This has to stop, but I doubt it will.

[OverTheRainbow88]

“According to the figures, Black people in Bristol and Somerset were 6.4 times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people last year.

That's despite Black people being only slightly more likely to be arrested if they are stopped.
Of the Black people that were stopped in Avon and Somerset last year, 17% were then arrested - compared to 15% of white people.”

www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/black-people-bristol-somerset-64-4646894

@EmbarrassedUser

Maybe it’s because there’s a reason for it? If the data says that the BAME population are more likely to commit a crime then they’ll be stopped. Before I’m accused of racism, this is just a suggestion, not me saying that it’s right.

Why are black and ethnic minorities automatically more likely to commit a crime? Not sure I understand

Yes it does have to stop. I'd hate to be stopped and searched by the police and am not any less likely to have committed a crime than anyone else stopped on the street. It's lazy policing and the stats show the suspicion is unfounded. It degrades public trust in the police which is very dangerous.

@Georgeoftheinternet so it's fine if you get stopped with 3 children under 5 (newborn and toddler in buggy) on the school run and get accused of a local burglary because you are black. You should just be ok with having your kids witness this and have to turn out your pockets and give I.D? For the crime of being black and doing the school run. Yes this did actually happen to my DH. FFS.

it’s not racist to be stopped and searched by the police. If you don’t have anything, what’s the issue. You get released
You're not getting it. Why should people be stopped and searched for no other reason than the colour of their skin.
This happens everywhere unfortunately.
My niece's boyfriend has been stopped a few times.
A few to many as there is no reason to suspect him other than he is black.
I hope the Gardai become more diverse in the future.
I have never seen a black or Asian gardai.
Not saying they don't exist but they are needed for balance.

If they stopped the same proportion of white people, they would find more white criminals.
This ^

The data in whole country shows certain cohorts are more likely to be convicted of certain crimes. I am not racist but black males 15-25 years are usually high for knife crime. Older white males more likely to commit fraud. Younger males of all ethnicities fighting. Females shoplifting. Just look at the conviction rates. It also can be, but not limited to, socialisation and what is acceptable within gender, race, age groups. Police sometimes have a focus on s particular crime. If the focus is a crime that have high black young males for example them more from that cohort will be stopped and searched. We all know any person is capable of any crime at any time but police can't stop and Search every person so they look at conviction cohort most likely to involved and target that group slightly.more than other cohorts.

I very rarely drink. I have been stopped and asked to blow into a breathalizer when I had no alcohol that evening. I was apparently driving very slowly. That would be I was not speeding in an area with a primary school even late at night and many other cars were. I told the police I had not been drinking, they did not believe.me. I did the breathalizer and was proved to be telling the truth. I did not run or resist taking the breathalizer. I did not argue I just did exactly as I was told to do. I was proved innocent. Then I went on my way.

I'd be interested to know how this percentage relates to the proportion of BAME compared to that of white people living in the Avon & Somerset region.
Regardless; it's still an unacceptable racial bias.

@EmeraldShamrock you are confusing a white country such as ROI with cities such as Manchester and London with high levels of crime and black population.

The police stopped a man on my local Facebook page because they saw him running, no other reason as he videoed they whole thing and the only reason they gave was they saw him running. It was amazing how many people commented defending the police, all white people...

Not amazing at all sadly, just fucking par for the course! Disgraceful!

I think to draw conclusions about this, especially with a larger city, you need to have more information about where things like checks are taking place.

In my city there was a finding of racial disparity in police checks, but the fact was the checks took place in high crime neighbourhoods for the most part, which weren't demographically the same as the city as a whole.

It's obvious I think why they'd do more checks in such areas, and the demographics are not something the police have much control over, nor can they affect it much, it's not really their remit. So the question in that case becomes, do we still carry on doing them, or stop because of the racial disparity? At the time there seemed to be several views, including within the black community - some people in the community wanted them to continue because they were negatively affected by the crime going on there, and there seemed to be some tensions around that.

Anyway, no idea if that applies to these numbers but I do really think you need much more specific information in many cases to really see what is going on and why. And without that information it's difficult to know what to do about it.

Why are black and ethnic minorities automatically more likely to commit a crime? Not sure I understand

There are differentiations among all kinds of groups related to crime. race, ethnicity, sex, age, class. They also correlate to each other in various ways.

Why is often less clear.

it’s not racist to be stopped and searched by the police. If you don’t have anything, what’s the issue. You get released.

I've just reported you to your local police for suspected fraud and money laundering. You'll need to report to the station once a week for the next year and they'll just put a track on all your bank accounts and phone you every couple of days to query any transaction that they don't instantly recognise - but if you don't have anything, no worries at all, eh?

Incidentally, why do they spell black with a capital B but white with a lower-case W? Seems rather patronising and tokenistic to me.

I dunno @Georgeoftheinternet, @EmbarrassedUser, perhaps ask this guy? Same police force...

Avon and Somerset police force tasered their own race relations advisor in the face:

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/avon-somerset-police-taser-race-relations-adviser-bristol-judah-adunbi-a8592026.html

And if that happened to you regularly, @caringcarer? Based on your skin colour. And if your compliance didn’t stop the police from being disrespectful or even violent? It might start to really get to you.

@Georgeoftheinternet it IS racist when not being white is the ONLY reason a person is stopped and searched and the ONLY reason white people NOT being stopped and searched despite displaying suspicious behaviours - which also happens

I am not racist but...

The words of so so so many racists!

but police can't stop and Search every person so they look at conviction cohort most likely to involved and target that group and right here you're admitting that the policy is RACIST

You were stopped while driving very slowly late at night (a weekend night?) because that BEHAVIOUR is OFTEN displayed by drivers who are marginally over the limit or high (cannabis users are actually very likely to do this) trying to avoid getting stopped and caught!

FYI a drink driving stop as you describe is very much NOT

1 How stop and search occurs

2 How non whites are treated when stopped for potential drink or drug driving!

The data in whole country shows certain cohorts are more likely to be convicted of certain crimes.

That doesn't necessarily mean certain RACES (don't hide behind euphemisms please own your bias) are more likely to COMMIT certain crimes that is not how it works.

Non white people are MORE likely despite no hard evidence for this to be the case to be

Suspected
Investigated
Arrested
Charged
Prosecuted
Convicted
More harshly sentenced

For the SAME crimes that plenty of white people are committing!

Here's something to ponder:

This means the white criminals are going

Unsuspected
Not investigated
Not arrested
Not charged
Not prosecuted
Not convicted
Less harshly sentenced

And so are free to commit more crime

My non white, or even white but wear clothes seen as belonging to certain ethnic and religious groups, friends and family are suspected, harassed, pulled over, stopped and searched, doorstepped etc FAR more than myself or my white friends who dress in standard "British" clothes. NOT ONE of them has ever committed a crime in their lives beyond perhaps a parking offence. Frankly not only because they are decent law abiding citizens but also because they know if they did they'd likely get the book thrown at them!

I've been with them at times when such things have happened and challenged the police officers involved, who backed off at the time but sadly more than a few of my friends have basically said they wished I hadn't or tried to discourage me because they fear reprisal!

On a few occasions it's not even reached that stage it's been a case of they've eg stopped a non white driver (for no driving reason or problem with the car or anything) and then upon approaching the car realised there's a white person present and back pedalled! With pathetic comments like "apologies thought you were someone else" or even just stuttering incoherent crap!

Disgusting!

They change where they go to do such mundane things as supermarket shopping, using a post office, clothes shopping... because the places closest to where they live are KNOWN for the police targeting them unfounded.

These are mostly people my age (late 40's), and mostly women too and mothers usually doing these things with their dc often small dc in tow.

It's absolutely unconscionable.

Just to be clear as lost bolding there

I am not racist but...

The words of so so so many racists!

but police can't stop and Search every person so they look at conviction cohort most likely to involved and target that group

and right here you're admitting that the policy is RACIST

The thing that has always bugged me about this is the white Vs non white. Mixed raced people are categorised as non white but they are also non black.

It really winds me up that it's okay to label a criminal black (when in fact mixed race), yet people used to fall over themselves when Obama was president and was described as black.

It seems ludicrous that my relatives, who are 75% white, will still be classed as BAME..they are quite happy to be described as this but can't people see what's happening here??

Sigh, I see the pro-racists are out in force yet again.

I’m Asian (the Indian subcontinent kind), I’m fairly pale, so I only look Asian to non-Asians from around May to November. This year I was outside a lot so I’m the darkest I have been for a while.

When I’ve got a tan I get stopped and searched, when I haven’t I don’t. I’m yet to actually experience a stop and search that has been carried out legally. I’ve been stopped for wearing sunglasses, yet the other sunglasses wearing adult I was with was not searched. I’ve been stopped for wearing a sports kit, yet the two teammates I was with who were wearing the same club kit were not searched.

A black man was recently arrested for having a tin of vaseline in his pocket, the police said they stopped his car because he was carrying vaseline, do they have a special vaseline sensor? So now, as a brown man lipbalm is now on the list of things I can’t safely carry. How many white people do you know who have been arrested by six police officers for owning lipbalm?

Avon and somerset police chose to taser their own race relations advisor, after the incident police were taunting him by pretending to mistake him for someone else.

If you take two people in the UK, one white and one non-white. The non-white person is more likely to be treated more harshly in the exact same scenario.

In my early twenties I was found guilty of assaulting a privately educated whiteman. He had assaulted me and a friend (it was a homophobic hate crime), I pulled him off my friend, my friend was left with cuts to his face, brusing and a broken cheek bone. CCTV showed the whole event, there were two witnesses who confirmed what had happened. Yet I was the one who was charged and found guilty.

I thankfully managed to get my conviction over turned at appeal, this was costly and stressful, as I was not a British citizen at the time if my appeal has failed I could have been deported.

When I’ve got a tan I get stopped and searched, when I haven’t I don’t. I’m yet to actually experience a stop and search that has been carried out legally. I’ve been stopped for wearing sunglasses, yet the other sunglasses wearing adult I was with was not searched. I’ve been stopped for wearing a sports kit, yet the two teammates I was with who were wearing the same club kit were not searched.

Totally disgraceful, so how do we stop this?

We cannot say "you can't", people need to continue exposing this type of behaviour until it is eradicated.

If you get stopped and have nothing, what’s the issue?

Asked only by a person of white privilege.

Without knowing why they are being stopped, it is hard to say whether this is racism or not. It might be. Or it might be behavioural. And before anyone says that is a racist thing to say, no it’s not. I am simply not ruling out either possibility.

@Rosebel

In order for the statistics to mean anything you need to know the percentage of BAME people who live in the area. Without that it's easy to scream racism. The poster who said about her nephews car, that doesn't sound racist. I think any person in a car like that would be stopped frequently. I

You didn’t even bother to click through to the OP’s link before sharing your conclusions did you, @Rosebel? It’s right there: BME population of Avon and Somerset: 6.8%

Are you ready to “scream racism” now?