Europe, News Watch, Side Feature

Institutional Police Racism is Not Just a Few Rotten Apples

An official report accuses police of the widespread abuse of their power to strip-search children, with black children 11 times more likely than their white peers to be selected by officers for the ordeal.

The study found that police did not follow the rules in more than half of strip-searches, amounting to “widespread non-compliance”, and in half of all searches nothing was found.

The children’s commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, said: “I have severe concerns at the ethnic disproportionality shown in these figures, and at the lack of appropriate protection for children during what is often a traumatic and humiliating experience.

De Souza added: “Across England and Wales, police are strip-searching children as part of stop and searches and there is evidence of deeply concerning practice. My findings include evidence of widespread non-compliance with the statutory safeguards in place to protect children, including the lack of appropriate adults in more than half of searches, and strip-searches being conducted in schools, police vehicles and within public view.

The figures come after last week’s damning report into the Metropolitan Police by Baroness Casey, which said London’s black communities have been “over-policed and under-protected”. (Source: The Guardian)

Comment:
For too long the excuse given when corruption is unearthed is that a few rotten apples spoil the batch, as though the problem is due to the individual corruption of a few individuals. However, it is clearly evident, despite the denial of senior police officers in Britain, that the police force as a whole, along with many other national institutions are racist to the core.

How can such inappropriate values exist within the very institution that are supposed to investigate and prevent racially motivated crimes? The answer is that racism is not peculiar to the police force, but is rather deeply rooted in the secular values of Britain, government policies, and media coverage of ethnic minorities. Indeed a recent government review of the failed “Prevent” policy recommended that officers should focus less on the growing right ring radicalisation of the youth, so that they can spend more time and resources preventing Muslims from becoming too Islamic. In other words, racism is to be tolerated, but Islam absolutely cannot be tolerated.

Hypocritical double standards are in the DNA of the secular ideology, whose foundation is a shallow compromise between two opposing ideas; right and wrong have no place in a secular society, only convenience and self-interest matter.

Please read the following article for further insight into Britain’s relationship with racism Britain’s Legacy of Racism

Yahya Nisbet
Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir in Britain