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Police Racism


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It's not going to do much good for relations between the police and black communities in London if nothing is done. Nobody wants to see more rioting.

More likely they have been briefed to deliberately behave like this to incite this years LondonRiot2012®™ ahead of schedule so it doesn't interfere with the Olympics, I'm sure they've just been dying to try out those new water tanks....

Nobody wants to see rioting MORE than the police and state...this guy would have done better off to keep quiet and not rise to the bait....

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More likely they have been briefed to deliberately behave like this to incite this years LondonRiot2012®™ ahead of schedule so it doesn't interfere with the Olympics, I'm sure they've just been dying to try out those new water tanks....

Nobody wants to see rioting MORE than the police and state...this guy would have done better off to keep quiet and not rise to the bait....

Err...but this recording was made during the riots last summer.

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This is every bit as unfounded and ignorant as racism in general. Unless you have statistics and a huge chunk of articles and trials proving the majority of police officers hold racist opinions i suggest you fuck off right now. I happen to know a good chunk of police officers around here, the borders, and in england, and none of them would stand for that shit. So piss off or stop speaking a world of shit.

Are you being serious? Not every police officer is going to be as openly racist as the guy in the recording, but it's a pretty established fact that there is still a pretty big element of institutional racism in the police, across the country.

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There has been in the past, and there is still now racism in the police. Like there is everywhere you go, there will be people hiding racist view points. My gripe is the generalisation of it all.

"police officer = Racist"

It's every bit as ignorant as the racism itself.

but the police tend not to hide it. If you look at crime statistics, non-white people are considerably more likely to be arrested on a day-to-day basis. That's institutional racism. The police on the whole are arguably more fair than they were when, say, the Stephen Lawrence murder occurred, but it's still a racist organisation.

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Its a touchy one, on one hand its obvious there are instances of racism in the Police force, but does that make the entire Police force racist? I dont think so, the unfortunate thing is in any part of life racism is still prevalent, but we expect the Police to be a better kind of person, they are not, they are just like any other group of people, just with more power. It would be impossible to weed all of these people easily, so sadly things like this will continue indefinitely, the only thing they can do, and it seems they have not done on this occasion, is to get rid of these people right away.

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Not comparable to the KKK though?

i'm going to take a guess and say that he was exaggerating for effect.

And that's doesn't mean anything. How can you prove that it's the police arresting ethnic minorities over ethnic minorities are more likely to commit crime? We have no real way of knowing either way with one statistic, it would take a much larger scale investigation to figure that out.

White people have obviously dominated Britain throughout history. Non-white people are subjected to far more forms of discrimination than white people are in everyday life. This translates to crime figures, where simply taking them at face value would give you the impression that non-white people commit far more crimes than their percentage of the population. you're right in saying that statistics don't cover everything, but I guess my point is that when you read about experiences that non-white people have with the police, coupled with stories like this one, you get a totally different story of what the police are like.

...sorry if that sounded patronising, I'm very tired.

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I haven't been to sleep yet, i feel your pain.

One problem that has occurred from situations like this though is that there are racist views in the police. But it's easy to tarnish an entire professional when there is even just one isolated incident. There has been a few incidents but it doesn't represent the whole police, but coupling the statistics and a couple of mad arseholes in the police can easily make it look that way. and that i think is what has happened. Unfortunately not enough is being done to get these people of the services.

But the fact that this officer hasn't been charged and put in jail shows that it's a far more complex problem than that. It's an easy solution to say that if you get rid of individually racist officers then the problems will go away, but racism needs to be kicked out of the force as a whole, whereby if there are future incidents like this, then the racist officer in question will lose their job and be jailed.

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How does that confirm profiling? Many of these studies just take figures and speculate. Rather than discussing other things it could actually mean, it could simply be that they are more likely to commit crimes.

Do you honestly think that black people are 30 times more likely to be stopped by the police because they are more likely to commit crimes? If you do, then I think we might just end up going round in circles for a long time!

By the way, i consider myself a skeptic by default and an Internationalist. I question pretty much everything until i feel informed enough to make a decision. And i really wish everyone could just look at each other and not see the differences but the similarities. Unfortunately it could be a very long time before that ever happens, if it ever does.

Again, yeah, I can see where you're coming from. But although I kind of agree with what you're saying, we only get the chance to say those kinds of things because we're white. Non-white people get racial issues forced on them all the time, unfortunately.

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Exactly my thoughts - if you run the police and one of of your officers does something that is so blatantly racist, but you choose not to dismiss them, you're opening yourselves up to accusations of institutional racism. Take definitive action and make it clear that the behaviours and actions displayed will not be tolerated. Squeeze it out.

(this was a response to davidm's earlier point)

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Yeah thats the big issue here, why that guy was not sacked as soon as they heard that tape is a big worry. To even claim the guy was not affected by what the officer says is insulting to the guy who made the recording. This is why we are even discussing this, if the Police instantly sacked these people then the opinion of the Police would be different, but the fact they do not leaves them open to these accusations. I still dont think the Police, as an organisation, is racist, they, like any other part of society, have their bad eggs. but they dont seem to do enough to get rid of them.

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I guess so, but then i'd like to look more into the matter on the police side, i find it so hard to believe in this day and age we still can have that amount of racism, and why it would all come together in the police, unless joining the police turned you into a racist.

Or unless the police had such a long standing reputation for racism that it attacted that kind of individual

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i find it so hard to believe in this day and age we still can have that amount of racism

Do you think that might be because we (Aberdonians) are actually fairly sheltered from racial issues which may go on more diverse areas like greater London for example? Personally, i know a lot of people from varying ethnic backgrounds but i honestly can't say i've personally every witnessed racism in Aberdeen although im sure it goes on. Humoured jokes, yes (and im being careful about what i say here for fear of being branded a racist) but then these jokes are made in the presence of said ethnic and other jokes were fired straight back. It may be becuase i have been lucky with who i know but i don't think the problem is as big up here as it is elsewhere in the UK?

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Do you think that might be because we (Aberdonians) are actually fairly sheltered from racial issues which may go on more diverse areas like greater London for example? Personally, i know a lot of people from varying ethnic backgrounds but i honestly can't say i've personally every witnessed racism in Aberdeen although im sure it goes on. Humoured jokes, yes (and im being careful about what i say here for fear of being branded a racist) but then these jokes are made in the presence of said ethnic and other jokes were fired straight back. It may be becuase i have been lucky with who i know but i don't think the problem is as big up here as it is elsewhere in the UK?

That's unfair Banchory must be one of the most diverse places in the UK! ;)

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/02/police-race-row-assault-claim

"A policeman has been captured on tape allegedly assaulting a young black teenager just hours after a colleague of his was recorded abusing another man with a serious racial slur.

PC Joe Harrington has been placed on restricted duties after he was allegedly seen kicking the 15-year-old to the ground and kneeing him, in the custody area of an east London police station. Part of the incident was recorded on CCTV."

Placed on restricted duties. Fucking hell.

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why it would all come together in the police.

You don't have to be particularly bright to be a plod, and you get relative power over the general population with the bonus of a national institution to back you up if you're a bit heavy handed. Therefore, high percentage of knuckleheads. I too have met some human policemen, but also some total psychopaths.

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You don't have to be particularly bright to be a plod, and you get relative power over the general population with the bonus of a national institution to back you up if you're a bit heavy handed. Therefore, high percentage of knuckleheads. I too have met some human policemen, but also some total psychopaths.

The exams you have to sit to join are not easy, so saying you "don't have to be bright" is a little bit derogatory.

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