 7% were Asian and 5% belonged to other minor groups of various ethnicities. Furthermore, about 90% of the people charged were male and were under the age of 21. A report released by the Metropolitan Police Service reveals the following facts relating to operation Withern, which is the operation investigating the real culprits behind the August riots. According to these statistics, total number of recorded offenses was 3,713. These offenses mainly included burglaries, criminal damage offenses and robberies. Of all the people arrested, 33% were white, 56% were black, 8% were Asian and the remaining 4% belonged to other communities. Of all the people charged from the ones arrested, 33% were white, 55% were black, 8% were Asian and 4% belonged to other minor ethnic groups (Strategy and Performance, 2011). Section 44 or the terrorism act gives powers to the police to disrupt, deter or detect terrorist action. This power is applicable only in the cases when the police see something unreasonably suspicious. However, it is seen that section 44 has added to the racial profiling in the behavior of the police. Muslims are the main targets of this section; however, blacks and Asians have also been made targets by the police. As the result, the police are seen abusing these powers and using them in making routine stops and searches. This kind of behavior adds on to the frustration of the people belonging to minority groups and they thus burst with anger when they see even the smallest chance of it (Shantz, 2010, p. 39). Some Popular instances There have been many incidents that show that Metropolitan police service is institutional racist. The case of Stephen Lawrence tops the list. Stephen Lawrence was a black teenager who was stabbed to death by some gang in 1993. When police arrived at the scene, it gave the victim least attention as if the victim had done something wrong. There was no urgency in police’s actions in getting the victim to the hospital or showing concern to his family members. The police assumed that since the victim was black therefore he must have done something wrong and that is why he got killed (Winterdyk & Antonopoulos, 2008, p. 70). This delay and lack of concern from the police towards the victim and his family led the public to believe that the metropolitan police service is least concerned and it made people to lose trust and faith that they had in the police. Two of his five killers were convicted 18 years after his death. If he was a white, then his case might have not taken this long to reach justice; however, his tireless supporters and his mother’s efforts made it possible for justice to reach his grave. In response to this incident Macpherson report, which investigated into this issue, was released. This report gave some strong recommendations (Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Home Affairs Committee, 2009, p. 2). It recommended to restrict police officers to stop and search without reasonable grounds and urged the government to train the officers for racial tolerance and establish some standards to follow when investigating into any issue (Lambert, 1986, p. 137). It also recommended having a mix of all ethnic groups that are present in the community in the police force; so that they represent the population they serve and thus act in a more concerned way. It prohibited police officers from using racist words or from doing racist acts and linked those words and acts with strict disciplinary actions that can include dismissal also. These and such other recommendations were given in this report pertaining to the metropolitan police service. However, it is seen that despite of having this well-research report and recommendations, hardly any of these is followed. All these heated talks about institutional racism in the police have led to the selection of more colored police officers in the force; however, this is not proportional with their populations. Brixton riots also represent a classic example of institutional racism at work. This happened in 1981 when a house fire killed some youth Blacks and police action in response to that was seen as insufficient. This infuriated black people and they organized themselves in a march and confronted the police. The riots went on from July 3 to 11. The Scarman report was released after the riots to investigate into the reasons and causes of these riots and it revealed that police was unpropotionally using its stop and search powers against the black people. This report recommended senior officers to take the responsibility of dealing with racism in the society in general, and in the police fraternity in specific or else it would become an uncontrolled threat to the society (The Struggle for Race Equality, 2012). Another incident of severe racial profiling is seen after the event of September 11 after which Asians and Muslims felt severely discriminated, and blacks automatically got dragged in this fire of Islamophobia. Asian and blacks are searched more often than white people. Moreover, many restrictions are placed on them including restrictive immigration and the like. These acts leave people of these minor communities frustrated and infuriated. This institutional racism leads to masses thinking the same about the minorities like they have taken our jobs, and they are terrorists, or they are criminals and the like. Therefore, it is not only unjust to all the good people who are being generalized because of their belonging to a particular group, but it also spreads negativity all around (Solomos, 1991, p. 121). This racism is seen not only in police, but everywhere else. No matter how much of good in arts, medicine and sports these minorities bring to the country, they are always discriminated (Lentin, 2012). Ethnic groups in Britain have increased tremendously over time. This happened due to large influx of immigrants from Pakistan and around. The population of minority in England and Wales increased from 103,000 in 1951 to 4.6 million in 2008. These minorities are majorly concentrated in London, Birmingham, Manchester and small towns and that is where most of the racial crimes take place. In other words, these places are famous for minorities becoming a victim of racism often. Racism is not a present day made phenomenon. It has been there from the time blacks and Asians starting to move out of their lands. In the earlier times, these racial riots used to happen in the form of large scale riots planted by white people against blacks (Winterdyk & Antonopoulos, 2008, p. 73). Now, these riots or violence take place on a low scale; however, on a routine basis. One of the most important reasons of this racial violence includes unemployment. When a huge number of new labourers enter the market, they compete with the locals and accept wages lower than market wages. Thus, this employs newly immigrated labourers and creates a sense of jealousy and hatred among the local population. However, there are many other reasons for racism. These include hostility because of the limited access towards public services, education, housing etc. The minorities are disadvantaged not only because they become victim of such racial violence, but also because they are under protected. Police is not behind in supporting the racists, if not so much then there are at least some members in the police force who support their own race and discriminate with the rest. ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION Racism in Metropolitan Police Service – An analysis The discussion about the various incidents of racism that has taken place shows that our hypothesis is accepted, i.e. Metropolitan Police Service is racist in its actions. This conclusion was driven because of the number of people caught in the London riots and repeated complaints of the minority groups about the discrimination that they have to face day in and day out. Our result is supported by police’s resistance to follow the recommendations presented by Macpherson report. All these recommendations were very valid and practical, but not any of them have been fully implemented. Police have been seen denying the fact that they are racist. Besides, it would be wrong to say that every one working in the metropolitan police service is racist. However, there are some people who still have racist thinking and since those few officers represent the institution therefore the mindset of the institution as a whole is seen as racist (Rowe, 2007, p. 20). Conclusion As humans are progressing towards more and more civilization and modernity, one shall not forget the basis of any civilization and that is respect for humanity. Discriminating people on the basis of their race and colour is a thing that should bring shame and disgust. Today’s time is the time of enjoying diversity and reaping the benefits of the differences that each person has to offer. Therefore, engaging oneself in acts of racism is not only uncivilized but also unproductive at the same time. Furthermore, Police force is a body that everyone looks up to. Therefore, no one expects behaviour of such low dignity from the police. Police is there as a role model and people tend to follow their role models a lot. Hence, it is important that this institutional racism ends from this institution so that the society can be cleaned from this evil also. People in the metropolitan police need to be more tolerant of different races and diversity training is the best thing that can help them with this. It is seen that police officers that are mostly seen with racist mentality are young and inexperienced. Therefore, diversity training would really help deal with this issue. Moreover, one more recommendation that was given in the Macpherson report also that recruitment should be made more inclusive. There should be a fair representation of all the races present in the society in the police force. It is high time the Police understand that no matter how much it achieves otherwise, but if it cannot value the sentiments of the people it is serving then everything else becomes meaningless and of secondary importance. 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Shantz, Jeff. 2010. Racism and Borders: Representation, Repression, Resistance. Algora Publishing. Solomos, John. 1991. Black Youth, Racism and the State: The Politics of Ideology and Policy. CUP Archive. Strategy and Performance, D. 2011. Operation Withern - Offences, Arrests and Charges. The Struggle for Race Equality. 2012. Retrieved on July 15, 2012: www.runnymedetrust.org: http://www.runnymedetrust.org/histories/race-equality/60/scarman-report-blames-racial-tensions-for-brixton-riots.html Winterdyk, John, & Antonopoulos, Georgios. 2008. Racist Victimization: International Reflections and Perspectives. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Read More