The Problem of Police Brutality and Racism in Britain

Introduction

Police racism in Britain dates back notably to April 1981 in the Brixton riots where black men were reportedly being maltreated by police (BBC News,2020). Police racism in Britain is understood to be manifested by police discretion that is inevitable in policing- where police have 'the freedom to decide what should be done in a particular situation' (Oxford English Dictionary) due to 'limited resources where not every law can always be enforced properly', and also 'even the most precisely worded rule of law requires interpretation in concrete situations providing leeway for police to act on their own accord leading to misconduct' (Rowe, 2007). Police racism in Britain also roots from police culture, where discretion is prevalent with cops being understood to unfairly target minority ethnic groups in the workforce and citizens in the outside world, with discrimination towards staff and unprovoked stop and searches to BAME groups in public (Rowe, 2007). This suggests problematic policing in Britain due to the police seemingly compromising ethical police codes to act with integrity, fairness, respect and take accountability. Thus, this essay will argue police brutality and racism is still a big problem in Britain.

Is police racism still a problem in Britain?

Discretion involves the power of decision police have as part of their job (Boivin, 2011). Police decision making can be influenced by extra-legal factors such as race, which can facilitate racist policing (Boivin, 2011). In Britain, it is argued police subculture leads officers to abuse discretion and unfairly target minority ethnic groups (Rowe, 2004). Since police decisions are often based on officers' moral judgements and individual judgements on what behaviours are right and who is to be arrested, this leaves room for discrimination towards ethnic minorities (Buvik, 2014). Officers are understood to ignore minor incidents or treat people with more force than needed (Buvik, 2014). Use of discretion can have a negative impact on British policing and police legitimacy with negative consequences including maltreatment to citizens (Myhill, 2015). This can be seen in Scarman's report in 1999 noting the discrimination of black people by police and attempting resolve this by employing more BAME groups in the police force and find new ways to staff training to amend racist British policing (BBC News, 2020). Stephen Lawrence's murder signifies the treatment of black people by the police and courts where the white murderers' cases were dropped, where it was realised, policing was of big concern in the Macpherson report in 1999.

Reiner (2010) noted police racism in Britain is evident within police culture with the notion of officers feeling they have autonomy for actions they feel is compulsory, regardless of whether it involves unfair treatment towards the public. Caveney (2019) noted prejudice from police culture manifests in society aiding police racism experienced towards the black and minority ethnic groups. BBC news (2020) reported staff revealing how they had experienced racism during police training. Expressive canteen talk within the police subculture also aids the argument that police racism is still a problem, with police expressing racist jokes and banter against black people within the workforce and in the privacy of their car, which later manifests in their practises in work where deal with incidents involving black and minority ethnic groups in an unfair racist way (Waddington,1999), highlighting the sheer racism in policing in Britain today.

Police racism is still a problem in Britain due to various and apparent unjust treatment that still occurs. Police discretion is frequent where black people are stopped and searched more than white people with use of excessive force (The Guardian, 2020), resulting black people reporting a strained relationship with police,stressing racism in policing is still a problem in Britain.

The racism in British policing conflicts the ethical codes, where police are expected to treat the public with fairness and integrity and take accountability and subsequently failing to follow Article 2 where people have a right to life, and Article 3- the prohibition of mistreatment, with the case of a 12 year old black girl being found dead in the River Irwell in 2019 with police rejecting any problems and suspicions of murder despite the fact she could not swim, was a far from home and was abused in school. This stresses racism with policing. Additionally, Belly Mujinga's death further shows the magnitude of police racism in Britain today where she was spat on by someone who had coronavirus, became ill, and died with police taking inadequate action. Moreover, during the coronavirus pandemic, The Independent (2020) reports how many black and ethnic minority key workers, including ambulance drivers, being stopped to justify why they're outand are constantly targeted by police more than white people despite doing their jobs and supporting the community during a pandemic, showing racism in policing to be a big issue in Britain today.

Racism in British policing today has invited calls for revolutionary change with the Black Lives Matter movement crying that the 'UK is not innocent' following indignation towards racism in British policing such as police handling the Grenfell tower victims ineffectively and inspired protests where many black people protested in London against the way the policing is conducted in Britain. The Black Lives Matter movement and police abolitionist's insistent demands for change are made based on British police failing to address knife crime towards black people, despite section 60 allowing for stop and searching suspects. Defunding British police has been considered where it has been suggested to instead reinvest funds to discriminated communities in society to reduce the British police's power and aid the wider unfairly treated community to end white supremacy and ensure better treatment towards black and minority ethnic groups. BBC News (2020) notes he sheer racism in British policing has had extensive implications with BLM protests even leading to Boris Johnson calling inquiries against racist policing in Britain.

Conclusion

Thus, to conclude, this essay reinstates racist policing to still be a problem in Britain because of constant, heinous discrimination towards BAME people ranging from a plethora of uncalled for stop and searches, questioning, and black staff members experiencing abuse in police forces facilitated and the police and criminal justice system failing black victims of crime. This means the police disobey the codes of ethical policing, where they are expected to treat races respectfully. Racist policing in Britain today has implications of the Black Lives Matter movement with many protests in Britain against police racism towards black people, which even prompted Boris Johnson to inquire into racial inequality in Britain. More implications racist policing has included police abolitionists insisting the defunding of police and use the money for helping discriminated communities to reduce white supremacy in Britain reinforcing police racism to still be an issue in Britain.