UK policing system is institutionally racist, insists Met Black Police Association boss
7 June 2020, 14:39 | Updated: 7 June 2020, 14:42
Janet Hills Chair of the Metropolitan Black Police Association
The chair of the Metropolitan Black Police Association told LBC that institutional racism exists clearly in the Met.
Janet Hills is the Chair of the Metropolitan Black Police Association and she joined Maajid Nawaz to speak about the protests that have swept the nation demonstrating against racism and police brutality.
Maajid was vocal about institutional racism during the coronavirus lockdown as well as when the George Floyd protests in the US began to gain steam.
He asked Ms Hills "do you experience, as racism is a societal issue, do you experience it in the police force as well?" What she answered with surprised both Maajid and listeners alike.
"The policing system is institutionally racist" she told Maajid and said that there is little done to fight racism within the policing system. She told Maajid that "we do not shine a light on ourselves" and insisted that the Met needs to "listen and hear the voices" of people within the policing system who feel as though the organisation can do better to fight racism.
Maajid read to Ms Hills a report he spotted in days previous. He told her of a report that "even black and latino police officers experience racism" in the United States and there have even been some cases of minority officers dying at the hands of white policemen. He wanted to know Ms Hills' view of the phenomenon.
She told Maajid that "in the UK we have the stop and search powers" and they have come under significant criticism in recent years for the inherent racial profiling they support.
Ms Hills told Maajid that she has been met by countless police officers complaining about stop and search. She said that "they have been stopped off duty" and "the grounds given by officers are vague." Maajid was shocked by the statement, while Ms Hills said that "challenges are played out internally" after complaints are made to seniors in police departments but often nothing is done.
