A former senior police officer in London, at present a member of the UK House of Lords, reflects on Black Lives Matter…. This is from a Facebook post I wonder if these reflections are relevant to the situation in the USA?
Bear in mind that Paddick and other UK police officers worked under the advantage of being normally unarmed, so the opportunities for lethal errors are reduced. Not eliminated though as he makes clear.
As a former police officer, I have been struggling to write something about Black Lives Matter. I was a Sergeant in Brixton during the 1981 Brixton Riots being pelted with bricks, paving slabs and petrol bombs. I was the police commander in Lambeth, which includes Brixton “the capital of black Britain”, in 2001. I was forced out, some argued for getting too close to my community, and hundreds of local people gathered in Brixton Town Hall demanding my reinstatement, mostly black people.
Black people died at the hands of the police during my time as Borough Commander in Lambeth. It’s been on my mind
And he makes a point that is very rarely seen in debates on such matters. Sometimes enforcing the law has to come second to keeping the peace. Not just his individual judgement, it is a finding by the judge set up to enquire ino the 1981 riots.
Lord Scarman investigated the causes of the 1981 Brixton Uprising. What triggered the violence was the police’s well-intentioned attempts to address high levels of street robberies by ill-conceived, heavy-handed policing. The objective was right but the way the police tried to achieve it was wrong. The one conclusion he reached that stands out for me is that sometimes enforcing the law has to come second to keeping the peace. Sometimes, preventing public disorder, ensuring public safety and ultimately, saving people’s lives, is more important than bringing people to justice. Enforcing the law should not be at any cost and by any means, not even if everything being done is within the law.
He talks about his own success in reducing violent crime in his part of London and concludes.
The black community have had enough of disproportionate stop and search. They have had enough of the police lawfully killing them just because the police can. It is time to go back to Scarman and finally listen.
Perhaps controversial views. Are they helpful in this debate?
Brian Paddick is legal affairs spokesperson for the Liberal Democrat Party in the House of Lords (the Upper House of the British Parliament). He has in the past been a candidate for the post of Mayor of London, running against Boris Johnson.