'UK police discriminate against ethnic minorities based on suspicion'

By Gulcin Kazan Doger

ISTANBUL (AA) – Ethnic minorities in Britain are "racially discriminated" by police officers based on false information and suspicion, according to a British human rights advocate.

In an interview with Anadolu, Muhammad Mussa, a spokesman for the London-based independent advocacy organization CAGE, talked about "discriminatory and misogynistic" behavior by British police in light of recent reports and incidents.

"In recent years, public trust and confidence in the police has been declining," he said, adding that there have been a number of reports regarding police misconduct in the past 12 years.

Mussa referred to a report by Baroness Louise Casey issued in March on the Metropolitan Police's standards of behavior and internal culture, which stated that the Met is "institutionally racist, homophobic, and misogynistic."

He described the reports as "scathing insights into the police and how they conduct their affairs with civilians," and said they touched on police misconduct such as violence, immorality, and misogyny.

"There are many examples where Muslims, British Muslims, they've gone on holiday and they've come back to the UK and they've been stopped at airports by police simply because they have a Muslim name or because they have a beard or because they look like a certain character, if I may say so."

He added that police officers had gone too far, arbitrarily and "illegally" detaining many Muslims and ethnic minorities who looked like Muslims on “false information” and “suspicion."

"Even I myself faced this discrimination as well,” he said, adding that “I've also worked with a number of people who have been wrongfully detained simply because they are Muslim."

- Trust, confidence falls to 40%

Mentioning Metropolitan Police’s profile, which is 87% white and 71% male, Mussa said there is a significant discrepancy and inequality between the population of London specifically and the police force as London is a "very ethnically diverse city and is a hub of multiculturalism."

He criticized the recent increase in police powers to stop and search people based on suspicion, noting that officers can stop someone even without a warrant.

Mussa recalled an incident in December 2020 in which a 15-year-old schoolgirl of a black ethnic group was strip-searched by Metropolitan Police officers at her school.

The incident occurred over unfounded suspicions that she was in possession of cannabis. However, Metropolitan Police later apologized for the girl’s treatment.

“So this is one of many examples of how police forces, specifically in London, are increasingly racist, xenophobic, and misogynistic as well," he added.

Touching upon a YouGov survey released in April, revealing that the trust and confidence in the UK police force has fallen to 40% across the nation, Mussa said, "It's no surprise that the ethnic minorities have lower trust and confidence."

"They increasingly feel as if they are being watched, as if they are being policed as if their communities are turning into prisons where the police force is constantly monitoring, surveilling, and patrolling them.

“They are being targeted, stereotyped, racially discriminated against, and specifically with Muslims and black people, there is very, very low trust and confidence in them,” he added.