Violence eroding British bobby’s trusty reputation

Press, 24 April 1986, Page 34

Violence eroding British bobby’s trusty reputation

By

MICHAEL WEST

of Associated Press (through NZPA) London Repeated incidents of police violence and accidental shootings by officers are eroding the British bobby’s reputation tor reliability and courtesy. Although the majority of British police are armed only with billyclubs, increasing use of firearms by criminals means the police have to carry weapons more frequently. Offences involving guns in London rose from 1401 in 1976 to 2356 in 1985. Inevitably, there have been errors and charges of trigger-happi-ness. The mistaken shooting of a black woman during a raid by detectives last year sparked a major riot in a London mixed-race neighbourhood. Public and official outrage has grown — especially in cases where police solidarity has made it hard or impossible to identify officers who acted violently. In April last year, Scotland Yard announced a cut in the number of London police authorised to use guns, from 3780 to 2970 of the 27,165 in London’s Metropolitan Police Force. There are 105,000

police in the rest of mainland Britain. Seven officers had been suspended from duty a week earlier after an inquest jury at Hammersmith in west London ruled that John Mikkelsen, a member of the Hell’s Angels Motor-cyclle Club, was unlawfully killed by the police. The Court heard that Mikkelson was hit over the head with a billyclub and died in police custody after inhaling his own vomit. Another case concerns five youths — three whites and two blacks — who say the police attacked them with billyclubs at Islington in north London after mistaking them for another group which had jeered at the officers. The two blacks were hospitalised, and Scotland Yard paid a total of £7OOO ($18,800) in an out-of-court settlement to the victims. Although that incident happened in 1983, it grew into a campaign issue in the black community early this year and forced Scotland Yard to conduct a probe to find the officers involved. The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Kenneth Newman, said: “The officers who are concerned in this disgraceful

incident ... are seriously damaging the hardearned, excellent reputation of their colleagues.” The Home Secretary, Mr Douglas Hurd, the Minister responsible for police, said: “There must be deep dismay over the incident... because of its impact on the standing and reputation of the Metropolitan Police.” The Police Complaints Authority said in a recent report that three internal Scotland Yard inquiries had failed to identify the police because their colleagues would not talk. A public outcry followed and Mr Newman announced a new inquiry with immunity for any officer who informed on his mates. The result was four officers charged on March 11 with conspiracy to assault. They are now on bail awaiting trial. A fifth has been suspended from duty. The Police Complaints Authority is an independent body. But its findings are based on police investigations of complaints against them. Critics say it rarely uses its powers to veto investigating officers or to direct investigations. In other recent cases of police violence: • Lorna Lucas, a black

woman, was awarded SUSBOOO ($14,500) when she successfully sued Scotland Yard for assault, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution, bjo officer has been disciplined or charged. • Barry Carliell of London seeks out-of-court damages from Scotland Yard after a punch by Constable Brian Renton at Islington police station knocked his left eye from its socket. The eye had to be removed by a surgeon. Renton has been jailed for two years. • Scotland Yard paid teachers Andrew Gibb and his wife Rosemary £6OOO ($16,100) out of court after the police admitted assault, false arrest and imprisonment in 1983. Councilman Derek Sawyer, chairman of Islington Council’s police sub-committee which monitors police action, said a crime survey by the Left-led council showed “at least 300 cases of police assault upon the public a year ,in the borough.” Hostility to the police is so great in some parts of London that Leftist councils have banned police from entering schools to talk to children about crime prevention and other matters. Conservative Party councilmen

accuse the Leftists of seeking to undermine confidence in the police for political reasons.

The liberal British newspaper, “The Guardian,” commented: “The sad reality... is that if any police officer commits an act of violence against a member of the public (particularly if they are black and Leftwing) they will get away with it.” But this is not always so. The accidental shooting by the police of a black woman, Mrs Cherry Groce, sparked a serious riot in south London’s largely black Brixton district last September. Mrs Grace is now partially paralysed. A policeman has been charged with unlawful wounding. The death of another black woman who collapsed during a police raid sparked a riot in north London’s largely black Tottenham district Black rioters who stabbed a white policeman to death in the riot reportedly tried to hack off his head. Of the 132,100 police in mainland Britain, only about 700 are non-white. Of the 27,165 London police, only 280 are nonwhite. Campaigns to recruit more non-whites have had little success.