Casey Report finds the Met to be institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic

[Fishnut]

FFS
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-67236220

Indeed.

Lets raise some money for some fine upstanding racists, it would appear.

Sadly the publicity has raised the total to over £65K now. I hope my adding the link here didn't do this.

Black officers are being pressured into donating.

Andy George, the president of the National Black Police Association, said he had received multiple accounts from black officers who felt pressed to give money to Jonathan Clapham and Sam Franks, who were sacked for gross misconduct last week.
...
George said the Met seemed unable to reform. “What this fund shows and what the Met has shown at this moment in time is that they do not want the accountability,” he said. “They don’t want to be held accountable for their actions.”
..
In a statement, [Bianca] Williams’ solicitor said of the crowdfunding page: “The comments of the apparently serving officers not only demonstrates an unwillingness to be held to account but it exposes just how toxic the culture in the Met is, and how far off change seems to be.

[Fishnut]

Six former Met police officers have been convicted of sending grossly offensive racist messages. Five pleaded guilty last month, while the sixth was was convicted earlier this week. They all served at one time or another in the Diplomatic Protection Group, now known as the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, a unit that keeps coming up in cases like this.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this as they were all retired at the time that the messages were sent. I'm sure they were just as racist when they were working and their messages came up as part of a Met investigation but it feels like a combination of too little too late and also excessive for what were ultimately private conversations among a private group of people.

The charges, which relate to messages shared between September 2020 and 2022, came after a BBC Newsnight investigation in October last year which prompted a probe by the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards.

My hope is that any lingering status and authority these people had in their communities by dint of being retired Met officers is now gone. They should be sentenced in early December.

[Fishnut]

A little round-up of the 'bad apples' that the Met insists aren't a sign of institutional failings.

Stephen Port
Eight Met officers - 5 still active, 3 former officers - are being investigated for gross misconduct in relation to their handling of the murders by Stephen Port. The IOPC regional director Steve Noonan has already begun tempering expectations,

“Though we have found an indication that the behaviour of these eight individuals may have amounted to gross misconduct, this does not necessarily mean disciplinary proceedings will automatically follow. Based on the evidence, at the conclusion of our investigation we will decide whether any officers should face disciplinary proceedings.”

Do as I say, not as I do
A Metropolitan police officer, PC Lauren Burns, who was part of a task force which specifically targets drug dealers has been sacked after she admitted using cocaine at a boat party.

Sex with a minor
An unnamed Metropolitan police officer in his 30s had sex with a missing 15 year old boy after meeting on Grindr according to his misconduct hearing. He has been dismissed without notice The officer was arrested but has faced no criminal charges after the CPS decided the case "did not meet the full test code for a criminal prosecution."

Sexual assault of a colleague
Met officer Detective Constable Justin Gilmore was found guilty of sexually assaulting a colleague. He was fined £1,000 and charged £1,500 in costs. He will now be subject to a gross misconduct hearing.

[Fishnut]

I wasn't sure which thread to put this in. There must be some strange situation occurring to warrant Tasering a 12 year old girl ... twice.
I look forward to any justification that is used to justify this.

A bit more info. The incident occurred in January 2021 and a review occurred shortly after, which concluded that "no misconduct was identified".

The girl was in her own home and tasered twice.

She was apparently "threatening a woman with garden shears and a hammer."

This is a scary situation to find yourself in and I can understand why police were called. But I find it very concerning that they had no ability to de-escalate the situation and instead tasered her.

The misconduct hearing is taking place and more details are coming out. It seems that de-escalation wasn't even attempted,

PC Jonathan Broadhead fired his Taser at the girl twice within "approximately eight seconds" of entering her home in south-west London on 21 January 2021.
...
Giving evidence, Miss A said she feared the girl's behaviour may have been affected by consuming cannabis edibles, and said she called 999 after she started threatening her with the hammer and shears.

She claimed her daughter hit her with the hammer before police arrived, but said she was a safe distance away from her when officers got there and did not want her to be Tasered.
...
Ms Checa-Dover said "Child A is seen some way from the door, further along the hallway" and "appears to pick something up - now understood to be shears - from the floor".

She added: "The officer instructed her to put them down, which she did not do.

"She walked away from those present, moving up the stairs of the home.

"The officer didn't speak to Miss A to clarify the present situation or whether there was anyone else in the house; rather, he advanced into the house announcing he was a police officer with a Taser and soon thereafter using his Taser twice on her whilst she was on the stairs."

So, not only did he taser her while she wasn't posing an immediate threat to anyone, she was on the stairs. An archived document [PDF] from the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine (part of the Royal College of Physicians) explains that the taser,

...passed short pulses of electricity into your body. The electricity made your muscles contract (go stiff). You may well have lost balance and fallen to the ground.

Losing your balance and falling to the ground can be dangerous at the best of times, when you're on the stairs it's potentially lethal.

Oh, and according to the other officer on the scene, her running upstairs wasn't a scared girl trying to get away from some scary-looking strangers, it was her gaining a "positional advantage".

You won't be surprised to learn that her mum regrets calling the police,

Miss A told the hearing she wanted the police to convince her daughter to put down the hammer and shears "by talking to her".
...
She added: "I wouldn't have called the police if I knew she would have been Tasered."

Asked if the experience has affected whether she would call the police again, she said: "If a child's involved, yes."

[Fishnut]

I wasn't sure which thread to put this in. There must be some strange situation occurring to warrant Tasering a 12 year old girl ... twice.
I look forward to any justification that is used to justify this.

The officer has been cleared of gross misconduct.

Despite firing his taser at a 10 year old girl twice 'within "approximately eight seconds" of entering her home' while she was fleeing upstairs,

The Met Police misconduct panel found the allegations were not proven and PC Broadhead's actions were based on an "honestly held belief" the girl presented a risk.
...
[Cdr Jon Savell] defended the force's use of Tasers, saying they "provide officers with the ability to de-escalate situations and protect others from harm".
...
Giving the panel's ruling, chair Catherine Elliot said: "Having considered the evidence in great detail... the panel has concluded that PC Broadhead's use of Taser on Child A was necessary, reasonable and proportionate in all the circumstances. The allegations are therefore not proved."

All I can say is that they have a very different definition of 'de-escalate' than I do.

[Fishnut]

Metropolitan Police officer Jonathan Marsh has been found guilty of assault.

PC Jonathan Marsh, 33, went to a report of a man making threats to kill and damaging a shop in Atlanta Boulevard, Romford, east London, in November 2022. He mistook Rasike Attanayake, who had called 999, for the suspect, arrested him and punched him in the head... Mr Attanayake was arrested and later de-arrested at the scene.

He'll be sentenced on February 29th.