UK models of police, “self policing” meme for BICI and MOI Police impunity

The Anti-Imperialist | To self-police police racism is to perpetuate it

By Adam Elliott-Cooper – Ceasefire – 15 April, 2012

As further evidence emerges of police racism in the UK, Adam Elliott-Cooper uncovers a pattern of consistent failings by the Independent Police Complaint Commission to meaningfully hold the police to account.

Anti-racist campaigners have welcomed the fresh evidence surrounding police abuse and racism, collected by quick-thinking members of the public with recording equipment on their mobile phones, as well as official complaints or reports from officers victimised by a culture of racial discrimination.

To much of the press, an expression of shock and disappointment emerged with an apparent realisation that institutional racism had not been eradicated over the decade since the Macpherson Report. As is the procedure, a number of the cases has been referred to The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) , and the victims and their communities have been implicitly told to wait until the findings have been confirmed.

Community organisers and activists, however, have been less surprised by the evidence and accusations of racism, which include a young man being strangled, and then told that his problem was that he’ll “always be a nigger”. Those who are familiar with the blunt end of racist policing are more surprised that someone has managed to get away with recording the police while in their custody, as the police have put in a huge effort to criminalise anyone recording them while on duty.

Brian Paddick has been alone in the mainstream in his honesty about the endemic nature of racism in the police force, although he’s been careful to avoid the term ‘institutional racism’. Many are not planning to sit tight until the IPCC releases the findings due to emerge from the numerous reports of abuse. As far as they’re concerned, the organisation has proved over the years to be as problematic as the police body it is supposed to investigate and monitor.

Indeed, the proposal to hand evidence over to the IPCC is viewed with scepticism for good reason. There have been a number of cases in which the police have withheld vital evidence from the IPCC. The most high-profile of these being that of Ian Tomlinson, in which the IPCC were misled by false accounts, given to them by serving officers, of ‘missiles’ thrown by anarchists, not to mention an inaccurate autopsy carried out by a doctor with a history of lying in order to cover up police killings. Other cases have involved IPCC staff who, instead of critically examining evidence, have chosen to unquestioningly regurgitate police press statements, as was the case in the recent killing of Mark Duggan in the first week of Auguest 2011.

Further to this, in cases where sufficient evidence is presented to the IPCC, police accountability prosecution rarely ensues. Solicitor Fiona Murphy explains that investigations into officers with a long history of complaints of abuse against them from African, Caribbean and Asian members of the public over their abuse of Babar Ahmad resulted in the investigation – despite its abject failure to gather and test the necessary evidence – still unearthed sufficient material to justify criminal and disciplinary charges.
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