The Met 'Documentary': Nothing More Than A WhiteWash ?

Tonight is the much heralded premier of a new BBC TV 'fly on the wall' documentary that takes a long look at the Metropolitan Police Service.  The documentary follow “the officers of Britain's biggest and busiest police service as they deal with life, death, crime and its victims, all across the capital".

As one of the Board members for Brixton Splash 2014, we agreed to let the BBC film us, as we sought to showcase just how a community can police its own public event, albeit in partnership with the Met.  The Splash was a success and no doubt the Met will want to be seen to take credit for that. That would be a mistake, as the real reason this annual event works so well, is that the community, not the police, are the first line in law and order.

I have not seen a screening of the documentary, so I am unable to comment on it.  However, as a participant and a former deputy Mayor for Policing  (2000 - 2008)  I am concerned about the pre-publicity the series is getting and the approach to the documentary by the Met itself.

The first episode will show the Met dealing with the immediate aftermath of the Mark Duggan shooting in 2011, featuring one of the Met’s few black officers, Chief Superintendent of Haringey, Victor Olisa.

Dominic Casciani, the BBC's Home Affairs Correspondent who covered the press launch of the series, tells us that Victor was unhappy about his treatment by the large crowd gathering outside Tottenham police station:

"When he leaves the police station to talk to a growing and angry crowd, he is accused of being a stooge - a black man put in charge of a difficult problem just to stop black people complaining.  He wryly observes that he experienced less racism when he was in charge of policing Bexley, an area with an active far-right membership."

This is indicative of a mindset that suggests Victor was a victim of racism. He was not, this is a fundamental misrepresentation of what was said, and is part of the disgraceful practice of the Met that consistently uses token black officers, as a fig leaf for their institutional racism.

To suggest, as both he and Casciani do, that Tottenham is a more racist area than Bexley in South London is innaccurate.  Bexley is an area where racist attacks have been, and continue to be high.

For the Met, having just shot Mark Duggan, having lied about the circumstances surrounding his death, having refused to give the local community any information for hours, to come to such a conclusion is both crass and insensitive.

During the build up for the series, we've also heard from the Commissioner of the Met, Sir Bernard Hogan Howe.  Speaking at the press launch he reportedly acknowledged his force was 'institutionally racist'.  Upon closer examination however, what he in fact says, doesn't amount to an admission.

Casciani again:

Speaking at the launch of the BBC series, the Met commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, said that "if people thought that the force was still institutionally racist, then he had to take that on the chin."

This is disingenuous statement designed to deflect criticism, without any real admission of guilt.  It’s the classic passive aggressive "if you say so” response.

This is playing politics with the issue of race and is of fundamental importance, because the determination of the problem, strategically informs what the Met does next.  It can result, in either full scale institutional reform, or a sprinkling of 'diversity lite' policies that look good on paper, but ultimately fail to deliver.

It seems to me, that the preferred strategy of the Mayor Boris Johnson and the Commissioner when dealing with matters of police racism is to ensure that incidents are routinely viewed as nothing more than a series of unfortunate, but isolated events, rather than evidence of a pattern of systemic discrimination.

In February 2012, I engaged with the Commissioner in an online webchat where I put it to him that he had lost the confidence of black Londoners and that the force was still 'institutionally racist'.  His response was unequivocal:

"I disagree with almost everything you have said."

The Mayor of London has form here also.  In 2008, in response to the failure of the Met to promote and retain black officers, the Metropolitan Black Police Association threatened to advise black people not to join the service given the unrestrained racism black officers faced.  As a result the Mayor launched an inquiry.

Two years later, the subsequent 'Race & Faith' report was published.  The report included an opening foreword from the Mayor who opined that the term 'institutional racism' had become a "millstone around the neck" of the Met and a barrier to reform.

So these latest comments from Commissioner Hogan Howe, should be seen in context and looked at very carefully.  I don't believe they constitute a real admission of any kind.  They can be more accurately described as a cynical media management strategy, an attempt to manage people’s responses to the documentary itself.

Racism in the Met has been a constistent open wound, a cancer if you will, running through the service.  The failure to properly diagnose the condition has lead to an aggressive reassertion of this ever present police racism.  The Met Black Police Association recently publicly stated that the Met, in their view, remains 'institutionally racist'.

Any look at race issues and the Met over the last few years, tells its own story.  Londoners have seen increasing race hate crimes; stop and search figures rocketing; the failure to investigate thousands of race complaints; continuing black deaths in custody; joint enterprise disproportionately used against black people; HMIC reports; the Home Office concern and Theresa Mays' forceful interventions; spying on the Lawrence family; lying to the Lawrence Inquiry; unethical undercover policing. I could go on and recount the litany of race issues that appear with depressing and regular monotony.

Let’s not forget that it was neither the Mayor nor the Commissioner who decided to grasp the nettle of how stop & search was disproportionately targeting black youth.  It was Home Secretary Theresa May who instructed the Met to stop racially harassing black youth.  The fact is, she has done much more to tackle institutional racism in the Met than either the current Mayor or Commissioner, or even most previous Labour Home Secretaries, with the exception of Jack Straw.

BME recruitment is one of the Commissioner’s priorities and Commander Stephen Roberts, in charge of Met recruitment, has said it has now reached 20% and this is a sign of success.  Except it isn't: in 2012/13 the BME recruitment rate was almost 24%.  This is a significant and worrying reduction not an advance for race equality.

Then, when one breaks down the Mets diversity details things could be much worse than the Met figures would have us believe.  Take the the way the Met defines BME officers, as to include and I quote 'any other group not specified' and ' Mixed - any other mixed background.'  In other words, a deceptive catch all category that may artificially inflate it's BME officer statistics.

There are more Asian officers than African and Caribbean officers, and most are not even deployed in their own communities.  Both are however, more likely to face disciplinary action, sacking and racist campaigns led by fellow white officers.  Take a look at the cases of PCs Carol Howard and Kevin Maxwell if you want a real insight into the working culture at the Met.

Another concern I have, and I have asked the BBC for a response, is whether the Met had any editorial control or influence in the content of the programme, prior to broadcast?  I've no idea if they did or did not, but these are critically important questions if the series is to be viewed as credible.

There is also a dedicated twitter account @MPSontheBox that is pumping out media messages about the series.  I find this strange, insofar as it seems to be part of a coordinated media strategy and looking at its followers, there are, as one might expect, an inordinate amount of serving officers retweeting its every word.  Call me cynical if you like, but this seems a tad calculated.

Last night nearly 200 people crammed into a hall in Tottenham to hear an update from the Mark Duggan Campaign. Courtney Griffiths QC accused the Mets' Operation Trident, citing compelling evidence, of using a criminal informer, to provide a gun to Mark, so as to enable the police to shoot him. The meeting called for a public inquiry into policing.  This is absolutely critical if the Met is to enjoy the confidence of London's black communities.

As for the documentary, well let's wait and see.  However, someone who has seen the first episode and says its a 'puff piece' and nothing like a real 'fly on the wall documentary', is Simon Jenkins.  If that is his opinion who am I to argue?

BBC One - 9pm, 8th June 2015 The Met: Join the online discussion on twitter using #TheMet

Lee Jasper