By Michael Wongsam
A jury at the Old Bailey took just three hours to clear Sgt Martyn Blake of murdering Kaba following a three-week trial, after the 23-year-old was stopped by armed police and shot in South London in 2022. Since then, an all encompassing effort to resurrect the standing of the Metropolitan Police – and by extension – the entire police force as regards its approach to the black community has been put into effect.
This includes an initiative led from the very top of the Metropolitan Police to make it harder to prosecute officers after Chris Kaba shooting; a drive to pressure left wing MPs and celebrities – including Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Sadiq Khan and Stormzy – who have expressed support for the family of Chris Kaba into making apologies; Home Secretary Yvette Cooper promising anonymity to Police Officers on trial as shooting suspects.
Furthermore, Robert Jenrick has commented that “Charities, NGOs and far-Left politicians all jumped on Chris Kaba’s case to justify their pre-existing prejudices about the UK.” This is an assertion that racism does not exist in the UK – hence the reference to charities – Runnymede Trust, Liberty, MEND, Tell Mama, etc. are examples, whose purposes are to combat racism – justifying ‘pre-existing prejudices’. This is part of a wider narrative that seeks to rubbish a broad range of demands, for instance demands for reparatory justice for slavery and colonialism, a sympathetic approach towards refugees and asylum seekers, demands to address racism and Islamophobia, as well as demands around deaths in police custody. This also encompasses the charge of ‘two-tier policing’ by the far right, according to which, far from being racist, policing is too lenient towards black people. In effect, the agenda of the far right is being normalised as a result of the acquittal of Sgt Blake.
However, the real facts do not support the assertion that racist policing does not exist. For instance, the only events for which Metropolitan police chiefs authorised the potential use of baton rounds in the past six years were black-led gatherings, such as the Notting Hill carnival since 2017 and the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. Also, the report by Louise Casey, commissioned by the Metropolitan Police itself after one of its officers abducted Sarah Everard, found that the Metropolitan police is ‘broken and rotten, suffering collapsing public trust and is guilty of institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia.’
To more clearly see what is taking place here it is instructive to examine the similar, but more concentrated situation in the US. Figure 1 shows a comparison between white, and different categories of non-white people killed by police between 2013 – 2024. Clearly, every category except that of Asian Americans experience higher rates of police involved killings than whites, and where Blacks are 2.9 times more likely to be killed by police during the period.
Figure 2 shows the total figure for police killings every year from 2014, up to June 2024. It can be seen that the rate of police killings up to June 2024 far exceeds that for any previous year in the period. Since there is no reason to believe that police killings of Blacks and other non-white categories have declined in 2024 in comparison to police killings of whites, it is safe to conclude that police killings of all non-white categories have increased substantially in 2024.
It is also instructive to note that according to Figure 2 2014 is depicted as the year with lowest rate of police killings in the period. This corresponds to the year that the Black Lives Matter movement started to organise the initial mass protests at the killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, etc, and the acquittal or failure to charge the perpetrators. In 2016 Trump countered Black Lives Matter with the ‘Blue Lives Matter’ slogan during the 2016 Republican Presidential Primaries in order to push back against the mass protests.
Another spate of lynchings and police killings culminating famously with the killing of George Floyd reignited the Black Lives Matter movement and led to a summer of mass protests in 2020. This led to another showdown between Black Lives Matter protesters and ‘Blue Lives Matter’ activists such as Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot and killed two men and wounded another, during a clash in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August 2020. He was subsequently acquitted, and feted as a hero by the right of US politics including President Trump and Representative Matt Gaetz. This clash is emblematic of the struggle in society between the Black movement and those forces in solidarity with it, and the far right, who derive support from the coercive apparatus of the state. This has led to a mixed bag of verdicts: convictions, acquittals and in one case, a mistrial. But the trends that have been highlighted confirm that the pendulum is currently swinging towards the far right. Recently, an investigation conducted by the Intercept has concluded that most police involved in high-profile killings since 2014 kept their police licences. It is rare for officers who use excessive, deadly force to be barred from working as police – out of 54 officers involved in 14 high-profile killings that spurred Black Lives Matter protests in the last nine years, only 10 had their certifications or licences revoked as a matter of disciplinary action.
If we now return to a consideration of the situation in the UK, we can say that the struggle between the Black community and its allies on one hand, and the far right combined with the coercive apparatus on the other is undergoing the same pendulum swing – that is to say, the far right is in the ascendance. Among other things, this means that trigger happy policemen are acquiring the assent from various authorities to go on the rampage.