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UK police, a culture of rape, racism and impunity

Tuesday, 31 January 2023 10:53 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 31 January 2023 10:53 AM ]

Former Police Commissioner Cressida Dick(Centre) (File Photo)

The memory of the rape and murder of pedestrian Sara Everhart in 2020 by Metropolitan Police Officer Wayne Couzens is seared on everybody's mind in the UK.

The police commissioner at the time Cressida Dick called it a case of a few bad apples in the force and promised action to weed them out.

She was soon forced to resign, leaving a police force in crisis.

Sarah Everard raped and murdered by Metropolitan police officer Wayne Couzens

Corrupt cops: UK police under fire over slew of scandals

The UK

The latest scandal to emerge and rock the Metropolitan Police, the Met, came to the fore when David Carrick, an officer from the same unit as Wayne Couzens, pleaded guilty to tens of offenses, including rape, against twelve women over a period of nearly two decades.

A London police officer has admitted carrying out 24 counts of rape

London police officer pleads guilty to 24 counts of rape, years after alarm raised

A serving London police officer admits carrying out 24 counts of rape in a near two decade-long campaign of abuse against women.

The response from the new commissioner, Mark Rowley, has been an apology and the promise of a cleanup. Yet critics of the Metropolitan Police force say they don't think that will solve the problem.

I think the proposition that it is just a few bad apples has been blown completely out of the water.

What we have, in reality, is a deeply systematized culture of misogyny and racism that speaks and is at the very heart, the core, of the Metropolitan Police Service.

It is beyond reform. It is beyond saving.

Lee Jasper, Former Mayoral Advisor

London police joked about raping women, domestic violence

London police joked about raping women, domestic violence: Report

A police watchdog says a series of investigations has found evidence of bullying and a shocking culture of racist abuse within the ranks of the London Metropolitan Police.

The force which Commissioner Rowley commands was placed under “special measures” last year after revelations of bullying, racial discrimination, and misogyny, among some of its officers against people inside and outside the force.

Anonymous revelations from serving police officers speak of a culture of racism and sexual abuse in the force which has left some black staff suicidal.

The issue is that that systematized culture actually targets and alienates black and ethnic minority officers.

And that has a profound impact upon their family life, their mental health, their physical health.

And we've seen examples, time and time again, of black officers suffering life changing, transforming, trauma as a consequence of facing racism in the Met.

Lee Jasper, Former Mayoral Advisor

These are dark days for Britain's largest police force with confidence in policing already at an all time low and the recent admission by one of its own will only serve to worsen trust in the people who are supposed to be protecting society.