Politics

Andrew Gilligan on race and the met

October 23, 2008
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Mayor Boris's delicate putsch of Met chief Ian Blair in October distracted from, for a moment at least, the simmering racial tensions which now seem routine among London's police. Before Blair's ousting, the Metropolitan Black Police Assocation had even taken the seemingly extraordinary step of taking out advertisements discouraging minorities from applying to police the capital's streets. Indeed, the situation can hardly be good when every one of the Met's five most senior non-white officers have brought discrimination cases. Prospect asked Andrew Gilligan to take a view behind the scenes, and in particular to dig into the truth behind the occasionally colourful personalities (including Ali Dizaei, the man many think is central to race tensions in the force.) Gilligan takes an even-handed view:

"The Met's problem is that both diagnoses are essentially correct. Many black officers in the force have grounds for complaint. But they have been badly served by the behaviour of the MBPA, and the standard-bearers of Met diversity, such as Dizaei."