Majority of BAME Brits Want to Defund the Police, Study Finds

The majority of Black, Asian and minority ethnic Britons believe that the police should be defunded, a survey has found.

Fifty-four percent of respondents to a BAME-only survey agreed that money should be taken from police funding and instead spent on youth work, social care and mental health services.

The survey, conducted by anti-extremism advocacy group Hope Not Hate, shows that almost all BAME communities feel that the police discriminate against them. Black and Bangladeshi Brits are the most likely to feel this way, with 80 and 79 percent of respondents saying so respectively. BAME communities also feel that the courts discriminate against them, and again Black (75 percent) and Bangladeshi (71 percent) respondents were particularly likely to believe this to be the case.

Calls to defund the police have been roundly dismissed by politicians. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said it is “absolutely vital” to back the police. Labour leader Keir Starmer said the calls from the BLM movement to defund the police were “just nonsense”.

The poll, titled “Minority Communities in the Time of Covid and Protest”, found that 73 percent of BAME Britons supported the Black Lives Matter protests that swept the country following the killing of George Floyd by police in Minnesota.

The survey also found that 45 percent of BAME Britons favoured a rehabilitative approach to justice, compared to just 27 percent for a prison-based response.

Almost half said they had witnessed or experienced racist violence in the past 12 months, with more than half saying they had witnessed or experienced racial abuse. Around 40 percent said they had witnessed racism in the press and on social media, and around the same proportion had witnessed racist comments in public.

Thirty-five percent thought stronger action on hate crime would improve community relations, while 34 percent called for an increase in anti-racist education in schools.

Respondents to the survey felt alienated by the political system, with only 29 percent saying they feel represented by political discussion, and 41 percent saying they do not.

The report shows that there is a generation gap in how people experience and perceive racism. While most respondents (64 percent) said that the problem with the police is a few bad individuals, younger respondents were more likely than older ones to view the problem as systemic.

Detective Inspector Andy George, Interim President of The National Black Police Association welcomed the report, saying it “confirms our current concerns on trust and confidence in UK policing within Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities”.

“Now is the time to acknowledge the evidence produced in this report and build long term strategies to increase trust and confidence in Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities,” he added.

The report comes the same week that the London’s Metropolitan Police face the prospect of being sued by one of its own officers, Inspector Charles Ehikioya, who was pulled over by two white officers while driving in south London. Last week, Met police commissioner Cressida Dick said it is not “helpful” to describe the Met as institutionally racist.

@SimonChilds13