Let's get it right: race and justice 2000 - Nacro

RACE AND JUSTICE 2000CHAPTER 6 SUSPECTS AND DEFENDANTSresponsible for the majority of these offences. Out ofcontext, the launch of this campaign antagonised thosewho should have worked in partnership with the police;and it reinforced negative perceptions and stereotypes ofyoung black men as criminals.It is not possible to mount similar campaigns against theperpetrators of most other types of crime, as victimsusually do not know, for example, who burgles theirhome. Prison statistics reveal that white people are morelikely to be sentenced for burglary than black. A highprofile campaign which focuses on one group of suspectsin this way, out of context to other types of crime, can beextremely damaging and reinforces prejudiced attitudeson the part of officers and the wider public. It is alsodamaging to those who are the suspects:‘Young black men feel criminalised by the mediaand by the police with whom they interact in theireveryday lives. They become demoralised anddevelop a kind of paranoia whereby they assume aperson standing or sitting next to them willperceive them to be a mugger or a rapist … suchcriminalisation is sometimes used to justifypolicing strategies which disproportionately targetyoung African Caribbean males. Thoseinterviewed were used to being stopped, searchedand questioned about their possessions andmovements. Experiences were similar: the youths’mode of dress had been used to justify – wherejustification had been offered – their being stoppedand sometimes detained.’‘This is Where I Live: Stories and Pressures inBrixton’, Runnymede Trust, 1996Better ways must be found to involve local communitiesin planning future campaigns against crime which,hopefully, the new consultation channels will ensure.The knowledge that young black people are more likely tobe unemployed, excluded from school and out on thestreet is sometimes used to account for the numbers ofsearches of young black men. The following extracts fromattitude surveys and discussions with officers inTottenham in 1996 highlight this:‘People from different backgrounds reacteddifferently when approached by an officer, and thismight make the officer suspicious. From whiteyoung men it was often the lack of a reasonableexplanation for what they were doing. From blackyoung men this was often a question of attitude:“West Indians have a more excitable culture”, saidone officer.’‘The presence of large numbers of young blackpeople on the street was given repeatedly as areason for searching. For many young people withno money there was nowhere else to go but thestreet, where they came to police attention.’‘Descriptions of white suspects tended to be fullerthan descriptions of black suspects. Given thehigher rate of unemployment among young blackmen, they were more likely to be on the streetsand if a victim’s description came close to whatofficers observed, then officers were obliged tocarry out the search.’‘Policing Local Communities’, NACRO 1997Although the statements about school exclusions andunemployment are true, and even if much of one type ofcrime (street robbery) in one city (London) is indeedcarried out by young black men, it is not logical to moveto the belief that all young black men are criminals. Ayoung man in Tottenham said: ‘Some of the police are allright, so why do they think all black people are criminals?We treat them as individuals but they treat us all the same– no respect!’.Socio-economic factors may quite rightly be used – incontext and without sensationalism – to explain what isgoing on, and to develop strategies involving otheragencies – education, local authorities, training providersand employers, for example – to redress inequality. Alltoo often, however, poorly grasped ‘socio-babble’becomes an excuse to justify unfair practices.Debates about the continued existence of the ‘canteenculture’ in the police (and indeed in other agencies) haverecently been transformed into a debate about‘institutional racism’. This question arose during Part II ofthe Stephen Lawrence Inquiry.In 1998, the new president of ACPO, Chief ConstableJohn Newing of Derbyshire, said:‘We pick on people because they appear to bedifferent and officers have a stereotype of them.You can’t explain it other than by institutionalracism and the stereotyping of young blackpeople.’33