22 March 2023 , 19:18
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Baroness Casey was unequivocal in her scathing report into the Metropolitan Police, labelling the force institutionally homophobic, sexist and racist.
The 363-page document made for sickening reading. What took my breath away was the casual, everyday behaviour considered normal.
Vital rape samples being stuffed in broken fridges next to people’s leftover lunches, making them unusable as evidence.
Bacon sandwiches left in the shoes of Muslim officers, derogatory language used against black colleagues, female officers moved to different units based on which male colleagues found them attractive, 30% of gay staff saying they had been bullied.
And yet, despite everything that Baroness Casey laid bare, the response to the report from the top of the organisation shows that nothing is going to change.
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The most senior policeman in the country, Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Commissioner, refuses point-blank to accept the rot as institutional.
He claims on one hand to accept Casey’s findings in full. But on the question of her calling these problems institutional he’s defensive and contradictory calling the term itself “political”.
Calling something political is a meanspirited and disingenuous way of stifling debate and shutting down important conversations. We’ve seen it with discussions about Black Lives Matter, footballers taking the knee, or broadening the teaching of history in schools. Just throw in the phrase “it’s political” and you hit a conversational dead end.
Sir William Macpherson used the phrase “institutional racism” in his landmark report into the police’s handling of the investigation into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, which happened 30 years ago next month.
His definition was “the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin”. There’s nothing political about that.
Sir Mark’s dismissal of the term is why so many people have little faith that the Casey report, despite its recommendations and depth, will actually make a difference.
There is denial from the top that the issues are institutional. If the leadership of Britain’s biggest police force doesn’t fundamentally believe that, how can they – and it is they who have been given the job of cleaning up their own mess – actually fix this?
The Casey report should have been the catalyst for change, instead, there’s every likelihood that it will all stay the same.