Latest news with #PoliceRaceActionPlan
Daily Mirror
6 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Reform UK police chief's 'dark heart of wokeness' claim under fire
Rupert Matthews, who has defected from the Tory Party to Nigel Farage's rightwing outfit, claimed the UK needs 'to cut the dark heart of wokeness out of our criminal justice system'. Reform UK's new police and crime commissioner is under fire for calling the police's plan to tackle racism an 'abomination'. Rupert Matthews, who has defected from the Tory Party to Nigel Farage 's rightwing outfit, claimed the UK needs 'to cut the dark heart of wokeness out of our criminal justice system'. And he branded the Police Race Action Plan (PRAP) "the very epitome of two tier policing'. But experts slapped down his comments for 'fundamentally misrepresenting' the plan, which was created to address evidence that minority communities are treated differently by police. It comes after Nigel Farage came under pressure to distance himself from 'racist' Ant Middleton rant. In a Reform UK press conference on Monday, Mr Matthews, the Leicestershire and Rutland PCC, said: "The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) recently sponsored the abomination that is the Police Race Action Plan. That concluded that people should be treated differently depending on which ethnic group they came from. 'That is a disgrace and the very epitome of two tier policing. We need to cut the dark heart of wokeness out of our criminal justice system and allow the police and courts to get back to what they're supposed to be doing, which is keeping our communities safe." Abimbola Johnson, the head of the police racism watchdog, told The Mirror: 'The suggestion that the Police Race Action Plan asks for people to be treated differently depending on their ethnicity fundamentally misrepresents the purpose and findings of the programme. 'The uncomfortable truth is that racially minoritised communities, particularly Black people, are already treated differently by our policing system. The intention of PRAP is to deal with those disparities. 'Unfortunately, there are people in power, like Mr Matthews, who use their position to undermine progress rather than push policing towards improvement in key areas such as anti-racism.' Last year, Black people were more than five times more likely to be stopped and searched than their white counterparts, while Black children remain six and a half times more likely to be strip-searched than white children. PRAP was first established in 2020, against the backdrop of George Floyd's murder by a US police officer and the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests that followed. But policing has long had a difficult history with black communities. In 1999, the Macpherson Report found that institutional racism contributed to the police's botched investigation into Stephen Lawrence's 1993 murder in London. It was a watershed moment in facing up to racism in the police. But progress has been slow. In 2023, Baroness Louise Casey's report after the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Metropolitan police officer again found the force was institutionally racist. The Independent Scrutiny and Oversight Board, of which Ms Johnson is the chair, last month(JUL) found some improvements in its latest assessment of PRAP, including reforms to data collection of vehicle stops. But it warned issues still remain elsewhere, including serious data gaps when it comes to body-worn video cameras. Chief Constable Gavin Stephens, chairman of the NPCC, said: 'It remains the fact that Black communities have the lowest levels of confidence in the police, are three times more likely to be subject to police use of force, while Black children are disproportionately likely to be reported missing to the police. 'If communities don't trust the police, they won't come forward when they need help or support us with things like information to support our investigations. This then has implications for everybody. Improving confidence in the police benefits policing for everyone, and that is the driving force behind everything we are trying to do.' When contacted by The Mirror, Mr Matthews said: 'I believe that if you want to restore trust and confidence in the police then you need to treat everyone the same, no ifs, no buts. "The same rules should apply across the board. Background or indeed any other so-called difference should have absolutely no effect on the implementation of those rules. It should not take a national Plan and associated budget of millions in order to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.'
Daily Mirror
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Harrowing warning about police racism as 'lack of leadership courage' fears raised
A new report by the Independent Scrutiny and Oversight Board (ISOB) says the Home Office must clarify how the Government's Police Race Action Plan (PRAP) will continue beyond next year and said the Home Office must be 'hands on' Black police officers are experiencing a "worsening environment" - with some saying they have considered ending their own lives, a harrowing report warns. A "lack of leadership courage" means racist behaviour is becoming normalised, the National Black Police Association (NBPA) said. It comes amid growing questions about how chief constables will be held to account in tackling racism beyond next year. Official data shows continued racial disparities in stop and search, use of force and treatment of children. But four years after the Government's Police Race Action Plan (PRAP) was drawn up, a key watchdog said there are huge gaps in the progress forces are making. Abimbola Johnson, who chairs the Independent Scrutiny and Oversight Board (ISOB), called on the Government to clarify what happens when PRAP funding runs out in March. In the watchdog's report, the NBPA warns: "Disappointingly, rather than witnessing improvements, we are seeing a worsening environment for Black and ethnic minority officers and staff, alongside persistent racial disparities in policing outcomes." It said some chief constables are "resistant" to PRAP's aims - adding: "This lack of leadership courage undermines the integrity of the plan." Since 2020 the NBPA said it has heard about horrific racist messages and vile language not resulting in formal sanctions. It said: "Behind these incidents are real people, not just statistics. READ MORE: Massive data leak saw 100,000 Afghans put in danger as thousands brought to UK "We have supported colleagues who have considered ending theirown lives due to the organisation's failure to protect them or take racism seriously. These are not isolated anecdotes - they are symptoms of a deeper institutional complacency, and they must serve as awake-up call to everyone in leadership. "There is a clear and dangerous gap in current provisions." Since PRAP was introduced, forces have been required to bring in changes and keep records to raise confidence in the Black communities. But the ISOB warns that there is huge variation between forces, and records are not kept consistently. And it said that unless the Home Office makes a longer-term commitment to the plan, there are serious questions over anti-racism work beyond next year. After this point it will become the sole responsibility of local forces. The Home Office must take a more "hands on" approach, the ISOB says. Hightlighting the ongoing need for action, campaign group Just for Kids Law: "There continues to be significant racial disparity in relation to children's interaction with the police, with tensions and lack of trust exacerbated in recent years. "Racist narratives of 'aggression' and 'propensity to violence' follow Black children throughout the systems with which they engage. Consequently, Black children are often, construed as risks to the public and community and, not being afforded the notion of innocence due to perceptions of being older and, therefore, more responsible for their actions." The ISOB says an upcoming Maturity Matrix - a publicly-available dashboard tracking anti-racism delivery in England and Wales' 43 forces must not be delayed further. It says an acknowledgement of institutional racism in some places, including Avon and Somerset, had led to better training and accountability. Ms Johnson said: "We remain concerned by a lack of clarity about which police forces are meeting their objectives, and more importantly, insight into what enables or hinders their success." She said poor data collection is a "significant issue", and added the anti-racism plan has not been consistently pushed to achieve its potential. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dr Alison Heydari, PRAP programme director , said: 'Policing has made strides forward since the plan was launched. Black representation is up by 25 per cent among police officers, race disparity has fallen in a whole range of police powers, while the number of officers dismissed 'for discriminatory behaviour has quadrupled, reflecting our commitment at the outset of this plan to take a zero-tolerance approach to racism. 'However, I am under no illusion about the scale of the challenge. More must be done, especially as local forces take greater ownership of the plan from next year. " A Home Office spokesperson said: 'There is no space for racism and intolerance in our police, and we will always take pride in our forces being truly representative of the diverse communities they serve. 'We fully support the aims of the Police Race Action Plan, and are committed to working with police leaders to ensure necessary progress is made.'
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
I fear Britain is lurching towards civil war, and nobody knows how to stop it
I now fear Britain is heading for open sectarian conflict, possibly war, and there's nothing we can do to stop it. Here's a snapshot of what I'm hearing. On one night in Westminster, I met someone who argued for voluntary repatriation, two generations back; a Labour activist told me we must 're-educate' Muslims; and Jacob Rees-Mogg, debating me on GB News, said Britain should take 'zero' refugees. I spluttered a reply about the good Samaritan and staggered off to bed, confused and depressed. For two decades I've argued for controlling immigration, and successive governments, including Jacob's, increased it. Suddenly I've woken up in a land where everyone manically wants to reduce or even reverse it, and they've leapfrogged me into a pool of dark resentment. Nigel Farage is mocked as a 'dhimmi' for appointing a Muslim to chair his party; he looks nervous of his own supporters. Even Labour has turned on the Sentencing Council, which, for all its faults, was trying to fix a genuine racial disparity (it's black people who tend to get longer sentences than whites, not the other way around). On that last saga, so much hinges. It goes to the heart of how a society kills itself with kindness. Nearly 200,000 YouTubers have watched an interview given to Louise Perry by David Betz, a professor of conflict studies at King's, London. Betz argues that the conditions for a failed state we ordinarily apply overseas are now found here: frayed social contract, falling trust, polarisation. Into this mix Britain injected multiculturalism, encouraging millions to move here without expecting integration. If you think 'fear of the other' is a human instinct, the policy was mad to begin with. Combine it with economic decline and you invite ethnic competition over services and jobs. Implicit in the Sentencing Council's guidance is the belief that when you operate a multicultural society – packed with groups with different values and experiences, advantages and handicaps – the only way to achieve equal outcomes is to treat people differently. In this spirit, says Betz, the modern state acts like an imperial administrator, promoting the interests of preferred minorities while trying to avoid a riot. I grew up in a post-colonial world where we said 'I don't see race' and honestly, if naively, meant it. Over the past 30 years, liberal institutions have taught us to see race again – by stressing the wonders of diversity so persistently that some white people feel the state has actively taken a side against them. Ancient, binding concepts, such as 'equality before the law' ring hollow. The latest Police Race Action Plan openly rejects the principle of 'treating everyone the same' in favour of 'equality of police outcomes'. A situation in which millions believe cops are not impartial public servants but an occupying force is the headline metric of state failure. Mainland Britain has become Ulster. It isn't an endorsement of white resentment to acknowledge that it's real and growing, that beyond the curated Question Time audience, millions have evolved from irony to nihilism to something more disturbing. Just read the comments beneath the Betz video. 'As a 28-year-old, fighting-age male, I am ready to lay down my life for Mother England and the survival of my folk.' Viewers refer in code to Rotherham – to avoid being muted in the forum – and the grooming scandal that suggested the authorities were willing to cover up rape to maintain the peace. The UK is 'a tinder box waiting to explode', writes an unhappy reviewer, which is also the worry of Canadian officials. In 2024, its police force produced a report warning their nation might be further buffeted by inequality, climate change and 'paranoid populism'. Separately, a government think tank warned of 'civil war… in the United States' as a potential 'underanticipated disruption'. In fact, the low level insurgency has already begun. Ireland has seen arson at asylum hotels. Last year, Britain had riots. Why did No10 insist that so many be thrown into jail? Betz notes that while Islamist terrorism is more lethal than far-Right extremism, there are only 4 million Muslims whereas there are around 50 million whites. Were the latter group radicalised, things might go south very fast, hence some in the security forces clearly regard white Britons as the emergent threat. Well, when 'a formerly dominant social majority fears it is in danger of losing that dominance,' to quote Betz, it doesn't surrender its position quietly – and yet this is what elites constantly tell the white working-class they must do, while refusing to abandon their own privileges. Labour, the party of racial and gender equality, has never seen fit to elect a non-white or a woman as leader. Neither is it willing to revive the economy with free market capitalism; nor to revive solidarity with socialism. Instead it tries to knit the country back together with petty cash thrown at potholes or a roundtable on the spectre of white male violence. Centrist dad redux. Labour's instinct is to lean into multiculturalism, flirting with laws against islamophobia: the worst response imaginable. In that vein, what moron thought it would be clever to ban Marine Le Pen from running for office? Every conspiracy theory is confirmed, and without a democratic outlet for anger – seeing their aspirations limited and being too poor to emigrate – where else will a militant faction of angry whites go but to violence? Reform is a vehicle for dissent but offers no programme for change. The Tories lack imagination, and the world they exist to preserve is dead. We have no national culture to reunite us; no universalising religion to appeal to. When I saw a Tory MP tell GB News that the Sentencing Council evinced a bias against 'white Christian' defendants, I laughed at the innocence. If someone's in the dock for murder or rape, they probably don't go to Evensong. Betz sees no solution, so suggests we prepare for anarchy. I'm more concerned about fascism. We're not far away from a politician running for office as explicitly anti-Muslim, and to those who say authoritarianism cannot happen here, I reply: lockdown. Did you ever think the state could imprison us in our homes? And if it can isolate the diseased from the healthy, the vaxed from the unvaxed, do you think it can't, or won't, someday separate us based on race or religion? We are literally debating the legalisation of euthanasia, a favourite tool of tyrants. As my companion on that horrid evening spoke of repatriation, I imagined foreign-made parts of me being politely invited to leave and floating off through the window, an arm to Ireland, a foot to France. What remained prayed silently that if this country does go mad, I won't lose my head. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
I fear Britain is lurching towards civil war, and nobody knows how to stop it
I now fear Britain is heading for open sectarian conflict, possibly war, and there's nothing we can do to stop it. Here's a snapshot of what I'm hearing. On one night in Westminster, I met someone who argued for voluntary repatriation, two generations back; a Labour activist told me we must 're-educate' Muslims; and Jacob Rees-Mogg, debating me on GB News, said Britain should take 'zero' refugees. I spluttered a reply about the good Samaritan and staggered off to bed, confused and depressed. For two decades I've argued for controlling immigration, and successive governments, including Jacob's, increased it. Suddenly I've woken up in a land where everyone manically wants to reduce or even reverse it, and they've leapfrogged me into a pool of dark resentment. Nigel Farage is mocked as a 'dhimmi' for appointing a Muslim to chair his party; he looks nervous of his own supporters. Even Labour has turned on the Sentencing Council, which, for all its faults, was trying to fix a genuine racial disparity (it's black people who tend to get longer sentences than whites, not the other way around). On that last saga, so much hinges. It goes to the heart of how a society kills itself with kindness. Nearly 200,000 YouTubers have watched an interview given to Louise Perry by David Betz, a professor of conflict studies at King's, London. Betz argues that the conditions for a failed state we ordinarily apply overseas are now found here: frayed social contract, falling trust, polarisation. Into this mix Britain injected multiculturalism, encouraging millions to move here without expecting integration. If you think 'fear of the other' is a human instinct, the policy was mad to begin with. Combine it with economic decline and you invite ethnic competition over services and jobs. Implicit in the Sentencing Council's guidance is the belief that when you operate a multicultural society – packed with groups with different values and experiences, advantages and handicaps – the only way to achieve equal outcomes is to treat people differently. In this spirit, says Betz, the modern state acts like an imperial administrator, promoting the interests of preferred minorities while trying to avoid a riot. I grew up in a post-colonial world where we said 'I don't see race' and honestly, if naively, meant it. Over the past 30 years, liberal institutions have taught us to see race again – by stressing the wonders of diversity so persistently that some white people feel the state has actively taken a side against them. Ancient, binding concepts, such as 'equality before the law' ring hollow. The latest Police Race Action Plan openly rejects the principle of 'treating everyone the same' in favour of 'equality of police outcomes'. A situation in which millions believe cops are not impartial public servants but an occupying force is the headline metric of state failure. Mainland Britain has become Ulster. It isn't an endorsement of white resentment to acknowledge that it's real and growing, that beyond the curated Question Time audience, millions have evolved from irony to nihilism to something more disturbing. Just read the comments beneath the Betz video. 'As a 28-year-old, fighting-age male, I am ready to lay down my life for Mother England and the survival of my folk.' Viewers refer in code to Rotherham – to avoid being muted in the forum – and the grooming scandal that suggested the authorities were willing to cover up rape to maintain the peace. The UK is 'a tinder box waiting to explode', writes an unhappy reviewer, which is also the worry of Canadian officials. In 2024, its police force produced a report warning their nation might be further buffeted by inequality, climate change and 'paranoid populism'. Separately, a government think tank warned of 'civil war… in the United States' as a potential 'underanticipated disruption'. In fact, the low level insurgency has already begun. Ireland has seen arson at asylum hotels. Last year, Britain had riots. Why did No10 insist that so many be thrown into jail? Betz notes that while Islamist terrorism is more lethal than far-Right extremism, there are only 4 million Muslims whereas there are around 50 million whites. Were the latter group radicalised, things might go south very fast, hence some in the security forces clearly regard white Britons as the emergent threat. Well, when 'a formerly dominant social majority fears it is in danger of losing that dominance,' to quote Betz, it doesn't surrender its position quietly – and yet this is what elites constantly tell the white working-class they must do, while refusing to abandon their own privileges. Labour, the party of racial and gender equality, has never seen fit to elect a non-white or a woman as leader. Neither is it willing to revive the economy with free market capitalism; nor to revive solidarity with socialism. Instead it tries to knit the country back together with petty cash thrown at potholes or a roundtable on the spectre of white male violence. Centrist dad redux. Labour's instinct is to lean into multiculturalism, flirting with laws against islamophobia: the worst response imaginable. In that vein, what moron thought it would be clever to ban Marine Le Pen from running for office? Every conspiracy theory is confirmed, and without a democratic outlet for anger – seeing their aspirations limited and being too poor to emigrate – where else will a militant faction of angry whites go but to violence? Reform is a vehicle for dissent but offers no programme for change. The Tories lack imagination, and the world they exist to preserve is dead. We have no national culture to reunite us; no universalising religion to appeal to. When I saw a Tory MP tell GB News that the Sentencing Council evinced a bias against 'white Christian' defendants, I laughed at the innocence. If someone's in the dock for murder or rape, they probably don't go to Evensong. Betz sees no solution, so suggests we prepare for anarchy. I'm more concerned about fascism. We're not far away from a politician running for office as explicitly anti-Muslim, and to those who say authoritarianism cannot happen here, I reply: lockdown. Did you ever think the state could imprison us in our homes? And if it can isolate the diseased from the healthy, the vaxed from the unvaxed, do you think it can't, or won't, someday separate us based on race or religion? We are literally debating the legalisation of euthanasia, a favourite tool of tyrants. As my companion on that horrid evening spoke of repatriation, I imagined foreign-made parts of me being politely invited to leave and floating off through the window, an arm to Ireland, a foot to France. What remained prayed silently that if this country does go mad, I won't lose my head.
Telegraph
31-03-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
‘Two-tier justice' police chiefs criticised for saying ethnic minorities can be treated differently
Police chiefs have been accused of 'two-tier justice' over anti-racism guidelines that tell officers they do not have to treat ethnic minorities the same as other members of the public. Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said the guidelines amounted to 'unacceptable social engineering' when everyone should be treated equally before the law. The Police Race Action Plan, drawn up by police chiefs, states that it is the police who criminalise people and that arrest rates should be equalised between groups. It comes following a row over 'two-tier justice' guidelines drawn up by the Sentencing Council, which advised courts to 'normally consider' ordering a pre-sentence report about an offender if they were 'an ethnic minority, cultural minority, and/or faith minority community', transgender, young or female. The council backed down on Monday after being threatened with emergency legislation by Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary. The police guidance, issued by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing, states that the commitment by forces to racial equality meant 'producing equality of policing outcomes for people from different ethnic groups' by responding to their specific needs. It adds: 'It does not mean treating everyone 'the same' or being 'colour blind' (racial equality)'. The guidelines say police should be committed to 'an end to racial disparities' in policing outcomes 'however seemingly impossible both may be'. The police chiefs also say forces must 'become anti-racist', with the guidelines claiming that black people are 'criminalised' and that it is 'not enough' for officers to be merely not racist. 'Insane political correctness' Mr Philp, who was policing minister during the last Conservative Government, said: 'This is Kier Starmer's two-tier justice at its very worst. 'It is appalling that this document says that people should be treated differently depending on their race. Everyone should be treated equally before the law regardless of colour, yet this document says the opposite. 'The document also refers to people being criminalised by the police – this is absurd, because people criminalise themselves when they break the law. And it asks for the police to artificially engineer the same arrest and charge rates across ethnic groups, with no reference to underlying levels of criminality.' He added: 'The police should treat everyone the same, and investigate all crime. There is no room for social engineering or insane political correctness when it comes to arresting criminals and protecting the public.' In the Commons, Mr Philp challenged Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, to 'agree with me that this two-tier approach to policing is totally unacceptable'. Ms Cooper replied: 'The police operate without fear and favour, and they respond to the crimes that they face across the country and to the perpetrators of those crimes whosoever they should be and wheresoever they are. 'That is the right approach for policing to take, whether they are dealing with the most serious violence that we have prioritised or the neighbourhood crimes in communities. 'As you will know from the approach that we are taking to the Sentencing Council and the importance there of us bringing forward rapid emergency legislation, we are very clear that there can be no preferential treatment for anyone in the criminal justice system.' 'Ongoing mistrust' Chief Constable Gavin Stephens, chairman of the NPCC, said: 'People from black communities have the lowest levels of confidence in the police, are under-represented in our workforce and are more likely to experience police powers such as stop and search or use of force. 'Recent independent inquiries by Baroness Louise Casey and Lady Elish Angiolini have also urged our service to renew its efforts to address racism and discrimination.' He added: 'This historic and ongoing mistrust between the police and black communities risks for example people not reporting things to the police if they are in trouble or aiding our efforts to catch criminals. 'Explaining or reforming race disparities and addressing mistrust with black communities will mean we are more effective at fighting crime and protecting all communities.'
