A former head of the Commission for Racial Equality has urged young black men to realise the “greatest danger” to them is gangs – not the police.
Trevor Phillips, 66, said yesterday British youngsters should not look to compare Britain’s problems with America.
His intervention came after some protests at Black Lives Matter marches in the UK over George Floyd’s death descended into violence.
And it came on the same day the Independent Office for Police Conduct said it would launch an inquiry into racial discrimination in the use of stop and search by forces across England and Wales.
Mr Phillips pointed out hundreds of youngsters were dying every year due to gang-related crime.
He said: ‘There is absolutely no doubt that if you are thinking about what is the greatest danger today to a young black man in the capital, the answer is not the police, it’s somebody else in a gang.
Former Commission for Racial Equality head Trevor Phillips warned gangs not police were the biggest problem facing young black me in the UK
Mr Phillips said people of colour are more likely to be searched by police, seen here at Notting Hill Carnival in 2017
“That person is very likely to be a person of colour.
“While we have to get the police to do the right thing and behave in the right way, let us not forget that young black men are dying in hundreds every year. Never mind the ones that are being injured and maimed.”
Mr Phillips made the comments to the The Telegraph’s Planet Normal podcast and said there was “clearly a problem” stop and searches.
He spoke out after the Met apologised to British sprinter Bianca Williams after she and her partner were pulled over in their car
Her three-month-old son was also in their Mercedes with them on Saturday when it was stopped and footage she shot went viral on the internet.
Earlier this week Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick told a committee of MPs officers had visited Ms Williams to apologise for “distress” caused by the stop.
British sprinter Bianca Williams with her partner Ricardo dos Santos pulled over by police
Footage of the stop and search went viral online after it was posted on the internet
Ms Williams believes she and her partner Ricardo dos Santos, a Portuguese international 400m runner, were racially profiled by officers because they were black.
Mr Phillips said he too had been pulled over in the same way by police 20 years ago in an ‘absurd’ stop.
He described it as ‘humiliating and ridiculous” before adding that people of colour were more likely to be pulled over ‘in a way that is not courteous, that is not founded in some proper crime-fighting activity’.
Black Lives Matter protests have been in held in the UK, but some have exploded into various with some campaigners (not pictured here) becoming aggressive towards the police
The Independent Office for Police Conduct is set to launch an inquiry into racial discrimination in the use of stop and search by forces across England and Wales.
It is looking at police forces in the UK to examine whether there are any patterns of prejudice against ethnic minorities.
The murder of Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, will be investigated after two officers were arrested after it was alleged that they took selfies with their bodies in the background.
Footage revealed yesterday showed Sussex Police holding down a man who was complaining that he could not breath
Figures from the Met Police show that less than one per cent of the more than 250 annual complaints about racism are upheld.
Yesterday the MailOnline showed footage of an arrested man claiming he couldn’t breathe while three officers restrained him.
The footage of the man sparked an internal investigation by Sussex Police and Britain’s police watchdog.
The suspect, who is believed to be from Brighton’s BAME community, was held on suspicion of criminal damage and assaulting an emergency worker in Montpelier Road this week.
The unnamed man is heard yelling: ‘I can’t breathe. That is my Adam’s apple and you are crushing it’ – but the officer closest to his head repeatedly tells him that his arm is on his collarbone.
The footage emerged two days before a Black Lives Matter protest in the city following the murder of George Floyd in the US who died when a police officer crushed his neck with his knee.
In a statement, Sussex Police said: ‘Police officers searching for a vulnerable missing teenager attended an address in Montpelier Road in Brighton at 10.15am on Tuesday 7 July.
‘A resident of the address, a 28-year-old man, refused police entry and was arrested.
‘Police subsequently found the missing 17-year-old young woman hiding at the property and returned them safely home.’