Latest news with #ethnicity
Daily Mail
28-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Met police chief says it is RIGHT to release suspect's ethnicity after crimes - even if the news might 'embolden racists'
Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley has said police will have to release details about suspects such as ethnicity to the public earlier, even if it may 'embolden racists'. Yesterday, Merseyside Police released the race and ethnicity of the Liverpool ramming suspected, two hours after a car ploughed into fans watching Liverpool FC's Premier League trophy parade - leaving at least 47 injured. Following the incident on Monday, the force quickly confirmed they had arrested a '53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area'. However Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Rowley, said forces will more often have to release personal details about suspects earlier in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Adamant he was 'not going to criticise another police chief who makes a judgment in a really difficult, complex situation,' he added that forces would 'always want to be more transparent in terms of the data' they release. 'Every case needs judging on its merits. I think as we go forward in the future, we would always want to be more transparent in terms of the data we release,' he said. 'Sometimes the nature of the investigation, the nature of case, makes that difficult, but in principle of course, transparency is good.' Asked if moving in the direction of declaring a suspect's ethnicity sooner is the way to go, Sir Mark added: 'In general, I think we have to be realistic and more often... put more personal details in public, earlier.' He added that we are in an age of citizen journalism and 'some content will be all over social media very, very quickly' and people will be 'making guesses and inferences' so 'in that world, putting more facts out is the only way to deal with it'. Sir Mark also said if those facts 'embolden racists' in some cases then 'we need to confront those individuals'. He added: 'Trying to avoid truths when half the truth is in the public domain is going to be quite difficult, going forward.' Former Metropolitan Police chief superintendent Dal Babu said it was 'unprecedented' that the police 'very quickly' gave the ethnicity and race of the ramming suspect. 'What we do have, which is unprecedented, is the police very quickly giving the ethnicity and the race of the person who was driving the vehicle and I think that was, and it was Merseyside Police who didn't give that information with the Southport horrific murders of those three girls, and the rumours were that it was an asylum seeker who arrived on a boat and it was a Muslim extremist and that wasn't the case,' he told BBC Radio 5 Live. 'So I think what the police have done very very quickly, and I've never known a case like this before where they've given the ethnicity and the race of the individual who was involved in it, so I think that was to dampen down some of the speculation from the far-right that sort of continues on X even as we speak that this was a Muslim extremist and there's a conspiracy theory.' Asked if it was a result of Merseyside Police having learned the lessons from what happened after Southport, he said: 'Yeah, absolutely, I think you're spot on. 'It's remarkably striking because police will not release that kind of information because they'll be worried about prejudicing any future trial, but I think they have to balance that against the potential of public disorder and we had massive public disorder after the far-right extremists had spread these rumours.' It comes after previous criticism in the wake of the Southport murders last summer for not releasing more information following false rumours were started online that the killer was a Muslim asylum seeker. On the evening of the Southport stabbings on July 29 last year, Merseyside Police described they had arrested as a 17-year-old male from Banks in Lancashire, who is originally from Cardiff'. In the meantime, false rumours that he was a Muslim asylum seeker who had come over on a small boat spread online, prompting attacks on mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers. Two days after the attack, on July 31, a new police statement clarified that he had been 'born in Cardiff'. Newspapers published his photo on August 2, but his race or ethnicity was never mentioned by police. Chief Constable Serena Kennedy later told MPs she wanted to dispel disinformation in the immediate aftermath of the Southport murders by releasing information about the attacker Axel Rudakubana's religion, as he came from a Christian family, but was told not to by local crown prosecutors.
The Independent
28-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
Speed of release of race and ethnicity of Liverpool suspect ‘unprecedented'
The speed at which police released the race and ethnicity of the suspect in the Liverpool car incident is 'unprecedented', a former chief superintendent has said. Merseyside Police confirmed they had a arrested a 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area around two hours after the incident that left dozens of people, including four children, hurt. The force was criticised in the wake of the Southport murders last summer for not releasing more information after false rumours were started online that the killer was a Muslim asylum seeker. Former Metropolitan Police chief superintendent Dal Babu told BBC Radio 5 Live: 'What we do have, which is unprecedented, is the police very quickly giving the ethnicity and the race of the person who was driving the vehicle… and it was Merseyside Police who didn't give that information with the Southport horrific murders of those three girls, and the rumours were that it was an asylum seeker who arrived on a boat and it was a Muslim extremist, and that wasn't the case. 'So I think what the police have done very, very quickly, and I've never known a case like this before where they've given the ethnicity and the race of the individual who was involved in it, so I think that was to dampen down some of the speculation from the far-right that sort of continues on X even as we speak that this was a Muslim extremist and there's a conspiracy theory.' In March, Chief Constable Serena Kennedy told MPs she wanted to dispel disinformation in the immediate aftermath of the Southport murders by releasing information about attacker Axel Rudakubana's religion, because he came from a Christian family, but was told not to by local crown prosecutors. Police did disclose that the suspect was a 17-year-old male from Banks in Lancashire, who was born in Cardiff. Widespread rioting followed the murders, with some disorder targeting mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers. Mayor of the Liverpool City Region Steve Rotheram backed the force's unusual decision to release the information about the Liverpool suspect so quickly. He told reporters: 'If you have a look at my timeline, there was somebody very quickly saying 'Why are you lying? There's been another incident in another part of the city', which obviously wasn't true, and then they were trying to stir it up who might be responsible for it. 'That's why I think the police acted… to dampen that sort of speculation, because it was designed to inflame. It was designed to divide.' Asked if he would like to see similar details released in the future in similar cases, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: 'That is a matter for the police and the investigation is ongoing so I think we need to leave that to them. 'I think today is a day really for thinking about all those impacted by this and being absolutely clear that we stand with them.'
Telegraph
28-05-2025
- General
- Telegraph
Met chief backs sharing suspects' ethnicity
Police should routinely release information on the ethnicity of suspects even if it 'emboldens' racists, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner has suggested. Sir Mark Rowley said police forces had to be 'realistic' and put more personal details about suspects in public earlier given the amount of 'half truths' often already widely available on social media. His comments follow the decision by Merseyside Police to reveal that it was a 53-year-old white British man who had been arrested for driving into a crowd of football supporters in Liverpool within hours of the incident on Bank Holiday Monday. Sir Mark acknowledged criticism of Merseyside Police's decision to reveal the Liverpool driver's ethnicity, but said that was now best practice moving forward. He told BBC Radio Four's Today programme: 'We're in such an age of such citizen journalism, people have screenshots, phones, some content will be all over social media very, very quickly. 'People will be making guesses and inferences – I think in that world putting more facts out is the only way to deal with it. 'And if those facts generate embolden racists in some cases then we need to confront those individuals. 'I think trying to avoid truths when half truth is in the public domain is going to be quite difficult going forward.' The Law Commission has been asked by Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, to fast-track a review of contempt of court rules which restrict the information that police can put out on the basis that it could prejudice a fair trial of a suspect. The commission, which advises ministers on new laws, will make proposals in autumn on what information law enforcement agencies should be able to publish about the suspects in attacks such as the murder of three young girls by Axel Rudakubana in Southport last summer. The new rules follow concerns by three of the main policing bodies that the current rules on contempt of court risk leaving an information vacuum that could be filled by 'unchecked misinformation and disinformation'. The riots were partly blamed on false claims circulating on social media that the Southport attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK on a small boat across the Channel. Other false rumours suggested the killer had been on an MI6 watchlist. The only information released by Merseyside Police last summer was that the suspect was a 17-year-old from Banks, in Lancashire, who was originally from Cardiff. Two hours later, the force amended it to 'born in Cardiff'. But police did not divulge family background details, including that the attacker's parents were Christians who had come to the UK from Rwanda. The attacker was not named because he was one week shy of his 18th birthday. Police said the motive was 'unclear' but that the incident was 'not being treated as terror-related'. The decision by Merseyside Police to disclose the ethnicity and citizenship of the driver on Monday has been praised although some former officers have questioned whether the same principle would be applied if the suspect was from an ethnic minority. Sir Mark said: 'I think as we go forward in the future, we would always want to be more transparent in terms of the data we release. Sometimes the nature of the investigation, the nature of the case, makes that difficult. But in principle, of course, transparency is good.' The commission said the murders and riots raised two questions that it would seek to answer. The first was 'the extent to which misinformation and disinformation can be countered by a public authority without risking liability for contempt of court'. The second was 'whether there are circumstances that would justify the publication of information that would otherwise come within scope of contempt of court liability'. Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, has suggested it would not be prejudicial for police to provide factual information about an individual, such as name, nationality and age. However, the Law Commission said that while accepting that confirming a person's country of birth would rarely cause prejudice, nationality might turn out to be an issue at a future trial. 'Similarly, the more commonplace the publication of certain categories of information, the more conspicuous would be its absence in a particular case,' it added.
The Guardian
27-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Police naming Liverpool parade suspect's ethnicity may cause future ‘challenges'
Merseyside police's decision to release details of the ethnicity of the suspect in the Liverpool parade collision could raise 'difficulties and challenges' for forces in the future, a former superintendent has said. Merseyside police said they arrested a 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area about two hours after the incident that left dozens of people, including four children, injured. Dal Babu, who was a senior Met officer, told the Guardian's First Edition that the decision was 'unprecedented', but he could envisage pressure being applied to forces in future to release details on the racial background of suspects. 'It doesn't take rocket science to predict what will happen: the far right will twist this and say, 'right, you've named him because it's a white person. Why aren't you naming the next person?' And it will present some difficulties and challenges to the police', he said. Babu stressed the decision had been 'correct' to share the information on this occasion to combat 'racist and Islamophobic misinformation' on social media, while warning that every decision should be taken on a case by case basis. 'You could imagine a situation where the far right will say, 'Oh, you haven't named the ethnicity of this person and that's because they are a person of colour',' he said. 'It's really important that people don't see it as a precedent because every incident will be different. People may feel in a future incident that they're entitled to know the ethnicity and race and it may not be appropriate to release it,' he said. A senior legal source said there could be circumstances where naming the ethnicity of a suspect could cause riots rather than quell them. 'What will a force do if they arrest someone in similar circumstances who is recently arrived on a small boat or who has a clearly Muslim name? They will now be under huge pressure to name them,' the source said. Far-right extremists used social media within minutes of the Liverpool tragedy to exploit the scenes of horror, the Guardian has been told. One account claimed the incident was a terrorist attack. Another account also made false claims including that the man arrested by police at the scene was really a Muslim, despite what police had said. Merseyside police were criticised in the wake of the Southport murders last summer for not releasing more information after false rumours were started online that the killer was a Muslim asylum seeker. For Merseyside police, Monday night's decision to release details about the suspect's race and nationality was not a precedent. 'They believe in this case it was right, with detectives convinced the suspect detained was the only person they were looking for. It might not be right in a case where the identity of a suspect was unclear and where identity could be an issue at trial, a source said. In March, chief constable Serena Kennedy told MPs she wanted to dispel disinformation in the immediate aftermath of the Southport murders by releasing information about attacker Axel Rudakubana's religion, because he came from a Christian family, but was told not to by local crown prosecutors. Police did disclose that the suspect was a 17-year-old male from Banks in Lancashire, who was born in Cardiff. Widespread rioting followed the murders, with some disorder targeting mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers. Jonathan Hall KC, the government's official reviewer of terrorism legislation, told the Guardian that Merseyside's decision on Monday evening should set a precedent for future incidents. 'The authorities seemed to have learned the lessons of Southport. 'It should be a precedent, while recognising there will be the odd case where you need to say little or nothing. Transparency is the right precedent.' Hall said if a suspect in a high-profile case was a Muslim asylum seeker: 'You have to do that as well.' Nick Lowles, of Hope Not Hate, a leading group monitoring the far right, said: 'Police have learned lessons after Southport. What they did this time was to fill the void, putting information out as soon as possible. 'If it had been a terrorist attack, I'm not sure anything would have calmed tensions down.' The decision to release details was an operational matter, and therefore separate from government, Whitehall sources said. Asked if he would like to see similar details released in the future in similar cases, the prime minister, Keir Starmer, said: 'That is a matter for the police and the investigation is ongoing so I think we need to leave that to them. 'I think today is a day really for thinking about all those impacted by this and being absolutely clear that we stand with them.'
Irish Times
27-05-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Speed of release of race and ethnicity of Liverpool suspect ‘unprecedented'
The speed at which police released the race and ethnicity of the suspect in the Liverpool car incident is 'unprecedented', a former chief superintendent has said. Merseyside Police confirmed they had a arrested a 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area about two hours after the incident that left dozens of people, including four children, hurt. The force was criticised in the wake of the Southport murders last summer for not releasing more information after false rumours were started online that the killer of three young girls was a Muslim asylum seeker. Former Metropolitan Police chief superintendent Dal Babu told BBC Radio 5 Live: 'What we do have, which is unprecedented, is the police very quickly giving the ethnicity and the race of the person who was driving the vehicle ... and it was Merseyside Police who didn't give that information with the Southport horrific murders of those three girls, and the rumours were that it was an asylum seeker who arrived on a boat and it was a Muslim extremist and that wasn't the case. READ MORE 'So I think what the police have done very, very quickly, and I've never known a case like this before where they've given the ethnicity and the race of the individual who was involved in it, so I think that was to dampen down some of the speculation from the far-right that sort of continues on X even as we speak that this was a Muslim extremist and there's a conspiracy theory.' In March Chief Constable Serena Kennedy told MPs she wanted to dispel disinformation in the immediate aftermath of the Southport murders by releasing information about the attacker Axel Rudakubana's religion, as he came from a Christian family, but was told not to by local crown prosecutors. Police did disclose that the suspect was a 17-year-old male from Banks in Lancashire, who was born in Cardiff. Widespread rioting followed the murders, with some disorder targeting mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers. − PA
