Lewis Gaston
Two black Olympians Bianca Williams and her partner Ricardo dos Santos were deemed victims of an unlawful stop and search after two officers accused the pair of smelling like cannabis. Two out of the four officers involved Jonathan Clapham and Sam Franks were subsequently fired as they were found to be lying.
As such, this decision has recently been overturned by the Police Appeals Tribunal where Met Police commissioner Rick Prior asserted “Our colleagues have been dragged through hell and back for four years, for doing nothing more or less than the job the public of London expect us to do.”
5 times more likely to be stop and searched if you are black than if you are white.
The initial event that occurred on July 4th, 2020, generated mass dispute surrounding the already petulant subject of stop and search, as black people are disproportionately arrested and subject to such stop and searches within the UK. Figures show that between March 2022 and March 2023, you are almost 5 times more likely to be stopped and searched if you are black than if you are white.
“So many have suffered from racial profiling from the Met Police and don’t have the opportunity to challenge the abuse they have had to endure.”
With only 14% of stop and searches ending up in arrest, it seems a redundant use of police powers that have proven to be an ineffective method of tackling crime. Silver Olympic medalist Bianca Williams declared on her Instagram “So many have suffered from racial profiling from the Met Police and don’t have the opportunity to challenge the abuse they have had to endure.”
The fact these officers were re-instated insinuates a defensiveness from the Met police force on the use of stop and search, even though figures illustrate stop and search as a futile technique in policing where often ethnic minorities are the ones who face the brunt.
Lewis Gaston
Featured image courtesy of Sean Robbins via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
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