Stop-and-search ‘SAVES Black Lives’, says Scotland Yard chief Cressida Dick who suggests George Floyd death has fuelled antagonism against UK police
- Stop and search tactics target black people three times more than white people
- It has led to accusations of police racism but Cressida Dick defended the tactic
- She said young black men are nine times more likely to be killed than white men
- The police chief also claims UK BLM protesters were misled by social media
Cressida Dick has claimed that controversial stop and search tactics are saving the lives of young black men in London.
The commissioner of the Metropolitan Police said black boys are nine times more likely to be murdered than their white counterparts.
The Met Police have deployed stop and search tactics in an effort to rid the streets of knives and guns.
Cressida Dick has claimed that stop and search is saving the lives of young black men in London
But it has led to accusations of racism, with black people targeted much more by police.
The commissioner told The Sunday Times: ‘We are targeting young people who are likely to be carrying knives and guns and drugs, we’re in among the drug markets and what it means is, overall, a higher proportion of young black lads being stopped than white lads.’
Dick continued: ‘Somewhere between 23 and 25 per cent of those we stop have something on them they shouldn’t have and that’s the same whether they’re black, white or Asian.’
The Met Police have deployed stop and search tactics in an effort to rid the streets of knives and guns but it has led to accusations of racism
The London mayor’s office data shows that black people are three and a half times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people.
This summer, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, a number of viral videos showed black people being stopped by police.
This included the Labour MP Dawn Butler and Team GB athlete Bianca Williams.
But the top police chief claimed that the BLM protests in the UK this year have been mistaken about perceived police brutality.
The police chief claimed that the Black Lives Matter protesters were misled about perceived police brutality in the UK
The demonstrations took place across the country this summer which led to statues being toppled
She said many wrongly believe officers use the same tactics as those in the US, whose killing of George Floyd using a chokehold sparked the global demonstrations.
Dick said: ‘Sadly some of the material young people may have seen on social media this summer, where what happens in America is confused and made to look like police here [are involved], may have alienated them.
‘They misunderstand that what’s happened in another country is what happens here.
‘The George Floyd killing was absolutely awful to watch and has sparked this extraordinary global movement that has given some exciting opportunities, but also given people an impression of policing that is not the way things are here.’