13/11/2018
Trevor Phillips: Police fighting knife crime should be exempt from race discrimination laws
This is extremely interesting, especially with it coming from a former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
I don't doubt this is a justified approach given the evidence, but my immediate worry is that we descend into the sort of imbalanced approach to law and order seen in America. Across the pond, the Black Lives Matter movement is entirely justified in highlighting the disparity the approach taken by police when dealing with people who aren't white.
They don't have to be criminals to suffer such injustice.
I would be utterly appalled if the UK developed a similar approach. The shame may even be more than that which is felt by many of us as a result of the EU referendum in 2016 and the xenophobia that has followed.
The wearing of body cameras may help negate that risk. However, it will be essential for there to be robust checks and measures in place to ensure that this doesn't become a method for police officers with racist views to target innocent citizens.
I honestly don't know if this is possible.
Ultimately, the saving of lives; both literally and figuratively, is a worthwhile objective.
When discussing this (via social media) with a former police officer, he offered up this advice:
"Tackling criminality is the most important objective, preservation of life and property will come as a result. Which is kind of the point that has been mostly lost for a long time. If you actually target the offenders and deal with them effectively then the crime rates will fall. Pandering to liberalism, making excuses for actions, and throwing money into pointless projects achieve very little. There hasn’t been a single successful youth engagement programme that has actually reduced knife or gun crime in they there London, despite millions being wasted on it over the years. A few heads of charities have earned a few quid and lives well off them though..."
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