TREVOR PHILLIPS: IT’S NOT WHITE BOYS GETTING STABBED
A CONTROVERSIAL call for tougher policing in black communities hit by knife crime than in white areas with less violence has been made by the former head of the Commission for Racial Equality.
In a move that is bound to provoke a fierce debate, lifelong community relations campaigner Trevor Phillips takes political leaders to task for failing to acknowledge that rising knife crime in London involves race.
He says police should be allowed to make more ‘stop and search’ checks of suspected thugs in areas such as Tottenham in London – where Mr Phillips himself grew up and where several knife attacks have occurred – than in areas such as leafy Maidenhead, Mrs May’s Royal Berkshire constituency.
In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Mr Phillips said: ‘We have to be honest and say the central issue is not white boys in Surrey being stabbed or stabbing
‘Nobody has had the courage to tell the truth’
other people. The victims and perpetrators are mainly from a narrow range of backgrounds, and we should not be afraid to say so. They are usually from black, Afro-Caribbean backgrounds.’
Mr Phillips, whose parents came to the UK from the West Indies in the 1950s, said police ‘stop and search’ powers, curbed by Mrs May as Home Secretary, must be deployed in a ‘more concentrated and intelligent way’.
There was no reason they should not use different methods in different parts of the country, he argued, giving Tottenham and Maidenhead as an example.
‘In areas like Tottenham where I grew up and where large numbers of black children are attacking other black children, there is a case for policing them differently to places like Maidenhead where this is not the case.’
Anticipating criticism from a ‘vocal minority,’ he added: ‘I realise some might say it is racist to use different methods of policing for areas based on their ethnic make-up, but I disagree. It is only racist if you believe all of today’s policemen are idiots: I don’t. And in my experience, far from being opposed to such measures, ethnic minorities are usually the ones most in favour of such action because it is their young who are being killed and beaten.’
Mr Phillips said similar tactics had been used successfully in New York, where knife crime and murders had fallen dramatically.
He also claimed the viciousness of recent attacks in London may have been fuelled by refugee children who have a ‘lower violence threshold’ as a result of having seen ‘beheadings and disembowellings’ in war-torn countries such as Somalia and the Congo before coming to the UK.
His comments came amid claims that Mrs May and London Mayor Sadiq Khan have been slow to confront the spate of shootings and knifings in the capital.
He said: ‘One of the main problems we face is that nobody has had the courage to stand up and tell the truth. Unless we are honest enough to acknowledge the real nature of the problem, and in particular the fact that it has racial and cultural dimensions, all we are doing is flapping our lips and virtue signalling.’
Mr Phillips, who divides his time between the US and the UK, said New York Mayor Bill de Blasio had shown how stop and search – or stop and frisk as it is called in America – can be used differently in different areas, depending on crime levels.
Mr Phillips said a crude version by New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in the 1990s cut crime – but led to police ‘brutalising any black person they didn’t like the look of’. Mr de Blasio had used it in a more ‘humane, effective and intelligent’ fashion. ‘His approach is not “Is this a black area?” but “Is this an area where vulnerable children need to be protected?” ’ said Mr Phillips. New York police ensured they were supported by churches, schools and other key local institutions.
Mr Phillips said the increased use of body-worn cameras by New York police had also proved effective and won the support of police and local communities.
Mr Phillips said that when refugees from Somalia and the Congo first arrived in the UK during the last Labour Government, he urged special measures to address the problem, such as therapy.
‘Some had seen unimaginable things by the time they were seven: people shot, beheaded or disembowelled in front of them. It partly explains why some have indulged in crazy violence here.
‘It was obvious that if we didn’t act we would pay a heavy price. Sadly, they were mainly just dumped in schools and we expected them to behave just like other children. Now we see the consequences.’
Mr Phillips, 64, was head of the Commission for Racial Equality from 2003 to 2006 and took over its successor, the Equality and Human Rights Commission. A prominent Labour supporter and ally of Tony Blair, he was one of the first ethnic minority leaders to denounce multi-culturalism and promote the concept of ‘Britishness’.
He is currently deputy chairman of the board of the National Equality Standard, which advises business on diversity.
‘Refugees have seen unimaginable things’