Racist Met officers: out of control

It reads like something out of Montgomery Alabama in the 1960s, not here in London in 2011. But what occurred to an innocent Black man picked up by the police raises some deeply worrying questions.

First, what occurred: Mauro Demetrio was arrested on during the civil disturbances in London last summer. During the arrest Demetrio claims he was physically assaulted, 'strangled' as he put. After being arrested and placed in a police van, he was able to record the subsequent conversation on his mobile phone with a number of officers, including those who arrested him. During that recording one officer can be heard admitting he strangled the man because he states he-Demetrio- was a 'c..t' .

Another officer named as PC Alex MacFarlane was heard to say: ‘The problem with you is that you will always be a ‘n…r’. Today the Guardian has revealed that one of the arresting officers of Demetrio has been captured on CCTV allegedly assaulting another Black teenager.

Black community and police relations have been at rock bottom since the killing of Mark Duggan and the accumulative effect of Stop and Search which disproportionately affects Black youths . What will worry many about these latest incidents are these points:

• How many Black youths are languishing in prison having been ‘fitted up’ by racist police officers?

• Are we once again witnessing a significant section of the Met police that is out of control?

• Having heard the tape, why did the Crown Prosecution Service -CPS- initially deem that this admission by police officers in regard to physical abuse, and the racial abuse that was heard were not worth investigating and charging officers until it came into the public domain ?

• Why aren’t our Black MP’ s demanding a full enquiry into these and other matters of policing in Black areas?

The alleged assault on the Black teenager and physical and verbal abuse that Mario Demetrio was subject to would have never been believed if there wasn’t for the hard evidence to substantiate their stories . Many Black youths have been telling anyone who will listen about the humiliation, physical and racial abuse that they deal with on a regular basis It’s not only time that we and the authorities started to believe them, but demanded those racist officers are themselves brought to the courts to be tried and where necessary prosecuted.

Now more than ever we need to build trust between Black communities and police force that is meant to serve us not abuse and criminalise us.

Simon Woolley