The Historical Context: Race and Policing 1945-90

Dr Anthony Gunter.

Um programme Leads of childhood Studies a new

study that open University senior lecturer um,

also criminologist.

Today we'll be talking about the Stephen Lawrence case.

So the Stephen Lawrence case a watershed moment

in Postwar UK history in relation to policing racism

and has had a major impact in terms of our attitude towards policing uh,

non white communities will be a semi communities.

Today.

We look at the context around race policing and immigration in the UK Um,

since 1945 46

then we'll look at the issue of racist violence,

how that was or was not taken seriously by the police

and how the murder of Stephen Lawrence, um,

was to play a major role in how we looked at policing

a regard to bme relationships and the police be how

the police actually engaged with this issue around racist violence.

The arrival of the S s Ren rush at the end of the 19 forties was to herald a

great change in post war British society in terms

of what we call the heralding of coloured immigration.

In other words, large numbers of of non white, um,

people from the Commonwealth,

all the former colony itself from from the

Caribbean from Africa and South Asian subcontinent.

But of course,

this was to have a profound impact on the majority of

white population in terms of although these non white British citizens,

because they were British citizens,

were called to to work in the U K to work in Britain

on arrival, they were to encounter a great deal of resistance, um, and violence.

And of course, this has an impact in terms of, you know,

are they protected by the police from this

from this violence from the host white communities.

So what we tend to find, according to uh,

many academics and research is that

black and Asian and minority ethnic communities

have been over police whilst under protected by the by the law.

And what we mean by this is is when we look at the the the the issue of of

police racism or the policing of of non white communities,

we tend to find high numbers of stop and search Destin, Destin,

Destin police custody and other problematic community police relations.

However, this group, as it became groups,

have suffered a great deal of

victimisation racing victimisation and racist violence.

In this context of victims of crime,

you'd think that the police would be there

to protect them and investigate such issues.

Unfortunately,

this has not been the case.

That's the first issue with regard to poor

relationship between the police and the Amy communities.

We can, firstly see this in relation to immigration itself.

So we start to see this idea that these black and Asian

we all should be sent back home to their countries of origin.

So we have, of course, Enoch Powell's rivers of Blood speech in late 19 sixties

because of the hostility that was that many black

and Asian people faced in 1950 sixties onwards.

The rise of the skin heads the National Front.

You know, Powell was saying, we should keep these black people out,

and if we let them come, their Children are going to cause mayhem.

So what happened was the government became rather alarmed. And rather than protect

these new arrivals, they actually pandered to the political right.

And what they in fact did was they looked to

stop black and brown people coming to the UK.

So from 1971 immigration Act, this actually

shifted the policing of immigration at the border to policing internally.

And what I mean by that is police and immigration officials

would start to raid properties of black and Asian people,

their homes and businesses, their place of worship,

their places of entertainment and ask them for their passports.

Ask them for their papers.

And this is because in 1971 Immigration Act actually

put a great empathy emphasis on police and immigration service

to actually ensure that black and brown people are not

over staying their welcome or not coming here illegally.

Because there were new situation whereby you had to have a

grandparent that British before you could come to the UK,

you also have to have work lined up.

You had to have family. You had a certain amount of financial capital for you, too.

Your family could then say Yes, we can support these persons,

So there's many more things put in place to stop

black and Asian people coming to the UK and settling,

and the problem with many of their families were already here,

having come in 19 fifties, 19 sixties.

So what you would tend to see from the late 19 sixties and seventies onwards are

the other family members of those who are already settled in the UK coming here.

So, in fact, they were facing an additional burden.

One of the main problems around this was some stories around deaths in custody.

So if we fast forward to 2 to 1993 we see that Joy Gardner died a

violent scuffle with immigration police officers who were

trying to deport him back to Jamaica.

So this actually called a great deal of outrage.

But of course,

this wasn't the only issue of violence that was meted out to

those who were deemed to be over staying their welcome campaigning charities like

Inquest to have been particularly concerned

about disproportionate number of black and

Asian people who have died in custody and not just police custody,

but in terms of immigration,

Young Offenders institute so that that's on on one level to be concerned.

There's also the issue of Stop and Search stop,

and search is an exceptionally contentious issue.

It's an issue that's obviously you know, we're hearing what about today's news,

but it goes back 40 to 50 years to the 19 seventies,

allegedly the police used to go *** hunting in places like Brookstone.

And in fact, if we look at the relationship between the black community

and the police, we can we can pinpoint a number of flash points.

So if we go back to the 19, I believe it was 1976. Um, what they called nothing.

Hill works after nothing on carnival.

Number of black young people basically attacked the police and and

this was in response to the ongoing heavy handed discrimination,

Uh,

an oppressive practises that experienced from the police if we then

far forward to the early 19 eighties so 1981 in Bristol,

in Handsworth, in Birmingham, in in tax, different Liverpool in leaves,

we see a number of flash points, what we call riots or uprisings,

depending on on what side of the community fence you're sitting.

But again, there are always sponsors too heavy handed policing, and in fact,

in 1981 Brixton disorders was as a result of Operation Swamp,

whereby the police would would swamp the

Brookstone area looking for handbag snatchers,

and you had up to 3 to 400 police harassing young black men, putting them into vans,

beating them up, fitting them up.

So there was.

It was it was a real level of hostility and anger towards the police,

which led to one of the most serious social

disturbances on mainland Britain in over 100 years,

which led, of course,

to the Lord's Carmen Report and in fact has informed policing going forward.

But within this,

we also have to look at the issue of racist violence and

how the police are not protecting the these black and Asian communities.

So if we go back to 1958 when you know, uh,

we start to see large numbers of black people are coming from the from the Caribbean.

Around rush generation, there are a number of races,

the first written within Nottingham but also race riots in Notting

Hill and Camden and other other parts of the country.

And what we mean by race works is that white people who were angry that black and

Asian people are moving into these areas and

so that an angry mob would would basically,

you know, arrive and and start shouting, jeering

and attack black and Asian people on the streets.

And in 1959

1 year after the race rights.

We also see that the murder of council Cochran arrest Indian man.

Of course,

this created a lot of alarm and disquiet within the immigrant communities and of

course they look to the police to what will they do about it?

But the police refused to accept it with a racially motivated attack.

But of course we also need to put this in

the context of racial violence over the past century.

So at the start of the 20th century,

also see race riots in Liverpool in Bristol again around

lots of non white people settling in the dark areas.

So we shouldn't just say it's an issue that has

affected Britain in the post Second World War period,

but it's actually been part of British history for the past 100 or so years.

We also need to look at the rise of the National

Front in the 19 seventies and 19 eighties who are far

right organisation and we start to see a real growth or

rise in actual violence meted out against second generation um,

youth growing up, they've gone to school here, but more concerning Lee.

We start to see attacks on the homes and businesses of

black and Asian people throughout England and the United Kingdom.

And a watermark case is what is in 1981 the

new cross fire and some many in the community.

We refer to it as a new cross massacre.

Now, what this was was a house party with with with young black people, you know,

playing their music and having a good time.

But it was burned down.

Now the community believed that it was This was racially motivated

because there had been a spate of these arson attacks,

friable attacks on black and Asian families, not just in south East London,

but throughout London and throughout the country.

So what? The community?

We're asking for the police to take this seriously and to look into this issue.

Of course, the police didn't