Rotting apples continue to fall
The Met released its new plan for policing last week called A New Met for London, but it’s clear the “rotten orchard” has a long way to go to restore trust, especially in the black community.
A video on social media this week showed a black mother being arrested while her young son looked on crying and clearly distraught.
What was her crime? She hadn’t committed one.
She was accused of not paying her bus fare by TfL revenue protectors and some miscommunication along the way saw three police officers arrive at the scene.
This is not responsible policing, not least because she had not done anything wrong.
But the speed at which three officers were deployed to handle a simple fare evasion, for which TfL officers are entitled to fine you for anyway, is just illogical.
We hear about how there aren’t enough officers to solve thefts, it’s because they’re out in force wrongly arresting black mothers.
It’s as if the fare evasion wasn’t the issue, rather the opportunity to impose authority on someone who was rightly resisting.
The black community has reason to be fearful of what happens in police custody.
Stopwatch, a charity that tries to ensure policing is fair and accountable, said “there is no need for the police, let alone multiple officers at once, to get involved when it comes to alleged bus fare evasion”.
In the wake of the Met’s new policing plan, Greenwich council quickly condemned the force and urged it to accept findings that it is “institutionally racist, homophobic, sexist and misogynistic,” a suggestion Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley rejected when the Baroness Casey report was published into the Met’s failings.
The met is facing decades of mistrust and corruption, as well as high-profile cases of racism and sexism.
It’s going to take a lot more than a new plan to build any kind of trust.
As they say, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. And until the Met learns to address its systemic issues from the top down, rotten apples will continue to fall.
THE SPIRIT OF SOUTH LONDON
South London Press
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