Is there such a thing as being “institutionally anti-racist”? We know what evils result from its opposite: the unfair hounding of members of ethnic minorities and undue leniency towards those who attack or exploit them.
For a long time I assumed that the main result of anti-racism mania on our local police force might be a lack of zeal in apprehending the little bastards who for years brazenly cycled up and down our local streets stealing from cars with what appeared to be absolute and total impunity.
I did also occasionally wonder whether the appalling levels of violence amongst London’s ethnic minority gangs might have something to do with the pro-minorities mania of that arch-liberal Metropolitan Police Commissioner, “Sir” Ian Blair.
My suspicions weren’t eased when, following the alleged terrorist plot by mainly British-born Muslim fanatics to commit mass murder in 2006 by blowing up planes flying between the United States and Heathrow Airport, Sir Ian’s deputy at the time hastened to assure British Muslims that the police operation to round up suspects and evidence was not an attack on them.
Well, no, obviously!
One doubts whether racial or religious sensibilities were what the majority of British Muslims were most concerned with on the day of the raids, given that the mass slaughter that would have ensued had the plot succeeded would undoubtedly have resulted in the deaths of many British Muslims. But no doubt Sir Ian was in an absolute tizz in case anyone might imagine for a single instant that there was even a scintilla of a hint of a shadow of a racist impulse to be found lurking anywhere in his squeaky-clean liberal psyche.
That same year, Sir Ian revealed the outlandish scale of his obsession with the colour of people’s skins when he blamed our enormous interest in the horrific murder of two 10-year old girls in the village of Soham on institutional racism in the media. In possibly the most insensitive statement ever made in public by a British police chief, he claimed “almost nobody” could understand why the deaths of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman had become such a big story, but contended that it was because they were white.
What an awful man.
2006 was a low point for those of us who feel the police should broadly share theweltanschauung of the community they’re tasked with protecting. Sir Ian Blair’s world view might have been in sync with that of Guardian journalists and those on the Harmanesque fringes of the Labour Party, but I doubt he’d have found many soul-mates down our way.
But of late there are one or two signs that institutional anti-racism in the police might be on the wane.
Last year, a member of my family – and many others from their school – was mugged by boys from another local school, all from ethnic minorities. The police – and the justice system in general – were great: they caught the muggers, prosecuted them, and they were found guilty.
To be frank, I was astonished that any part of the system still worked in favour of the innocent and law-abiding.
Last year, our neighbourhood was flooded with police on foot. I didn’t know they still had the use of their legs. True, they’ve subsequently disappeared back into the warmth and safety of the local cop shop, and there are signs that the hyenas from neighbouring areas are sneaking back to prey on us – but, fair’s fair, it was a start.
Hearteningly, despite having failed to get rid of Commander Dizaei on previous occasions, the police pursued him with sufficient rigour to finally nail the man the head of the Independent Police Complaints Commission yesterday branded “a criminal in uniform”. And the criminal justice system somehow managed to muster a jury sufficiently representative of the general public to find Commander Ali Dizaei guilty of misconduct and perverting the course of justice. And a judge actually sentenced him to four years in prison – no community service or suspended sentence nonsense: straight to the nick for being a wrong ‘un.
It appears that Dizaei managed to make it so far up the career ladder of Britain’s biggest police force thanks to his racial origins and his own ruthlessness in exploiting them. But, here, once more, he was guilty of deception: since when have Iranians been classified as black? Did no one in the police wonder why a non-black happened to be in charge of the National Black Police Association? No wonder crime clear-up rates are so low! Iranians do not consider themselves to be black - because they aren’t. Yet, when Dizaei Rascal was faced with numerous previous accusations of wrong-doing, he instantly played the racism card. And - bafflingly - it worked.
Until yesterday.
Maybe the police are finally ridding themselves of their ludicrous and corrosive anti-racism mania and we can all start to be treated as equals under the law. Now, if we could just convince the justice system to hand out proper sentences, build enough prisons, and to start favouring the rights of the law-abiding over those of the criminal, we might – just might – start mending Broken Britain.
No comments:
Post a Comment