Institutional Racism in our policing - Dawn Butler MP

[AuntyPasta]

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/aug/09/labour-mp-dawn-butler-stopped-by-police-in-london

The police stopped the car being driven by her friend (she was a passenger.) Unlike the elite athletes stopped with their 3 month old baby in the car www.theguardian.com/law/2020/jul/06/why-did-police-stop-and-search-bianca-williams-and-ricardo-dos-santos she’s had an apology.

AIBU to think that if she wasn’t an MP the police would be sticking by their ‘reasonable suspicion’? Is that what it takes to be dealt with fairly by the police?

Even the picture posted on this thread shows the driver was white. She also definitely implied she was driving

He looks black to me.
Maybe your brain wants to see white?

@Flaxmeadow

userd and to add, black men in expensive cars do seem to get stopped disproportionately

White people do as well. My ex was a car mechanic who drove some very nice cars and we used to get stopped all the time.

I expect there were a few reasons
We were young
Working class
He had tattoos
We lived in a high crime area.
We would drive around and around the same area just for something to do

He also used to dangle his arm out of the window and steer with one hand, the way young men sometimes do, he smoked roll ups

His cars were always legal and I think he got a kick out of that when he was stopped tbh

Instead of saying "white people do too" it would make more sense to say "white people who look obviously working class do too".

Classism is shitty in its own right.

Maybe we'll see the truth when the video footage from the police is released, or will they be accused of reversing the image ?

I suspect that people will still see what they want to see from any video. I hope people are aware of their rights when stopped by the police.

Dawn Butler surely knows the ethnicity of the driver. How can random.people off the internet disagree??? Someone who 'looks white' to you is very ignorant.

This incident has certainly brought out people with a certain mind set. I would love to know the reason the police stopped them. I an sure the body cam image will show it. Maybe there should be a recording from the police car when they first saw the car.

So given that people viewing a blurred photo can't be sure that he is black (before considering the eyewitness testimony anyway), how do you know that the police officer targeted him because he was black/mixed race? Through a windscreen of a moving car when some of the windows are tinted? More likely that the officer had already initiated the stop before the man's race was obvious.

@chomalungma

This incident has certainly brought out people with a certain mind set. I would love to know the reason the police stopped them. I an sure the body cam image will show it. Maybe there should be a recording from the police car when they first saw the car.

Well quite, remember the recent case of the two athletes who were complaining of being targeted for their race but the full footage showed them driving like lunatics.

Dawn says he is black. The picture of the driver looks like a black man. I am surprised some people think he's white

How do you know this incident wasn't a case of profiling?

What sticks out for me is that she was smiling and gleeful when she was stopped. Totally relaxed. Waiting to post it all on the internet.

I smile when I'm controlling anger or even fear.

In contrast to Dawn Butler. I cannot imagine having the balls to lecture the police like she did.

She's black and an MP - I assume she's accustomed and powerful enough to name everyday racism when she encounters it. She got an apology unlike the athletes who were stopped recently.

@Celebratealice- the fact that you have suggested that this was not ‘real racism’ is a concern. Racism does not have to be vocal and obvious to be classed as racism. Most racism is subtle and many regard it as ‘worse’ than the EDL type racism that one often hears of.
Institutional racism is not in your face , but it exists and prevents people from certain groups from progressing.

If you are a prominent black politician who was filming a police incident like this, then I would be a bit amused as well. I would love to see the bit when she told them who she was. There was a US incident when 2 cops pulled over the State Attorney. It was amusing to see the reaction when she told them her job

Why are people questioning the race of the driver.,? If Dawn Butler says that he is black then he is black. Black peoples are not a monolith. The police may have regarded him as being mixed race in appearance which is why they may have been pulled over.
As for her bring relaxed and ‘gleeful’ as a poster suggested. Dawn Butler is a politician and is used to dealing with people in authority , so she is able to remain calm and focused .

The amount of racism and race-denial on this thread is horrifying.

The outright lies about the driver being white or the video being flipped are just despicable.

Some people really make “discrediting black people when they talk about their experiences of racism by any means necessary” their hill to die on.

The officer incorrectly inputted her reg plate into the computer and it was registered in Yorks, hence the stop. It isn't racism, it is called policing.

Why are people questioning the race of the driver

Because they are racists.

@chomalungma - exactly.

@dadshere

The officer incorrectly inputted her reg plate into the computer and it was registered in Yorks, hence the stop. It isn't racism, it is called policing.

How many times have you been stopped by police for driving out of the area you car is registered in?

I said if the driver was white passing that doesn't necessarily mean it was racial profiling but I also said my black friends are disproportionately pulled over by the police.

I am white and even I can see this for what it is. It is racism.
Haven’t we learned anything over the past few months?

@LakieLady

This is the same person I believe who was stopped by security at the House of Commons and suspected for being an intruder

I hadn't heard that story, but she was mistaken for a cleaner by a Tory MP, when she was in an "MPs only" lift. He told her that the lift wasn't for use by cleaners!

She was also stopped in Parliament by another MP when entering a members area and told your sort aren't allowed in here ...when challenged by her , the MP started backtracking by saying they were referring to the group she was with .

My husband is white passing (middle eastern heritage)
Haven’t we learned anything over the past few months?

I don't know have we? Personally I would like to see a huge drive to tackle the "harmless" drug usage amongst the middle classes that drives the gang crime & violent crime.

ignore that top bit part of a paragraph I thought I had deleted.