Sadiq Khan told that 'black officers were attacked' by Black Lives Matter protestors

Mr Khan said that he was “really distressed when I spoke to black officers during the first Black Lives Matter protests"
Reuters

Black police were targeted by protesters during the Black Lives Matter protests in London, Mayor Sadiq Khan was told today.

Susan Hall, leader of the GLA Conservatives, said that the assembly’s police and crime committee was yesterday told by Met police deputy commissioner Sir Stephen House of the attacks on black officers.

She told Mayor's Question Time that attacks on Met police in general were on the rise in recent months and “black officers were attacked apparently more vociferously during the recent protests”.

She added: “Sir Steve House was very clear that a proportion of these attacks came from the Black Lives Matter protesters themselves.”

Mr Khan, who as the capital’s police and crime commissioner oversees the Met, said: “I was really distressed when I spoke to black officers during the first Black Lives Matter protests.

“What was distressing, in addition to the abuse and violence our officers faced being unacceptable, was when I was told that black officers were being verbally abused and attacked by those on the Black Lives Matter protesters.

“We are doing all this hard work to recruit black officers, to keep and progress them [within the Met] but yet members of the community are giving them a hard time for joining the police service, and it’s very difficult.”

He said BAME (black and minority ethnic) officers were being given extra welfare support to deal with the attacks.

Sadiq Khan 

“It really is distressing,” he said. “By talking about it, we have got to make sure Londoners appreciate it’s unacceptable to attack our officers, and that includes our black and Asian minority ethnic officers.”

Ms Hall said it was vital to send the message to BLM protesters that British police were “very, very different” in terms of their approach, tactics and relationship with the public than police in the US, where the BLM protests originated following the death of George Floyd during a police arrest in May.

“We all need to do everything we can to stop the police being regarded as the enemy,” Ms Hall said.

Protestors clash with Police at Black Lives Matter Rally

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Mr Khan said the UK did not suffer the same levels of police brutality – saying there was a “million miles” between the two - but had earlier at Mayor’s Question Time repeated the fact he had been stopped and searched numerous times as a young man prior to becoming mayor.

He said: “Growing up in south London I lost track of the number of times I was stopped and searched.

“I remember the anger and humiliation I felt when, yet again, I was stopped, for seemingly nothing other than the colour of my skin.”

Green assembly member Sian Berry said stop and search was being used disproportionately against black Londoners but many were reluctant to complain. She said they were twice as likely to be fined under coronavirus laws.

She said: “Londoners have been reaching out to me to tell me about their experiences of mistreatment and their reluctance to get involved in formal complaints. They need reassuring that their issues will be taken seriously at the top.”

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