Does This Now Mean That Police Officers Will Now Think Twice Before Daring To Stop Black Motorists?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2455553/Stephen-Lawrences-brother-Stuart-WAS-picked-Met-Police.html

It is reported that Mr Lawrence has been stopped on 25 occasions in 19 years, which isn't all that excessive in my opinion, especially when one takes into consideration that According to the IPCC report, 74 per cent of the police driver’s stops between September 2012 and March 2013 were on Afro-Caribbean people.

But then even those figures can be a little deceptive, especially if the patrol stoppages were carried out in a predominate black area.

No this seems to be a case where a high profile figure is using his position to attack the police, and the authorities have taken the decision to discipline just one sole police officer, in their attempt to be seen as having taken some action.

/// More than 20 other, unrelated allegations of racial discrimination – made against the Met by Mr Lawrence - were rejected by the IPCC. ///

[THECORBYLOON]

What percentage of the folk in the Met Police area are not black? Could it not be that action has been taken to discipline the police officer because there WAS discrimination involved?

[Gromit]

I hope the Met will think twice... before harrassing any innocent motorists irrespective of colour.

// The Met’s professional standards unit had previously cleared the officer of any wrongdoing.

But after Mr Lawrence appealed, the Independent Police Complaints Commission has ruled that his allegation against the officer was ‘well founded’ and he should face a misconduct hearing. //

Good example of self regulation not working, and the Independent investigation working.

[jackthehat]

Perhaps they ought to stick to stopping black motorists who have actually committed an offence?

[jno]

the even more unpleasant possibililty, I suppose, is that he was picked on not because he was black but because he was Stephen Lawrence's brother.

[Prudie]

I think 25 times in 19 years is excessive for anyone. What we need to know is what percentage of all their random stops do they think results in crime detection or prevention. Perhaps then it could be justified.

[anotheoldgit]

jackthehat

/// Perhaps they ought to stick to stopping black motorists who have actually committed an offence? ///

I am white and have never committed a criminal offence, but I have been stopped by the police, and asked what was my cars registration, where I had been and where I was going, they also checked my documents (which I always carry) at the end they apologised for delaying me in their routine check and I went on my way, bearing no animosity whatsoever.

Could I have said they were only picking on me because I was white? NO.

[anotheoldgit]

jno

/// the even more unpleasant possibililty, I suppose, is that he was picked on not because he was black but because he was Stephen Lawrence's brother. ///

And I suppose he has that fact in flashing lights on the roof of his car?

[THECORBYLOON]

ANOTHEOLDGIT, if the stops were being carried out in predominantly black areas, why would they be concentrating there rather than the rest of their area? You say the figure could be a little deceptive but in the Met's area, how many per hundred white drivers were stopped compared to the figure per hundred non-white drivers? Of those that were stopped, what proportion of each group were actually warned, cautioned, or found guilty of an offence?

[anotheoldgit]

Prudie

The Police have a very difficult job, they are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

.

[New Judge]

The difficulty is, steve and jack, that it is often hard to establish that a motorist has committed an offence unless he is stopped.

The effectiveness of the Metropolitan Police was set back twenty years by the some of the preposterous recommendations of the McPherson report. It is unfortunate that the surviving Mr Lawrence chooses to live in an area high in crime and an area with a high proportion of black people among its residents. I know the area very well and the police would have difficulty finding anybody who is not black to stop. If they intend to keep a lid on the crime that takes place there slightly different policing tactics need to be adopted to those used in, say, Chipping Norton or rural Oxfordshire. Law abiding people living in places like Peckham need to understand this and be prepared to co-operate with the police.

[jackthehat]

Perhaps if you had been stopped on an additional 24 occasions, you may feel differently?

The Numberplate Recognition Computer would have immediately informed the Police-officers of who owned the car......a familiar name to them, I imagine?

[jno]

I suppose he has that fact in flashing lights on the roof of his car?

well, you're the one who said he was a high-profile figure, aog.

You may find that, for one reason or another, the police are familiar with the Lawrence family. His mother, for instance, is an activist.

[New Judge]

And no, jack, the ANPR equipment used in police vehicles do not immediately provide details of the Registered Keeper. It provides information about the vehicle's insurance and Road Fund Licence status and whether it has any "markers" (e.g. drugs or other offences) attached to it. More importantly, of course, no equipment can provide details of who is driving.

[THECORBYLOON]

NEW JUDGE are you saying that in the Met Police area, not the area where Mr Lawrence lives but the whole area, 74% of moving traffic offences are committed by Afro-Caribbean drivers? If no, why are they stopped so many times in comparison to their proportion of the population in the Met's area?

[anotheoldgit]

THECORBYLOON

/// ANOTHEOLDGIT, if the stops were being carried out in predominantly black areas, why would they be concentrating there rather than the rest of their area? ///

Don't you know that police don't usually patrol the whole city/town, they have a specific area to patrol and if that area happens to be a predominate black area, they are bound to be seen as picking on black people.

/// You say the figure could be a little deceptive but in the Met's area, how many per hundred white drivers were stopped compared to the figure per hundred non-white drivers? ///

Precisely, but the trouble is we never usually hear of these figures, perhaps it is because the majority of white drivers do not complain.

/// Of those that were stopped, what proportion of each group were actually warned, cautioned, or found guilty of an offence? ///

At one time of the day, one could read in their local press how many had been found guilty of speeding, driving without due care and attention, driving without lights etc etc, but just like some more serious crimes they no longer get reported.

It's the age we live in.

[anotheoldgit]

THECORBYLOON

/// 74 per cent of the police driver’s stops between September 2012 and March 2013 were on Afro-Caribbean people ///

"74% of that particular police driver's stops"!!!!!!!!!, as said before if he patrolled predominate black area that would not be excessive, but that means that 26% were white now that is excessive in such an area.

[THECORBYLOON]

ANOTHEOLDGIT, the Met Police DO have a specific area and it is '620 square miles [with] a population of 7.2 million.'
Are you saying that the Met do not stop folk from all over that 620 square mile area but that they concentrate on areas with a high percentage of Afro-Caribbean folk?

[New Judge]

No I was not saying that, TCL. I was talking about the area where Mr Lawrence lives.

However, it is not just in connection with moving traffic offences that police stop vehicles. Something approaching 60% of gun and knife crime in London is committed by black males (and although I don’t have the figures to hand, I would imagine the percentage in Peckham is far higher). Perpetrators of many of these crimes are apprehended following them being stopped in vehicles.

Victims of many of these crimes provide details of their attackers to the police. If the majority of them provide a description of “black male” there is little point in officers stopping middle-aged white women or old Asian men. Black people are also overwhelmingly victims of such crime and it does them no favours if the police are forced to avoid stopping black people in an effort to catch their assailants because their action could be seen as “disproportionate”.

[THECORBYLOON]

I have mis-read the article and took it to mean that the percentage related to te Met Police and not to the individual officer so ignore my previous posts. However. it would be interesting to know what the percentages were for his colleagues in the same area.