29 Apr 2010
24 Oct 2009
- 24.10.09
- Evarist Chahali
- BNP, RACE RELATIONS IN UK, RACISM
- No comments
16 Oct 2009
8 Jul 2009
Senior officers have increased their surveillance of suspects to monitor their ability to carry out a deadly attack aimed at causing a 'breakdown in community cohesion'.
The chilling warning comes after last month's startling gains by the BNP in the local and European elections which many fear may 'embolden' violent Far-Right extremists.
Commander Shaun Sawyer, from the Met's specialist operations wing told a meeting of British Muslims last night: 'I fear that they will have a spectacular ...
'They will carry out an attack that will lead to a loss of life or injury to a community somewhere. They're not choosy about which community.'
His comments came after Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson asked officers to examine what effect the recession could have on far-right violence.
And the news mirrors similar warnings of the threat from far-right sympathisers issued in America in recent months.
While countering a threat from Islamic extremists remains the priority many officers now believe that funds need to be funnelled towards preventing a possible strike by the Far-Right.
Threat level in the UK may be downgraded, says terror chief
Despite the warning, Assistant Commissioner John Yates today warned that counter terrorism police face budget cuts.
He admitted savings must be made in two years time despite the risks posed by the looming London 2012 Olympic Games.
The senior officer, who took control of Scotland Yard's specialist operations wing three months ago, said it would be "naive" to think counter terrorism work would escape the recession.
Last weekend it was revealed that a network of suspected extremists with access to 300 weapons and 80 bombs has been uncovered by counter- terrorism detectives.
Thirty-two people were questioned by police and 22 properties were raided over an alleged plot to bomb mosques.
It was the biggest terrorist arms haul since the IRA mainland bombings in the 1990s.
Sir Norman Bettison, the chief constable of West Yorkshire, said: 'The big bad wolf is still the Al-Qaeda threat.
'But my people are knocking over right-wing extremists quite regularly. We are interdicting it so that it doesn't first emerge into the public eye out of a critical incident like an explosion.'
It is more than 10 years since neo-Nazi nail bomber David Copeland attacked three targets in London in 1999.
Three people died at the Admiral Duncan gay pub in Soho.
Copeland also targeted the Muslim community in Brick Lane, east London, and a supermarket in Brixton, south London.
Abdurahman Jafar of the Muslim Safety Forum, where the concerns were raised, said:
'Muslims are the first line of victims in the extreme right's campaign of hate and division and they make no secret about that.
'Statistics show a strong correlation between the rise of racist and Islamophobic hate crime and the ascendancy of the BNP.'
Mark Gardner, of the Community Security Trust, which monitors violence against Jews, said there has been a surge in right-wing incidents.
He said: 'Ten years after the Nazi nail bombings in London, we are seeing increasing numbers of neo-Nazis being arrested in their attempts to start some kind of so-called race war.
'It is the Muslim community that appears to be most targeted, but all of society is at risk, and we are in regular discussion with police about the problem.
'Worse still, the recent electoral successes for the BNP may cause some would-be terrorists to be further emboldened in their actions.'
Last year neo-Nazi Martyn Gilleard, 31, was convicted of three terrorism offences and jailed for 16 years.
Gilleard idolised Adolf Hitler and urged sympathisers to act to preserve the 'purity of the white race'.
When police raided his flat they found bullets, swords, knives and four nail bombs under a bed used by his five-year-old child.
Officers also found DIY bomb manuals, a guide on making a sub-machine gun and internet instructions on carrying out assassinations by poison.
A speech he had recorded in a notebook mentioned 'killing Muslims, blowing up mosques and fighting back'.
No one at the Muslim Safety Forum was available for comment. The Metropolitan Police declined to comment.
Last month a white supremacist with links to the BNP shot dead a security guard at Washington's Holocaust Museum in a racially-motivated killing.
Before launching the attack, 88-year-old James von Brunn sent out an email claiming: 'It's time to kill all the Jews.'
Von Brunn was shot and wounded by museum security officers after he walked into the packed tourist attraction and began firing indiscriminately.
23 Jun 2009
If the BNP refuses to allow non-whites to join the party, it could face heavy fines, or its assets could be seized - making it almost impossible for them to fight elections effectively.
Senior party members, such as leader Nick Griffin, could even be imprisoned, if the courts so decided. The move comes two weeks after the BNP won its first seats in the European Parliament following a collapse in Labour support. The party has around 60 councillors across the country.
Their constitution says only those with 'indigenous Caucasian' racial backgrounds can become members of the party. It is believed to be the first time that race watchdogs have threatened a political party with legal action.
The commission said the party appeared to be guilty of three breaches of the Race Relations Act: not allowing non-whites to join the party, not allowing them to take jobs at the party, and not providing equal services to constituents based on the colour of their skin.
They said this amounted to discrimination on the grounds of race and colour, which is banned under the act.The EHRC called on the BNP to provide written undertakings by 20 July that it will make the required changes or it could face a legal injunction. If not they could bring a civil action against them at the High Court.
If the party still did not comply, judges could find it guilty of contempt of court, which could lead to fines or even jail for BNP leaders.
A spokesman for the watchdog said: 'This exclusion is contrary to the Race Relations Act which the party is legally obliged to comply with. The commission therefore thinks that the BNP may have acted, and be acting, illegally.
'The commission has required the BNP to provide a written undertaking that it will not discriminate contrary to the Race Relations Act in its employment and recruitment policies, procedures and practices.'
The commission said it was also concerned that the BNP's elected representatives may not intend to offer or provide services on an equal basis to all their constituents and members of the public irrespective of race or colour.
John Wadham, the Commission's legal director, said: 'The legal advice we have received indicates that the British National Party's constitution and membership criteria, employment practices and provision of services to constituents and the public may breach discrimination laws which all political parties are legally obliged to uphold.
'We await a response from the BNP to our letter before deciding what further action we may take. Litigation or enforcement action can be avoided by the BNP giving a satisfactory response to our letter.'
The commission has received around 50 calls from members of the public recently about the BNP's membership policy, although it is believed that officials were already looking into the issue.
But last night BNP leader Nick Griffin, who was elected as an MEP for the north west of England earlier this month, said the party's rules were 'entirely legal', adding: 'We are not discriminating on the grounds of colour'.
He claimed the party was an exempted organisation under the Race Relations Act, which protected organisations which represented minority groups.Mr Griffin said this meant 'ethnic groups who need special protection such as the English in their own country, who are now second class citizens' were 'entitled to discriminate on that basis and not on the grounds of colour'.
A spokesman for the BNP said: 'We are not going to respond to threats like this. We will look at it, but it is an entirely politically-motivated attack. 'I don't think we should be bullied by outside forces. They are asking us to change our whole political ideology.'
18 Jun 2009
14 Jun 2009
10 Jun 2009
6 Jun 2009
Looking back: Canoville recalls how he felt 'physically sick' after being subjected to racist taunts at Chelsea - by the club's own supporters
When he climbed from the bench to warm up, Chelsea supporters screamed: 'Sit down you black c***', 'You f***ing w*g, f*** off'. Then they started to chant: 'We don't want the n****r, we don't want the n****r, la la la la'. A banana landed near his feet.
'I felt physically sick,' recalls Canoville...CONTINUE
SOURCE: The Daily Mail
18 May 2009
5 May 2009
Former Foreign Office minister Denis MacShane said the Tories''xenophobic' attacks on the EU would be to blame if the far-Right party made ground in next month's European elections...continue
1 May 2009
Black people are almost eight times as likely as whites to be stopped and searched a decade after the Stephen Lawrence inquiry branded the police “institutionally racist”.
Use of ordinary stop and search tactics in England and Wales rose sharply to more than one million in 2007-08, the highest figure since 1998.
The rise has had a disproportionate impact on ethnic minorities. When Stephen Lawrence was murdered in 1993 black people were six times as likely to be stopped and searched as whites. By 2006/7, that had risen to seven times.
Figures published by the Ministry of Justice yesterday for stops and searches in 2007/08 under Section 44 counter-terror laws were even starker. The number of people stopped and searched tripled in a year to 117,000 but fewer than1 per cent were arrested for alleged terrorism-related offences.
There was a 322 per cent rise in black people stopped and searched, 277 per cent in Asians and 185 per cent in white people under anti-terror laws.
Civil liberty campaigners and politicians accused police of heavy-handedness and said that vastly increased use of their powers threatened to alienate large sections of the community.
Cindy Butts, who is leading the Metropolitan Police Authority’s race and faith inquiry, said that she was concerned about the “huge disproportionality” revealed by the figures.
She said: “One could argue there is a pressure-cooker situation developing. There is a sense of a number of issues that all have the potential to impact on the same groups in our community, young males from black and Asian communities — the very people who we cannot afford to switch off from the police, the very people we need to feel confident in the police.”
Stephen Lawrence’s mother, Doreen, said that she would rate progress since the inquiry report a decade ago as “work in progress, five out of ten”. She told MPs this week: “Officers do not understand the powers they have and misuse them. I don’t feel there is much accountability.”
The report comes as police struggle to retain public confidence after the G20 protests, the Damian Green affair and the resignation of the anti-terror chief Bob Quick. Last night the Independent Police Complaints Commission announced a fourth investigation linked to the G20 protests — a woman alleging that she was assaulted by officers. The commission has received 256 complaints, including 121 about the use of force by officers.
The official figures on race and the criminal justice system revealed increases in police stops and searches in relation to both ordinary and terrorist crimes. Black people were nearly eight times as likely to be stopped and searched per head of population as whites. Asians were twice as likely to be searched.
Nearly 90 per cent of the searches under counter-terror powers were carried out in London by the Metropolitan Police. Vernon Coaker, the Police Minister, said that the increase in anti-terror stops and searches was in part linked to the failed bombings in Haymarket. London, in 2007.
Civil liberties campaigners accused the police of abusing the counter- terror law because they do not need to have “reasonable suspicion” before stopping a person.
Corinna Ferguson, a barrister with the campaign group Liberty, said: “A threefold increase in anti-terror stop and search is the clearest signal that these powers are being misused.”
Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said that the figures accent- uated concerns that the powers disproportionately affect members of the minority ethnic community.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said that the use of Section 44 was under review and stressed that people from ethnic minority groups were not a focus of stop and search operations. “Terrorists can come from all backgrounds,” he said.
13 Nov 2008
SOURCE: Daily Mail
12 Nov 2008
- 12.11.08
- Evarist Chahali
- BBC, RACE RELATIONS IN UK
- No comments
15 Oct 2008
Black police officer 'wore traditional African robe to work in protest over dress code'
Last updated at 5:11 PM on 14th October 2008
Detective Constable Paul Bailey was found guilty of wearing an African robe, arguing with a senior officer and disputing his appraisal at a tribunal
A black policeman wore a traditional African robe to work after an argument over the force's dress code.
Unhappy with wearing a necktie to work, Detective Constable Paul Bailey, 39, decided to don the traditional robe.
His bizarre protest came after a number of disputes with senior officers over his behaviour and attitude on the force.
After a disgreement over his work appraisal, the detective accused five senior officers at Greater Manchester Police (GMP) of racial discrimination.
A full investigation in his claims was launched by the neighbouring West Yorkshire Police but his complaint was later found to be unsubstantiated.
But senior officers then launched a two-year inquiry into the behaviour of the detective which ended in a tribunal last week.
Following the hearing he was found guilty of wearing the robe, arguing with a senior officer over the force policy on neck ties, disputing his appraisal in an unprofessional way and appearing to look disinterested during briefings.
The panel found the incidents represented a 'continuing course of conduct' and that over a long period of time his 'behaviour was unacceptable'. But the panel ruled he should not face any disciplinary action.
Mr Bailey, 39, who has been an officer for 18 years and has several commendations for his work, denied the claims.
Last night the Black and Asian Police Association (BAPA) said the investigation had only been launched because the detective had made an unsuccessful complaint of racial discrimination against the force.
A traditional African robe similar to the one Detective Constable Paul Bailey wore in protest against the force's dress code
Mr Crichlow from BAPA said: 'Paul Bailey has been victimised because he has made a complaint.
'He raised an issue to try to help the force and as a result they try to shoot him down in flames.
'There will have to be a health warning on GMP's equal opportunities policy. It is dead in the water and not worth the paper it is written on.
'If somebody comes to me for advice about what to do about an issue of concern I will have to tell them, you can make a complaint, but I can't guarantee you won't be victimised as a result.
'It means people will be very reluctant to raise issues of concern in the future.'
Assistant Chief Constable Terry Sweeney said: 'The individual made a complaint of racism which was independently investigated by West Yorkshire Police.
'The force found no evidence of racism, but advised that GMP should consider taking action against the officer for breaches of the police code of conduct.
'We took further independent advice and considered the issues against force policy before deciding the most appropriate action was to proceed to a misconduct tribunal.
'The panel found that the officer had breached misconduct rules on four occasions but decided that no sanctions should be taken against the individual.
'Consideration was taken of the length of time between the complaints and the hearing, and the fact that the officer's performance was reported to have improved.'
Mr Bailey has taken legal advice and is taking the force to a employment tribunal on the grounds of racial discrimination.
Mr Sweeney said: 'As we are aware there is an employment tribunal pending, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further.'
Mr Bailey refused to comment.
The Met Police is mired in controversy and infighting after the country's top Asian policeman Tarique Ghaffur, was put on gardening leave and another senior ethnic minority officer, Commander Ali Dizaei, was suspended last month over misconduct allegations.
The Met Commissioner Sir Ian Blair was forced to step down after Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said he had no confidence in him.
Source: Daily Mail