Police violence and racial brutality – an American problem only?

Systemic racism and prejudice have been described as a highly infectious virus.  In 2013 the social movement “Black Lives Matter”, was formed.  This was due to the ever-growing insidious culture of police brutality against BAME communities  This ever-growing social issue culminated in the killing of Trayvon Martin in the USA who was shot by police officers in his hometown.  Due to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) social phenomena being formed in the USA, some have questioned its relevance within other countries such as Britain.  Let us critically examine and article that was published by the Guardian Newspaper entitled: “Systemic racism and police brutality are British problems too”, to see if there is evidence to support this statement (The Guardian Newspaper, 2020).

             It’s the 28th October 2019 and Douglas Murray addressed a political rally in Westminster, London.  Whilst giving his speech, he decided to call out the recent Black Lives Matter march in London.  Murry announced that it is ridiculous to be making a stand over what he and his audience perceived as an American problem.  For example, he stated that their slogan – “Hands up – Don’t shoot” whilst being escorted by unarmed British Police Officers, was ridiculous (Murray as cited in Guardian, 2019).  However, moving forward to 25th May 2020 and the death of another black man, George Floyd of Minnesota, USA showed that guns were not necessarily the problem.  Floyd’s untimely death, according to official sources, was the result of asphyxiation and lack of oxygenated blood to his brain.  This was caused by a police officer kneeling on his neck for near on nine minutes (NY Times, 2020).  Furthermore, data from USA highlights that black men are more 2 and half times more likely to be killed by law enforcement than a white man (Nature, 2020).

            Floyd’s tragic death has highlighted the disproportionate amount of violence and unnecessary restraint against BAME men, women, and children, particularly against black men within the criminal justice system and is just as prevalent in UK as anywhere else in the world.  This Guardian article identified that law enforcement, whether that be the police, prisons, or immigration – have been infected with the racial bias.  To illustrate, according to Ministry of Justice (2021), black people only make up 3.3 per cent of the United Kingdom’s Population. However though, black men make up over 22 per cent of those stopped by police in Stop and Search policy and black men and women cover ten percent of the prison population.  As for black children and youths (aged 10 +), they make up 29 per cent of those in custody and are 17.5 per cent more likely to be murdered (MoJ, 2021).  Furthermore, data collected by the Home Office in 2018, show that black people stopped nationally by police were found to be guilty of offence only 35.09 per cent of the time compared to white people 44.89 per cent.  This data clearly showed racial bias, as black people, although stopped by police more regularly than white, were found not guilty the most (Khan, 2020).

            These figures clearly show that police racial bias is far from just an American problem.  The Guardian article goes on to name various black people who have died in UK due to police and immigration brutality.  Such as, Rashan Charles, Edson De Costa and Sheku Bayoh.  Also, black women have fallen victim to the same brutality (Guardian, 2020).  Sarah Reed is just one example of many ethnic minority women who were killed by law enforcement.  However, although this problem is of a greater proportion within the USA, this does not denigrate the lives sacrificed on the alter of racial brutality within the UK.

            Racial bias can also be seen from the lack of prosecutions within England and Wales.  To date, no police officer has ever been successfully prosecuted for killing a black person.  The only prosecution was in 1969, where two police officers serving within West Yorkshire constabulary Leeds district, killed a black man named David Oluwale.  This man was consistently abused both verbally and physically for several years to attempt to drive him out of Leeds.  However, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) agreed to lessen the charge from manslaughter to assault (Guarding, 2020)*.  Although police brutality still is an ongoing problem within UK, there is very little appetite to prosecute those involved.  Furthermore, the British government convened a review of racial inequality and institutional bias, The Lammy Review, which was published in 2017.  This review showed that the UK is imprisoning more black citizens than the USA is.  This sad statistic gets considerably worse when one specifically considers those who are children, 18 years old and younger.  This report highlighted that 48 per cent of BAME children, especially young black people, are in custody at any one time (Lammy, 2017 as cited in Guardian, 2020).

            To conclude, we have highlighted that although the issue of racial bias and brutality within the police service is a large and visible problem with America’s 52 states, none the less, it is becoming an ever-increasing problem within UK.  Furthermore, statistics published both by Ministry of Justice and The Lammy Review, detail that institutional racism within the English and Welsh criminal justice systemgtf988 are at endemic proportions.  Also, this problem does not only relate to the adult black population, but over 48 per cent of BAME children can be incarcerated within the same jurisdiction.  Far from the BLM being an American societal problem, there is an essential need within UK to highlight the plight of black and brown people.  The Guardian Newspaper article highlighted the desperate need for reform on a large scale if injustice and discrimination are to be ever abolished.

*(This does not include Sarah Everard’s Killer who was still a serving Met Police Officer).

References

Hill, E., Tiefenthaler, A, Triebert, C, Jordon, D, Willis, H and Stein, R. (2020). George Floyd Investigation, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html (Accessed: 05/02/2021).

Khan, A (2020), Latent Racial Bias - Evaluating Racism in Police Stop-and-Searches, Cornell University, NY, USA.

Koram, K., (2020), Systemic racism and police brutality are British problems too, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/04/systemic-racism-police-brutality-british-problems-black-lives-matter (Accessed: 02/02/2021).

Ministry of Justice. (2018) Race and the Criminal Justice System, publishing.service.gov.uk) (Accessed: 04/02/2021).

Peeples, L. (2020), What the data say about police brutality and racial bias – which reforms might work, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01846-z?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=761bed091d-briefing-dy-20200622&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-761bed091d-44992633 (Accessed: 05/02/2021).

UK Government (2020), Population of England and Wales, https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/uk-population-by-ethnicity/national-and-regional-populations/population-of-england-and-wales/latest (Accessed: 04/02/2021).