UK: Police and racism
01 January 1991
UK: Police and racism
artdoc April=1995
Nigerian man dies in custody of Stoke Newington police
Two police officers have been suspended following the death of
a 34-year old Nigerian decorator, Oluwashiji Lapite who died 30
minutes after being stopped by police in Stoke Newington, north
London.
The police have issued a statement alleging that as Mr. Lapite
was acting suspiciously, an attempt was made to arrest him. A
struggle ensued during which Lapite was injured. He collapsed and
died after being placed in a police van. The police version of
events is being contested by Lapite's family who say that bruises
and marks on his body were consistent with a beating.
Following Lapite's death, 200 people demonstrated outside Stoke
Newington police station (Evening Standard 23.12.94, Guardian
24.12.94).
Police racism in stop and search powers
Following a parliamentary question, it has been revealed that
forty-two per cent of those stopped and searched by the police
in London were from ethnic minorities. Ethnic minorities account
for just twenty per cent of the population in London
(Independent, Guardian 3.12.94).
Rise in civil actions
The Home Office have reinstated a policeman who was sacked after
it was shown that he attacked a black man with a truncheon.
Unpublished figures obtained by the Observer newspaper reveal
that black people are four times more likely to make a complaint
against the police yet have less than a 50 per cent chance of
having complaints upheld (Observer 27.11.94).
Spotlight on Manchester police force
Campaigners are demanding a public inquiry into police racism
throughout the Greater Manchester area following a series of
well-publicised cases. Since a former constable in the force made
allegations of racism, three officers from the Community Affairs
Department have been charged with disciplinary offences. A
Special Branch officer in the Manchester police force has also
been transferred to uniform duties after he was found to have
altered pictures and a news story to `spoof' a colleague from the
Middle East. Another policeman was fined two days pay after he
was found to have made racist remarks about a mixed race prisoner
in front of a black colleague (Guardian 22.11.94, Manchester
Evening News 23, 24.11.94).
IRR European Race Audit, Bulletin no 12, March 1995. Contact: Liz
Fekete, Institute of Race Relations, 2-6 Leeke Street, London
WC1X 9HS. Tel: 0171 837 0041
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