BAME groups say UK police biased against them

LONDON

In Britain, police and the justice system are biased against two-thirds of the minority ethnic population, a new poll has suggested.

The poll by campaign group Hope Not Hate came after months of Black Lives Matter protests across the UK following the murder of George Floyd by a policeman in the US.

According to the poll, eight out of 10 black and Bangladeshi Britons, as well as 65% of all ethnic minority population thinks British police are “biased against people from my background and ethnic group.”

The survey also shows that four out of 10 minority ethnic people have witnessed or experienced racial violence or abuse within the past year.

It found that 64% of minority ethnic groups thought the police were generally good, with a few individuals causing problems.

Meanwhile, 81% of over-65s “agree that the police as a whole are good, it is only a few individuals who are a problem,” but this ratio drops to 55% in responses to the same question by the 16-24 year-olds.

The report added that 72% of the respondents said black and Asian people face discrimination in their everyday lives, and only 9% disagreed.

More than half of the same group said they experienced or witnessed racism in the press, on social media, or in public within the past year.

“People do see a culture of racism within the police and criminal justice system but that manifests itself through a few individuals,” report author Rosie Carter said.

The survey found that ethnic minorities are also perceived to be dealt with more harshly by the country’s court system, with Bangladeshi (71%) and Black (75%) respondents most affected.

“Racist violence is a feature of many young people’s lives; only a third (35%) of 16-24s could say that they had not witnessed or experienced racist violence in the last 12 months compared with 75% of 55-64s and 80% of over-65s,” according to the report.

The figures come days after a separate report by Hope Not Hate advocacy group, which said British far-right has become more openly racist and “much more extreme ideologically.”

About 73% of the respondents said they support the recent Black Lives Matter protests, but there were fears that they might prompt a backlash from sections of the white population. Some 65% preferred statues of slave traders be removed from public squares and put into museums.

The survey also found majority support for calls that the government should pay reparations to the descendants of black slaves.

As many as 57% of the respondents also think the government has not done enough to protect BAME communities from the COVID-19 outbreak.