| STATESIDE Why George Floyd’s death has a huge effect on policing here
THE behaviour of police in the US has a direct impact on relations between police and communities here in the West Midlands.
It’s a problem that police have confronted in the past and one that they are concerned about now following the killing of African-American man George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
The death of Mr Floyd led to violence across America but there have been numerous incidents captured on video of US police using unnecessary force against protesters. West Midlands Chief Constable Dave Thompson has warned that events in the US damaged relations between the police and the black community in our region.
He said in a blog post: “I think this had added to tensions we are now policing here. Young black people across the West Midlands will rightly feel strongly about these events and the fact they are in the US makes no difference. They affect how policing is seen on our streets.”
This isn’t a new issue. In 2016, Mr Thompson told MPs that West Midlands Police were being blamed for events in the US.
He said attempts to improve relations between police and black people in Birmingham and the surrounding area had been set back by incidents such as the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014.
He told MPs: “Frankly the events that have gone on in the United
States have impacted on black British views of policing in the West Midlands.”
His officers were accused of shooting people, even though no West Midlands Police officer had fired a gun since 2002, he said.
One serious practical impact was that West Midlands Police find it harder to recruit black and other ethnic minority officers, he said. It seems clear that Mr Thompson raised the killing of Mr Floyd – which he described as “shocking” and “a horrific act” – for a reason. He wanted to spread the message that British police forces are not like those in the US.
He said in his blog post: “Over the years I have much contact with US policing. It is so very different to what we have in the UK.”
But he also admitted that people angry about events in America might also be concerned about recent incidents here at home, in which officers were accused of using unnecessary force. Mr Thompson said: “The subjects of these incidents were black men. These matters require independent investigation, which should give the community confidence, but they are a backcloth now to events amplified in America.”
The incidents the Chief Constable referred to are being investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct IOPC. Derrick Campbell, the IOPC’s regional director for the West Midlands, said in a statement on May 28: “We are now looking at nine investigations connected to alleged excessive use of force on black men following six separate incidents in the Birmingham area since February.”
In an attempt to reassure people that the police are on their side, West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson is inviting members of the public to question senior police officers about the use of force.
He is asking for the public to submit questions which will be put to senior police officers, including the Chief Constable, at a meeting of the Strategic Policing and Crime Board on June 16.
The meeting will discuss a new paper on the topic of the use of force by police officers. Events like this take place every year but Mr Jamieson has made a particular effort to publicise the meeting this time, in an attempt to reassure black communities in the West Midlands. Mr Jamieson has also warned that he fears there could be an increase in tensions in the West Midlands as the coronavirus lockdown comes to an end.
Speaking to New Style Radio 98.7FM, a station for the AfricanCaribbean community in Birmingham, Mr Jamieson said: “The present Covid-19 crisis has presented a particular problem.
“Lots of young children are not in school and not getting an education. The poorer you are, the less likely you are to have a good education during this Covid-19 crisis.
“And the other thing that deeply worries me – and I’ve written a paper on this and presented it to government – we’ve got to do something about the tens of thousands of young people living in the West Midlands, Birmingham and everywhere else in the West Midlands who won’t have jobs in a few weeks or months time when the furloughing scheme comes to an end.
“What I worry about is there are a lot of good youngsters getting themselves drawn into criminality and crime. That worries me profoundly. As a society we’ve got to address that.”
Chief Constable Thompson wanted to spread the message that British police forces are not like those in the US.