Abstract
Following analyses in the US of the reaction to Black Lives Matter in the Blue Lives Matter movement and the recasting of the police as victims, the author explores similar tendencies in Europe, in the context of changes in territorial policing, new technology and enhanced police powers under neoliberalism. She examines how racism has become entrenched in policing as the rank and file are resituating themselves as society’s victims and organising on an ever more extremist agenda. Police excesses are explained away and impunity extended to officers. At the same time, police are assuming the right to a special role and status in society that is not allowed to other agencies or public servants. In some instances, this has spilled over into collusion and collaboration with militarised far-right groups. The penetration of the far Right into policing is compounded by the dehumanisation within policing culture which stigmatises the ‘undeserving poor’ and emphasises threats to social order and governance as arising from marginalised black and ethnic minority communities.
Keywords
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
As Rachel Herzing explains, the ‘demands coming from Minneapolis’ were ‘not the spontaneous outbursts of naive activists’ but came out of years of political pressure on city leaders, by organisations such as the Black Visions Collective, MPD 150 and Reclaim the Block, to redirect municipal budgets to health and wellbeing. See D. Correia and T. Wall, Violent Order: essays on the nature of policing (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2022), p. viii.
2.
A. Shafi and I. Nagdee, Race to the Bottom: reclaiming antiracism (London: Pluto Press, 2022), p. 126.
3.
As we go to press, the Bill has received Royal Assent, and passed into law. (Ed.)
4.
J. Shanahan and T. Wall, ‘“Fight the reds, support the blue”: Blue Lives Matter and the US counter-subversive tradition’, Race & Class 63, no. 1 (2021), pp. 70−90.
5.
J. Nijjar, ‘Racial warfare and the biopolitics of policing’, Social Identities , March 2022, https://doi.org/10.1080/13504630.2022.2056438.
6.
For the UK history, see T. Bunyan, The History and Practice of the Political Police in Britain (London: Quartet Books, 1977).
7.
‘Spain: Sentencing of rapper highlights urgent need to reform Penal Code’, https://www.article19.org/resources/spain-sentencing-of-rapper-highlights-urgent-need-to-reform-penal-code/, 11 June 2020.
8.
C. Allen, ‘The criminalisation of drill music and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights’, The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog, 2 March 2021.
9.
See S. Harris et al., ‘A threat to public safety: policing, racism and the Covid-19 pandemic’, IRR, 2021, https://irr.org.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2021/09/A-threat-to-public-safety-v3.pdf.
10.
See ‘Policing the pandemic: human rights violations in the enforcement of covid-19 measures in Europe’, Amnesty International, June 2020, https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/EUR0125112020ENGLISH.pdf; Ligue des Droits Humains, ‘Abus policiers et confinement ’, June 2020, https://www.liguedh.be/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Rapport-Police-Watch-LDH-2020.pdf; Liberty Investigates, ‘BAME people disproportionately targeted by corona virus fines’, 26 May 2020; ‘As George Floyd outrage spreads, France confronts its own demons’, France24 , 3 June 2020, https://www.france24.com/en/20200603-it-happens-here-too-as-george-floyd-outrage-spreads-france-confronts-its-own-demons.
11.
See UN press release, 13 May 2020, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2020/05/bulgaria-covid-19-response-stop-hate-speech-and-racial-discrimination?LangID=E&NewsID=25881; ‘Roma rights in the time of Covid’, ERRC , September 2020, http://www.errc.org/uploads/upload_en/file/5265_file1_roma-rights-in-the-time-of-covid.pdf.
12.
Norimitsu Onishi, ‘In a France fearful of immigrants, another candidate tacks hard right’, New York Times , 18 December 2021.
13.
J. Elgot, ‘Angela Rayner: police should “shoot terrorists and ask questions second”’, Guardian , 17 February 2022.
14.
L. Elliot, ‘During the Pandemic a new variant of capitalism has emerged’, Guardian , 30 July 2021.
15.
See K. Schwab, ‘The fourth industrial revolution: what it means, how to respond’ (blog), World Economic Forum , 14 January 2016, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/.
16.
See E. E. Joh, ‘The consequences of automating and deskilling the police’, UCLA Law Review , 6 December 2019, https://www.uclalawreview.org/the-consequences-of-automating-and-deskilling-the-police/. European Digital Rights (EDRi) provides information on ongoing challenges to AI and predictive policing in law enforcement in EU countries. It coordinated opposition to attempts by the European People’s Party to remove recommendations for a ban on the use of predictive policing, on biometric surveillance and to end funding for research and development programmes likely to result in mass surveillance that had been made in a (non-legally binding) report from Europe’s parliamentary committee for civil liberties and Justice (LIBE report on ‘Artificial Intelligence in the criminal law’, led by Petar Vitanov MEP). See ‘Celebrating a strong European Parliament stance on AI in law enforcement’, EDRi , 5 October 2021; ‘Artificial intelligence in criminal law and its use by the police and judicial authorities in criminal matters’, LIBE Committee, European parliament (2020/2016(INI) - Vitanov report), https://oeil.secure.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?lang=en&reference=2020/2016(INI).
17.
The term territorial policing was first used to describe the expansion of border policing, whereby the ‘smart border’ is installed through more tracking and control mechanisms beyond the point of entry, see P. Andreas, ‘Redrawing the line: borders and security in the twenty-first century’, International Security 78, no. 2 (2003). Another impetus for territorial policing is the data collection afforded by the ‘smart city’ which mines different types of electronic methods, voice activation methods and sensors to manage assets, resources and services including policing. J. Perera in ‘The London clearances: race, housing and policing’, IRR, 2019, https://irr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/The-London-Clearances-Race-Housing-and-Policing-1.pdf shows how territorial policing takes the form of a diverse set of punitive and disciplinary measures, including racial profiling, territory-targeted stop and search and residential evictions to address the spatial displacement of poor Black populations through gentrification. The designation of specific areas as crime hot spots which coincided with the aspirations of city designers to upgrade an area within the framework of the ‘entrepreneurial city’ is examined by P. Ullrich and M. Tullney, ‘The construction of “dangerous places”: a problematization with examples from Berlin and Leipzig’, Sozialeraum.de , 2021, https://www.sozialraum.de/die-konstruktion-gefaehrlicher-orte.php, accessed 24 March 2021.
18.
The study looked at the introduction of A2A Smart City facial recognition technology in public spaces without a clear legal framework and concluded that it relied on racialised discourses, see ‘How facial recognition is spreading in Italy: the case of Como’, Privacy International , 6 December 2019, https://privacyinternational.org/case-study/4166/how-facial-recognition-spreading-italy-case-como.
19.
During the pandemic, soldiers, police personnel and drones were more evident in Roma communities in Bulgaria and Slovakia than nurses, doctors and medical supplies, according to N. Korunovska and Z. Jovanovic, ‘Roma in the Covid-19 crisis: an early warning from six EU member states’, Open Society Foundations, p. 2, https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/publications/roma-in-the-covid-19-crisis. Article 22 of the Global Security Law strengthens the surveillance powers of the police, in particular through the legalisation of drones, see La Quadrature du Net, ‘La technopolice, moteur de la sécurité globale ’, 19 November 2020.
20.
A. G. Ferguson, The Rise of Big-Data Policing: surveillance, race and the future of law enforcement (New York: New York University Press, 2017), p. 3.
21.
Fair Trials, Automating Injustice: the use of artificial intelligence & automated decision-making in criminal justice in Europe , September 2021, https://www.fairtrials.org/app/uploads/2021/11/Automating_Injustice.pdf; P. Williams and E. Kind, ‘Data-driven policing: the hardwiring of discriminatory police practices across Europe’, Brussels, ENAR 2019, https://www.statewatch.org/media/documents/news/2019/nov/data-driven-profiling-web-final.pdf; Chris Jones, Jane Kilpatrick and Yasha Maccanico, Building the biometric state: police powers and discrimination (London: Statewatch, March 2022), https://www.statewatch.org/publications/reports-and-books/building-the-biometric-state-police-powers-and-discrimination/.
22.
Williams and Kind, ‘Data-driven policing’, break down this point: ‘A significant concern for ethnic minority communities is that place-based predictive tools will take data from police records already based on practices of overpolicing certain communities and forecast that based on the higher rates of police intervention in those areas, police should prioritise policing those areas further’, p. 25.
23.
Jones et al., Building the biometric state , p. 22.
24.
Williams and Kind, ‘Data-driven policing’, see data harvesting and network mapping as the way technology is used to tie groups of individuals together, with links then informing prosecutions. Policing tools include social media monitoring, the use of call records, mobile phone interception and extraction and footage from body cameras.
25.
L. Fekete, ‘Islamophobia in Denmark: from parallel societies to the “ghetto list”’, IRR News , 18 July 2018. The Danish government first introduced the ‘ghettolisten’ in 2010 and in 2018 introduced a ‘ghetto package’ consisting of twenty-two proposals aimed at regulating life in ‘hard ghettos’. Measures included: more powers to local authorities to increase monitoring and surveillance of ‘ghetto families’; courts to be allowed to double the punishment for crimes such as vandalism, burglary, threatening behaviour, arson and offences against the drugs laws; and up to four years prison for ‘immigrant’ parents who force their children to take extended ‘re-education visits’ to their countries of origin. The idea of a ghetto zone was also taken up by the (unsuccessful) French presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse who promised harsher penalties for offenders who lived in the ‘zones of non-France’.
26.
CAS software utilises socioeconomic data to predict crimes. Until 2017, this included data on the number of ‘non-western’ individuals with at least one foreign-born parent living in an area, thereby presuming a correlation between ethnicity and crime. After 2017, other indicators, such as benefits data, were introduced which are likely to be proxies for ethnicity data. According to Fair Trials, CAS is ‘ultimately a social construction of an extremely limited and biased form of reality, shaped by the socio-economic and crime data available to Dutch police’, and a conception by Dutch police of ‘deviant physical traits, economic situations and behaviours’. See Fair Trials, Automating Injustice , p. 20.
27.
Amnesty International, We sense trouble: automated discrimination and mass surveillance in predictive policing in the Netherlands (EUR/35/297120200), AI, September 2020, https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur35/2971/2020/en/.
28.
Just as in the UK, in the 1980s, when the Metropolitan police isolated ‘mugging’ from other street crime and, alongside the media, identified it as a ‘Black crime’, so the Roermond project focused on crimes of pickpocketing and shoplifting carried out by ‘mobile bandits’ − foreigners from eastern Europe – obviously excluding Dutch nationals at the outset from the definition of ‘mobile banditry’. All those in and around the city in vehicles driven by eastern Europeans were automatically awarded a ‘risk score’, with the police then having the right to intercept and check the identification papers of the driver and any passengers of a vehicle identified as ‘high risk’. See Fair Trials, Automating Injustice , pp. 17−18.
29.
In the US context, Ferguson, citing fieldwork by Brayne shows how the LAPD’s data-collection policies transform police officers into data collectors in a way designed to ‘mark people in time and place, so police become hunters, geotagging suspects for the larger data network. Every patrol becomes a data-gathering mission, rather than a crime-suppression mission’ (Ferguson, The Rise of Big-Data Policing , p. 104).
30.
The Gangs Matrix is a secret database, launched by the Metropolitan police in the UK after the 2011 ‘riots’, containing the personal details of ‘gang nominals’, which can be consulted by a wide range of services and has been used to prevent ‘suspected gang members’ from accessing housing, benefits and education. See S. Scott, ‘The war on gangs or a racialised war on working class black youths’, Monitoring Group , May 2018, https://tmg-uk.org/publications/blog-post-title-one-8zph4.
31.
Top600 is a ‘police name list’ developed with the municipality of Amsterdam and social services to break through ‘patterns of crime and nuisance with repressive and preventive interventions’ which can include criminal justice and non-criminal justice punishments and higher penalties for those on the Top600 list for both ‘high impact crime’ and minor offences. The Mother is the Key organisation supports mothers and young people impacted by Top600 and the related Top400, which targets children under the age of 16. See Fair Trials, Automating Injustice , pp. 11−14.
32.
Liberty Investigates, ‘Met’s anti-violence scheme mostly targeted teenagers and Black people’, Liberty, 22 December 2021, https://libertyinvestigates.org.uk/articles/mets-anti-violence-scheme-mostly-targeted-teenagers-and-black-people/.
33.
Ferguson, The Rise of Big-Data Policing , pp. 79, 100.
34.
L. Schclarek Mulinari, cited in A. Burlin, ‘Sweden’s shameful record on racism shows why we need Black Lives Matter’, Jacobin , June 2020.
35.
See https://second.wiki/wiki/kriminalitc3a4tsbelasteter_ort, 24 March 2022.
36.
Ullrich and Tullney, ‘The construction of “dangerous places”’.
37.
The letter about police violence and impunity was signed by 109 individuals and twenty-seven organisations. See ‘Ir à raiz: mais políticas sociais, menos violência policial ’, Publico , 22 December 2020.
38.
The confidential PSP Strategic Directive no. 16/2018 suggests that in designating a ZUS, the ‘ethnic-social composition, density of the neighbourhood, and number of residents with a criminal record, should be taken into account’, https://novaordemsocial.forumeiros.com/t1228-psp-usa-criterios-etnicos-para-avaliar-risco-de-zonas-urbanas-sensiveis.
39.
T. Wall, ‘The police invention of humanity: notes on the “thin blue line”’, Crime, Media, Culture 16, no. 3 (2019), pp. 319−36.
40.
‘Slovenian locals urge authorities to tackle crime in neglected Roma villages’, Euronews , 21 December 2021, https://www.euronews.com/2021/12/21/slovenian-locals-urge-authorities-to-tackle-crime-in-neglected-roma-villages.
41.
Controle Alt Delete, ‘File: Violence’, https://controlealtdelete.nl/dossier-geweld
42.
Daniel Boffey, ‘Amsterdam police object to civilians observing stop-and-search-trial’, Guardian , 1 September 2021.
43.
Marc Klifman, ‘Belgische politievakbond reageert op beschuldigingen racisme: “Het politiebashen mag nu stoppen”’, Nieuwsblad , 7 June 2020,https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20200607_04984000.
44.
Dirk Coosemans, ‘Nieuwe wet laat dashcams en bodycams toe: vanaf morgen mag de politie u filmen ’, nieuwsblad.be, 24 May 2018, https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20180523_03526919.
45.
‘80% of police death victims have psychiatric problems – report’, Dutch News , 10 February 2010, https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2022/02/80-of-police-death-victims-have-psychiatric-problems-report/.
46.
Mirren Gidda, ‘Revealed: surge in police use of force during height of lockdown’, Liberty Investigates, 29 October 2020.
47.
Will Crisp and Vikram Dodd, ‘Leaked review of Met police body-worn video footage reveals officer errors’, Guardian , 19 October 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/oct/19/leaked-review-of-met-police-body-worn-videos-reveals-officer-errors.
48.
Vikram Dodd and Mattha Busby, ‘Former top black Met police officers say racism blighted their careers’, Guardian , 15 June 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/14/former-top-met-police-officers-say-racism-blighted-their-careers-black.
49.
Mark Townsend, ‘Stop and search “makes it harder to hire black police officers”’, Observer , 15 June 2020.
50.
Vikram Dodd, ‘Black people more likely to be Tasered for longer, police watchdog finds’, Guardian , 25 August 2021.
51.
‘Stop and search should not be targeted “equally” says senior Met officer’, Telegraph , 3 September 2021, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/03/stop-search-should-not-targeted-equally-says-senior-met-police/.
52.
Samuel Osborne, ‘Not “helpful” to label Metropolitan Police institutionally racist, commissioner Cressida Dick says’, Independent , 14 August 2020, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/met-police-racism-cressida-dick-jeffrey-epstein-prince-andrew-a9669716.html.
53.
‘Government says discrimination against black people and Travellers “objectively justified” with new laws’, Independent , 13 September 2021, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/policing-bill-discrimination-black-travellers-b1919272.html.
54.
J. Polonetsky et al., ‘Beyond the common rule: ethical structures for data research in non-academic settings’, Colorado Technology Law Journal 13 (2015), cited in Ferguson, The Rise of Big-Data Policing , p. 123.
55.
See Kuba Shand-Baptiste, ‘Keir Starmer’s dismissal of defunding the police has lost him black support. The problem is, I don’t know if he cares?’, Independent , 13 February 2020, https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/keir-starmer-black-lives-matter-defund-police-protests-labour-a9596401.html.
56.
As cited by Mathieu Rigouste, ‘The violence of the police is not new, but more people are seeing it now’, Guardian , 13 February 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/13/french-police-violence-gilets-jaunes-victims.
58.
Shanahan and Wall, ‘“Fight the reds, support the blue”’, p. 71. See also J. Longazel, ‘“Blue Lives” Matter and the legacy of Blackface minstrelsy’, Race & Class 63, no. 1 (2021), pp. 91−106; G. Mason, ‘Blue Lives Matter and hate crime law’, Race and Justice 12, no. 2 (2022), pp. 411–30.
59.
‘The defendant had shown his support for Blue Lives Matter on social media’, New York Times , 2 November 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/02/us/the-defendant-had-shown-his-support-for-blue-lives-matter-on-social-media.html.
60.
Citizens of the Reich (CR) insist that the German Empire’s 1937 or 1871 borders still exist and the modern country is an administrative construct occupied by Allied powers; they refuse to pay taxes, social service contributions and fines. A survey by Spiegel Online in 2016 found evidence of CR sympathisers within the police in Bavaria, North-Rhine Westphalia, Saxony-Anhalt and Berlin. In October 2016, fifteen police officers were placed under investigation for suspected association with CR. This included two officers from a WhatsApp group who had previously chatted with its leader in Bavaria, who went on to shoot dead a police officer who searched his home for weapons. ‘An anti-government group turns violent’, Spiegel International , 25 October 2016, https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/reichsbuerger-in-germany-anti-government-group-turns-violent-a-1118002.html.
61.
‘Federation officials to meet with Sussex police over Thin Blue Line badge ban’, The Argus , 17 February 2015, https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/11797881.federation-officials-to-meet-with-sussex-police-over-thin-blue-line-badge-ban/.
62.
Mallory Moore, ‘Greater Manchester police’s use of curious symbols on their uniform’ (Blog), 15 January 2022, https://chican3ry.medium.com/some-notes-on-the-dog-whistle-cop-afb0dc3ba460.
64.
See Deutsche Welle news report by Sonia Phalnikar, https://www.dw.com/en/new-french-bill-against-images-of-police-sparks-outrage/av-55697487.
65.
‘Les femmes de policiers sont en colère et se rassemblent à Paris aujourd’hui ’, FranceInfo , 27 June 2022, https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/paris-ile-de-france/paris/femmes-policiers-sont-colere-appellent-rassemblement-paris-aujourd-hui-1847074.html.
66.
Journalist Thomas Decreus provided this example from Belgium, adding that, in his view, the police officer’s claims were greatly exaggerated as graffiti about the police has been part of street art for decades. See Liz Fekete, ‘Interview – Thomas Decreus: “Binnen politie heerst welkomstcultuur ten aanzien van extreem rechts ”’, https://www.dewereldmorgen.be/artikel/2020/12/17/liz-fekete-binnen-politie-heerst-welkomstcultuur-ten-aanzien-van-extreem-rechts/.
67.
As cited in ‘France wants tougher punishment for those who attack police’, France24 , 11 May 2021, https://www.france24.com/en/france/20210511-france-wants-tougher-punishment-for-those-who-attack-police.
68.
‘Organismos internacionales advierten a España : “Los ataques a la Policía no son delitos de odio ”’, Publico , 27 June 2020, https://www.publico.es/sociedad/organismos-internacionales-advierten-espana-ataques-policias-no-son-delitos-odio.html#analytics-buscador:listado.
69.
A legal appeal against the ‘ideological discrimination’ charge went to the Supreme Court which upheld the defence’s argument that the charge was not appropriate.
70.
Guidelines issued by the Attorney General (Circular 7.2019) listed who should be protected from hate crimes under the penal code and, while it did not include the police, it listed Nazism as an ideology worthy of protection. ‘La Fiscalía del Estado considera delito la incitación al odio hacia los nazis ’, Publico , 22 May 2019, https://www.publico.es/politica/delitos-odio-fiscalia-considera-delito-incitacion-odio-nazis.html.
71.
Seehofer said that as ethnic profiling was prohibited under constitutional law, there was no need for an investigation. He claimed that evidence on far-right extremism suggested that incidents were isolated, not a structural issue and rejected the proposal that Germany should introduce independent monitoring of complaints against the police. ‘Germany: study halted into racial profiling in police’, Deutsche Welle , 5 July 2020, https://www.dw.com/en/germany-study-halted-into-racial-profiling-by-police/a-54059367.
72.
‘Koalition einigt sich auf Kompromiss zu Rassismusstudie bei der Polizei ’, Spiegel , 20 October 2020, https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/rassismus-bei-der-polizei-koalition-einigt-sich-auf-kompromiss-zu-studie-a-907f6d58-5938-4c1c-b959-4716bf6f8b00.
74.
‘Le Conseil de l’Europe appelle la France à suspendre “l’usage du LBD” ’, Le Figaro , 26 February 2019, https://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2019/02/26/01016-20190226ARTFIG00130-le-conseil-de-l-europe-appelle-la-france-a-suspendre-l-usage-du-lbd.php.
75.
In 2007, Fauvergue had been appointed director of the Central Office for the Suppression of Irregular Migration and the Employment of Undocumented foreigners (OCRIEST); 2013–2017 he was director of Research, Assistance, Intervention, Deterrence (RAID), an elite national unit that provides a rapid response to organised crime, terrorism and hostage taking. He had also helped draft the controversial 2021 Global Security law.
76.
Ronan Maël, ‘Racisme et apologie des violences policières sur TN Rabiot, le groupe Facebook qui regroupe des milliers de fonctionnaires ’, StreetPress , 2 December 2020, https://www.streetpress.com/sujet/1606917498-racisme-apologie-violences-policieres-groupe-facebook-michel-darmanin-insultes-police.
77.
An amendment to the Bill, known as ‘Harper’s law’, introduced following the death of an officer dragged by the strap loop of a stolen quad bike, brought in a mandatory life sentence for anyone who kills an emergency service worker in the line of duty. The precedent, in blurring the distinction between murder and manslaughter, is discussed in ‘Harper’s law: a grim tale of political exploitation and incoherent lawmaking’, https://thesecretbarrister.com/2021/11/24/harpers-law-a-grim-tale-of-political-exploitation-and-incoherent-lawmaking/.
78.
C. Stangler, ‘Emmanuel Macron is creating a liberalism without civil liberties’, Jacobin , 25 November 2020, https://jacobinmag.com/2020/11/emmanuel-macron-liberalism-without-civil-liberties.
79.
A survey found that seven out of ten young people in Brussels do not feel safe during encounters with the police. The Flemish Youth Council point out that police often tell young people ‘to put their mobile phone away or the device is even knocked out of their hands. However, a video is an important way to document possible police violence and discrimination.’ See ‘Brusselse jongeren voelen zich onveilig bij de politie: Proefproject moet dat veranderen ’, Bruzz , 5 October 2021, https://www.bruzz.be/veiligheid/brusselse-jongeren-voelen-zich-onveilig-bij-de-politie-proefproject-moet-dat-veranderen.
80.
‘Jambon reageert op rapport Amnesty: “Onze beleidslijn is dat de politie niet aan etnisch profileren doet” ’, DeMorgen , 9 May 2018, https://www.dekrantenkoppen.be/index.php/detail/582897/Jambon-reageert-op-rapport-Amnesty-quotOnze-beleidslijn-is-dat-de-politie-niet-aan-etnisch-profileren-doetquot.html.
81.
‘Jambon: “Moeten onze politie vertrouwen geven” ’, De Standaard , 11 July 2017, https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20170711_02966957.
82.
P. Matjašic, ‘Spanish gag law: the original sin and ongoing penance’, Al Jazeera , 1 March 2021, https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/3/1/spanish-gag-law-the-original-sin-and-ongoing-penance.
83.
‘Les policiers ont-ils le droit de manifester? ’, L’obs , 20 October 2016, https://www.nouvelobs.com/societe/20161020.OBS0088/les-policiers-ont-ils-le-droit-de-manifester.html.
85.
Adama Traoré, a 24-year-old man of Malian heritage, died in a police van on 19 July 2016 following an altercation with the police. An independent autopsy commissioned by the family found asphyxiation as cause of death though the police attributed it to a heart attack brought on by cannabis and alcohol consumption. This case was one of seven examined in depth by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights at the 47th Session of the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/47/53, A/HRC/47/CRP/1). The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said, ‘Almost five years after his death, a single version of the circumstances inside the apartment [where the police found him] has so far failed to emerge, and no charges have been filed.’ Asked about the case in parliament in 2020, the then interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said only that he supported the police’s work and ‘couldn’t accept the constant blaming’ of officers. Iman Amrani and Angelique Chrisafis, ‘Adama Traoré’s death in police custody casts long shadow over French society’, Guardian , 17 February 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/17/adama-traore-death-in-police-custody-casts-long-shadow-over-french-society.
86.
‘Bagui Traoré: “Ils m’ont enfermé parce que je suis le frère d’Adama” ’, StreetPress , 2 December 2021, https://www.streetpress.com/sujet/1638377861-bagui-traore-temoignage-acquittement-detention-prison-traitement-particulier-adama-assa.
87.
‘Police anger, calls for resignation: Christophe Castaner is under pressure’, Tellerreport , 13 June 2020, https://www.tellerreport.com/news/2020-06-12-police-violence–the-police-angry-with-christophe-castaner.rkcSEGdbpU.html; ‘Castaner orders French police to stop using chokeholds’, RFI , 8 June 2020, https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20200608-castaner-orders-french-police-to-stop-using-chokeholds; K. T. Jensen, ‘Angry French cops threw away their handcuffs to protest a new ban on chokeholds’, Insider , 13 June 2020, https://www.insider.com/angry-french-police-throw-away-handcuffs-to-protest-chokehold-ban-2020-6.
88.
‘French police toss handcuffs to protest “lack of support” over brutality claims’, RFI , 12 June 2020, https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20200612-french-police-lament-lack-of-support-over-brutality-allegations-unions-castaner-george-floyd-adama-traore.
89.
‘Rape probe of Macron minister may end with no charges, AFP says’, Bloomberg , 14 September 2021, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-14/rape-probe-of-macron-minister-may-end-with-no-charges-afp-says.
90.
‘French interior minister stirs controversy with “legitimate police violence” comment’, RFI , 29 July 2020, https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20200729-french-interior-minister-stirs-controversy-over-legitimate-police-violence-comment-gerald-darmanin.
91.
The Police Unifying Movement was formed by two officers in 2018 in Liège as a riposte to existing unions which were seen as failing to protect pay and conditions, partly because they were cross-sectional, representing all civil servants. Very soon it had amassed 20,000 members on Facebook. It seems to act as a pressure group which operates with the tacit support of unions. See ‘Plus de 20,000 policiers crient leur colère sur Facebook: “Le gouvernement pousse le bouchon trop loin. Nos limites sont dépassées” ’, Dh.net , 18 October 2018, https://www.dhnet.be/actu/faits/plus-de-20-000-policiers-crient-leur-colere-sur-facebook-le-gouvernement-pousse-le-bouchon-trop-loin-nos-limites-sont-depassees-5bc84cd4cd708c805c3c32fb; https://headtopics.com/be/un-millier-de-policiers-prevoient-sur-facebook-de-ne-plus-verbaliser-du-1er-au-15-novembre-2251220, RTBF , 31 October 2018.
92.
‘Les représentants de “Police Unifying Movement” attendent d’être reçus par Jan Jambon ’, RTBF , 16 November 2018, https://www.rtbf.be/article/les-representants-de-police-unifying-movement-attendent-d-etre-recus-par-jan-jambon-10074738.
93.
For the full story see Luk Vervaet, Le Meurtre de George Floyd (Ledeberg, Belgium: Antidote, 2020). See also, ‘Pieter De Crem: “Les plaintes contre la police constituent une contre-stratégie de groupes criminels ”’, Le Soir , 18 June 2020, https://www.lesoir.be/308058/article/2020-06-18/pieter-de-crem-les-plaintes-contre-la-police-constituent-une-contre-strategie-de.
94.
‘Thousands of police officers rally for more protections in France’, New York Times , 19 May 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/19/world/europe/france-police-protest.html; L. A. Cholez, ‘Le soutien de Yannick Jadot à la manifestation policière embarrasse les écolos ’, Reporterre , 20 May 2021, https://reporterre.net/Le-soutien-de-Yannick-Jadot-a-la-manifestation-policiere-embarrasse-les-ecolos; ‘French police protest in Paris to demand a government crackdown on attacks’, France24 , 19 May 2021, https://www.france24.com/en/france/20210519-french-police-protest-in-paris-to-demand-a-government-crackdown-on-attacks.
95.
‘Spanish police protest government plan to reform “gag law”’, Independent , 27 November 2021, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/spanish-madrid-popular-party-amnesty-international-socialist-party-b1965316.html. The demonstration was also supported by the Central Sindical Independiente y de Funcionarios (CSIF) but the ARP (Police Reformist Group) refused to back it, saying it supported the proposed government amendment and would not attend demonstrations.
96.
Sam Jones, ‘Podemos defends push to change Spain’s controversial “gag law”’, Guardian , 26 November 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/26/podemos-defends-push-to-change-spains-controversial-gag-law.
97.
S. Cohen, States of Denial: knowing about atrocities and suffering (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2000).
98.
‘Right-wing extremists in Germany to face amped up intelligence’, Deutsche Welle , 17 December 2019, https://www.dw.com/en/right-wing-extremists-in-germany-to-face-amped-up-intelligence/a-51708245.
99.
S. Maes, ed., O Estado do Racism em Portugalo: racism antinegro e anticiganismo no direito e nas políticas públicas (Lisbon: Tinta da China, 2021).
100.
See L. Fekete, ‘Lessons from the fight against Golden Dawn’, Race & Class 61, no. 4 (2020).
101.
J. P. Fabre-Bernadac, ‘“Pour un retour de l’honneur de nos gouvernants”: 20 généraux appellent Macron à défendre le patriotisme ’, Valeurs Actuelles , 21 April 2021, https://www.valeursactuelles.com/politique/pour-un-retour-de-lhonneur-de-nos-gouvernants-20-generaux-appellent-macron-a-defendre-le-patriotisme. In October 2021, the ‘Officers for Zemmour’ group posted a brief statement in Valeurs Actuelles calling on this far-right pundit to run for president, addressing him as the ‘future leader of our armies’– the last line of defence to maintain order. See A. Lantier, ‘What conclusions must be drawn from French racist pundit Éric Zemmour’s presidential bid’, World Socialist Web , 19 November 2021, https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/11/19/zemm-n19.html.
102.
Political commentators downplay the significance of the letter as the work of extremist political has-beens, while also pointing out that Le Pen, in her previous presidential bid, had strong support in the military, particularly in the paratroopers, Foreign Legion and marine infantry units. See J. Camus, ‘Fears of a coup in France are exaggerated, but a far-right president is a real possibility’, Guardian , 4 May 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/04/coup-france-far-right-president-marine-le-pen.
103.
Former senior military figures were involved in Zemmour’s presidential bid and the Reconquête party formed to support him. See ‘Présidentielle: l’ancien général Bertrand de La Chesnais nommé directeur de campagne d’Éric Zemmour ’, Ouest France , 6 December 2021, https://www.ouest-france.fr/elections/presidentielle/presidentielle-l-ancien-general-bertrand-de-la-chesnais-nomme-directeur-de-campagne-d-eric-zemmour-78a68f16-569c-11ec-a4c9-512d4789da40; Lantier, ‘What conclusions must be drawn from French racist pundit Éric Zemmour’s presidential bid?’.
104.
By February 2021, Citizens in Uniform had still not had acknowledgement from the MOD, two months after sending it a thirty-page report, including photographs, detailing the influence of the extreme-right and neo-Nazis within the military. ‘El Ministerio de Defensa desoye un informe jurídico que denuncia la presencia de militares neonazis en activo en el Ejército ’, El Sato , 24 February 2021, https://www.elsaltodiario.com/ejercito/ministerio-defensa-desoye-informe-juridico-denuncia-militares-neonazis-ejercito.
105.
‘Spanish minister condemns far-right chats of ex-military men’, Associated Press , 3 December 2020, https://apnews.com/article/king-felipe-vi-shootings-franco-spain-25dfdc2cc7940927b7cb65aed17713c9.
106.
‘Declaracion de militares retirados ante la situacion actual de españa ’, http://cadenaser00.epimg.net/descargables/2020/12/05/5a015ba33cf15c46ac9f4b0cde6675f7.pdf.
107.
Dani Dominguez, ‘Defensa se remite a la ley franquista de Secretos Oficiales para no facilitar los expedientes a soldados de extrema derecha ’, La Marea , 28 September 2021, https://www.lamarea.com/2021/09/28/defensa-se-remite-a-la-ley-franquista-de-secretos-oficiales-para-no-facilitar-los-expedientes-a-soldados-de-extrema-derecha/; S. Guillen and A. López, ‘Podemos covers up neo-fascist circles in Spanish army’, WSWS , 10 October 2021, https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/10/11/pode-o11.html.
108.
Hilary Moore suggests that one way the far Right and politicians are linked is via shooting clubs, (Schützenverein) , which began in the early nineteenth century as town militias and evolved into men’s shooting clubs that now help foster right-wing prepper groups. For example, Lorenz Caffier, Minister of Internal Affairs of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, was forced to resign after purchasing a weapon from a shooting range known to be a hub of the far-right Nordkreuz. That this range was also frequented by state officials and German security forces raised concerns over collaboration and giving prepper groups ‘far too deep insight into the security apparatus’. H. Moore, ‘Far from fringe: why the far Right flourishes in German police and military’, Political Research Associates , 14 January 2021, https://politicalresearch.org/2021/01/14/far-fringe.
109.
See L. Fekete, ‘State intelligence services and the far Right: a review of developments in Germany, Austria and Hungary’, IRR European Research Programme , Briefing Paper No. 6, April 2013.
110.
Franco A. was a Bundeswehr soldier with far-right sympathies accused of planning to trigger social unrest by carrying out a terrorist attack while posing as a Syrian refugee. He was believed to be connected to far-right and underground militarised ‘prepper groups’ including the Hannibal network with ties to Nordkreuz.
111.
Ben Knight, ‘German neo-Nazi doomsday prepper network “ordered body bags” made kill lists’, Deutsche Welle , 24 June 2019, https://www.dw.com/en/german-neo-nazi-doomsday-prepper-network-ordered-body-bags-made-kill-lists/a-49410494.
112.
Uniter refers to a private network of trained special service soldiers and police officers in German-speaking countries, currently under investigation for anti-constitutional activity. See Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt, ‘Verfassungsschutz erklärt Uniter zum “Prüffall” ’, Spiegel , 19 February 2020, https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/uniter-verfassungsschutz-erklaert-umstrittenen-verein-zum-prueffall-a-4340a636-f0ef-479c-9755-acd93bca88ec.
113.
AP, ‘Germany probes far-right incidents in military guard unit’, U.S.News &World Report , 8 October 2021, https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2021-10-08/germany-probes-far-right-incidents-in-military-guard-unit.
114.
The first was sent to Seda Baysal-Yildiz, a German lawyer of Turkish descent who had represented one of the victims of the original NSU group. See AFP, ‘German police computer was searched for data on politician threatened by neo-nazis’, Guardian , 9 July 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/09/suspected-german-police-links-to-far-right-come-under-scrutiny; ‘German police arrest far-right extremist’, Financial Times , 4 May 2021, https://www.ft.com/content/45b0032a-3c79-45cc-b74f-447f9d302c0e. See also https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSU_2.0.
115.
Hannibal is an underground network of soldiers and police officers founded by a soldier in the elite military unit Special Commando Forces (KSK), frustrated by Germany’s ‘open door’ immigration policy and who also founded the Uniter network.
116.
AFP, ‘German police computer was searched for data on politician threatened by neo-nazis’.
117.
Burschel, cited in H. Moore, ‘Far from fringe’; see also, J. P. Williams, ‘Policing the police: Germany’s lessons for the U.S.’, U.S.News &World Report , 15 January 2021, https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2021-01-15/policing-the-police-germanys-lessons-for-the-us.
118.
‘29 officers suspected of sharing Hitler images are suspended in Germany’, New York Times , 2 October 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/16/world/europe/germany-police-far-right-chat-group.html. Hilary Moore points to hundreds of other cases in 2020, including in Berlin, Hesse and Saxony-Anhalt. Furthermore, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency documented more than 1,400 cases in which members of the German security forces took part in right-wing extremist actions, posing significant danger for the state and for society. Of those, 377 cases occurred within police and civilian law enforcement agencies since January 2017. See H. Moore, ‘Far from Fringe’.
119.
I. Marcus, ‘Berlin: police officers shared racist content in chat group’, Berlin Spectator , 1 October 2020, https://berlinspectator.com/2020/10/01/berlin-police-officers-exchanged-racist-content-in-chat-group-1/.
120.
Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales, Camps at Calais and Grand-Synthe (France): policing and access to justice (London: BHRC, July 2016), https://barhumanrights.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/bhrc_calais_report_1.08.16.pdf.
121.
Kim Willsher, ‘Racist comments on Facebook group used by French police to be investigated’, Guardian , 7 June 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/07/racist-comments-on-facebook-group-used-by-french-police-to-be-investigated.
122.
‘A. Lyon, les “policiers en colère” créent le Collectif Libre et Indépendant de la Police’, Rue89Lyon , 14 August 2021, https://www.rue89lyon.fr/2012/08/14/lyon-policiers-colere-creent-collectif-libre-independant-police/. The officer who shot Bentounsi was found guilty in 2017 of manslaughter and given a five-year suspended prison sentence, with a weapon ban but still acting as a police officer, https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amine_Bentounsi.
123.
Ronan Maël, ‘Des milliers de policiers s’échangent des messages racistes sur un groupe Facebook ’, StreetPress , 4 June 2020, https://www.streetpress.com/sujet/1591288577-milliers-policiers-echangent-messages-racistes-groupe-facebook-racisme-violences-sexisme.
124.
Originally a dance form, the term Bamboula is now used in France as a racist slur.
125.
This was created after the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attacks as a ‘secure space’ for police officers to freely express their opinions. See C. C. Garnier and M. Molard, ‘“FDO 22 unis”, un deuxième groupe Facebook où des milliers de policiers échangent des messages racistes ’, StreetPress , 8 June 2020, https://www.streetpress.com/sujet/1591618480-fdo-22-unis-deuxieme-groupe-facebook-milliers-policiers-echangent-racisme-raciste-violences-policieres; M. Rostagnat, ‘Messages racistes sur Facebook: le policier à l’origine du groupe “FDO 22 Unis” s’explique ’, yahoo/actualités , 14 June 2020.
126.
‘Racisme dans la police: après les révélations de StreetPress, Christophe Castaner saisit la justice ’, StreetPress , 5 June 2020, https://www.streetpress.com/sujet/1591364554-racisme-police-apres-revelation-reaction-christophe-castaner. Under France’s penal code, civil society organisations can be party to a discrimination prosecution and on 13 June 2020, La Fédération Nationale des Maisons des Potes submitted a complaint to the Paris Prosecutor against the Facebook Group TN Rabiot Police Officiel and X (persons unknown), alleging, among other things, incitement to discrimination, hatred or violence of a racist character and public defamation of a racist or defamatory nature. In its submission, it pointed out that, as the Facebook group had over 200 members, it could not be considered a private group under French law, and that the administrators were liable for all the offences as they did not remove the litigious content or exclude members who made racist comments. On 15 June, Maisons des Potes filed a second complaint against the Facebook Group FDO 22 Unis and X, which cited anti-Roma statements made about a 14-year-old boy and the celebration of his injuries (Email communications, Maisons Des Potes, 28 February 2022).
127.
In discussion, participants suggested a collection for the accused police officers, and the official Alliance Police Nationale union subsequently set up a fund via Le Pot Commun to cover legal costs, etc. It raised €15,000 in a matter of hours, but Le Pot Commun shut down the fund-raising site on the grounds that the organisers had broken its rules. StreetPress suggests that another police union, Amicale, has continued to fund-raise for the officers, albeit privately. See Ronan Maël, ‘Nouveaux-messages racistes theorie complot insultes groupe Facebook policiers violences ’, Streetpres s, 6 October 2020, https://www.streetpress.com/sujet/1591782301-nouveaux-messages-racistes-theorie-complot-insultes-groupe-facebook-policiers-violences; Ronan Maël, ‘Racisme et apologie des violences policières sur TN Rabiot, le groupe Facebook qui regroupe des milliers de fontionnaires ’, Streetpress , 2 December 2020, https://www.streetpress.com/sujet/1606917498-racisme-apologie-violences-policieres-groupe-facebook-michel-darmanin-insultes-police.
128.
In June 2020, the FFOC reacted to a number of BLM anti-racist protests demanding action against police racism by holding a demonstration outside the Bataclan in Paris under the slogans ‘All Lives Matter’ and ‘We Stand With Our Security Forces’. E. Hunzinger, ‘Les femmes des policiers sont en colère et se rassemblent à Paris aujourd’hui ’, France.tvinfo , 27 June 2020, https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/paris-ile-de-france/paris/femmes-policiers-sont-colere-appellent-rassemblement-paris-aujourd-hui-1847074.html.
129.
‘Racisme et apologie des violences policières sur TN Rabiot ’.
130.
‘Belgian police glorify violence in private Facebook group, Brussels Times , 31 August 2020, https://www.brusselstimes.com/129300/belgian-police-officers-glorify-violence-in-closed-facebook-group; ‘Apache: “Besloten Facebookgroep politieagenten Thin Blue Line Belgium zet aan tot racisme en geweld” ’, NLA , 31 August 2020, https://www.hln.be/binnenland/apache-besloten-facebookgroep-politieagenten-thin-blue-line-belgium-zet-aan-tot-racisme-en-geweld~a9d2b3c9/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.co.uk%2F; ‘Brussels parket onderzoekt gesloten Facebookgroep van politiemensen ’, Bruzz , 17 September 2020, https://www.bruzz.be/justitie/brussels-parket-onderzoekt-gesloten-facebookgroep-van-politiemensen-2020-09-17.
131.
In 2016 in Antwerp six police officers ganged up together to prey on, rob and victimise immigrants without papers. The officers were brought to trial four years later, with three sentenced to a forty-month prison term (part suspended) for extortion, violence and racism, while a further three argued that media interest had prejudiced the case against them and were acquitted. ‘Lokaal Antwerps schandaal: wordt de “Bende van Mega Toby en Sproetje” ooit veroordeeld ?’, Knack , 25 April 2018, https://www.knack.be/nieuws/lokaal-antwerps-schandaal-wordt-de-bende-van-mega-toby-en-sproetje-ooit-veroordeeld/; Ann Vanrenterghem, ‘Agenten die illegalen beroofden veroordeeld: 3 leden van bende Mega Toby en Sproetje krijgen tot 40 maanden cel ’, VRT , 23 June 2021, https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2020/06/23/vonnis-bende-mega-toby-en-sproetje/#:~:text=De%20Antwerpse%20correctionele%20rechtbank%20heeft,van%20Mega%20Toby%20en%20Sproetje%27.
132.
Ann Vanrenterghem, ‘Parket wil 30 agenten en leden Veiligheidskorps voor rechter wegens pestgedrag en racisme in WhatsApp-groep ’, VRT , 11 February 2021, https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2021/02/11/parket-wil-30-agenten-en-leden-veiligheidskorps-voor-rechter-weg/; ‘Racisme bij politie geen imagoprobleem, maar een mensenrechtenprobleem ’, Apache , 12 February 2021, https://www.apache.be/gastbijdragen/2021/02/12/racisme-politie.
133.
‘Portugal police convicted of attack on black youths’, BBC News , 20 May 2019, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-48345089; Miguel Curado, ‘Movimento Zero apoia oito PSP condenados ’, CM , 24 June 2019, https://www.cmjornal.pt/portugal/detalhe/movimento-zero-apoia-oito-psp-condenados?ref=Pesquisa_Destaques.
134.
AP/Euronews , ‘Police violence and racism: Macron outlines French plan for greater transparency over abuses’, Euronews , 14 September 2021, https://www.euronews.com/2021/09/14/police-violence-and-racism-macron-outlines-french-plan-for-greater-transparency-over-abuse.
135.
Freedom of information requests reveal that in two-thirds of police forces in England and Wales, more than 100 cases of misconduct by colleagues in an eighteen-month period had been covered up, with dozens of officers failing to act when colleagues made discriminatory comments or engaged in sexual misconduct. See Fiona Hamilton, ‘Police “turn a blind eye to colleagues who break the rules”’, The Times , 10 January 2022, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/police-turn-a-blind-eye-to-colleagues-who-break-rules-7zmrl6g65.
136.
Vikram Dodd, ‘Dame Cressida Dick forced out of scandal-hit Met police’, Guardian , 10 February 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/feb/10/dame-cressida-dick-to-stand-down-as-met-police-commissioner. The Independent Office for Police Conduct has also been accused by the Home Affairs Select Committee of ‘opaque processes’ and a ‘culture of obstruction that has sunk investigations into police misconduct’. See R. Syal, ‘Culture of obstruction has sunk investigations into police misconduct, MPs say’, Guardian , 1 March 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/mar/01/police-culture-change-needed-in-handling-complaints-say-mps.
137.
‘“Racist and sexist” Hampshire police unit officers dismissed’, BBC News , 8 January 2021, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-55586420.
138.
Vikram Dodd, ‘Police officers took selfies at murder scene and sent racist WhatsApp images’, Guardian , 29 December 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/28/police-officer-took-selfies-at-scene-and-sent-racist-whatsapp-images; Vikram Dodd, ‘Merseyside police under fire over conduct of sacked officer’, Guardian , 29 December 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/29/rogue-police-officer-merseyside-force-under-fire-over-ryan-connolly.
139.
In 2019, several north London police officers reported the drawing of a swastika in a secure area of Edmonton police station (north London) to senior staff, with one of those officers later claiming that the Met tried to silence them and failed to investigate. Rossalyn Warren, ‘Former officer claims racism forced her out of Met police’, Guardian , 24 June 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/24/bame-ex-officer-claims-racism-forced-her-out-met-police; Vikram Dodd, ‘Swastika was scrawled in area of police station accessible only to staff’, Guardian , 25 November 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/nov/25/swastika-was-scrawled-in-area-of-police-station-accessible-only-to-staff.
140.
Steven Morris and Vikram Dodd, ‘UK officer cleared of breaking law over George Floyd meme’, Guardian , 21 April 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/apr/21/uk-officer-cleared-of-breaking-law-over-george-floyd-meme.
141.
‘Gentse agent die zwarten met apen vergelijkt, vrijgesproken van racisme ’, De Morgen , 28 January 2016, https://www.demorgen.be/nieuws/gentse-agent-die-zwarten-met-apen-vergelijkt-vrijgesproken-van-racisme~b6285f2d/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F.
142.
Leah Sinclair, ‘Wayne Couzens nicknamed “The Rapist” three years before he was hired by the Met’, Evening Standard , 10 July 2021, https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/wayne-couzens-nickname-met-police-sarah-everard-b945119.html; E. O’Byrne Mulligan, ‘Sarah Everard: Couzens linked to Swanley indecent exposure’, News Shopper , 1 October 2021, https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/19618509.sarah-everard-couzens-linked-swanley-indecent-exposure/.
143.
Vikram Dodd, Alexandra Topping and Haroon Siddique, ‘Sarah Everard’s killer may have been identified as threat sooner, police admit’, Guardian , 30 September 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/sep/30/sarah-everards-killer-might-have-been-identified-as-threat-sooner-police-admit; Vikram Dodd, ‘Met officers investigated over Couzens WhatsApp group are still on duty’, Guardian , 1 October 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/01/met-officers-investigated-over-couzens-whatsapp-group-are-still-on-duty.
144.
Maya Wolfe-Robinson, ‘Uncooperative officers blocking Met reform, says ex-superintendent’, Guardian , 11 October 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/11/uncooperative-officers-blocking-met-police-reform-says-ex-superintendent.
145.
In France, police brigadier-chief Amar Benmohamed who exposed police racism and violence he had witnessed, including brutality towards detainees in the cells of the Paris high court, says that repeated attempts were made to discredit him and to suppress his evidence, including removing him from direct contact with detainees and attempting to force him to be psychologically examined, https://www.en24news.com/en/2020/07/police-officers-accused-of-mistreatment-racism-and-theft-in-the-cells-of-the-paris-court.html; C. C. Garnier, M. Molard and Y. Castanier, ‘Comment la hiérarchie policière a tenté d’étouffer les affaires de maltraitance au Tribunal de Paris ’, https://www.streetpress.com/sujet/1595613628-comment-hierarchie-policiere-etouffer-affaires-maltraitance-tgi-paris-prefecture-police-violences-racisme.
146.
Vikram Dodd, ‘UK police chiefs consider public admission of institutional racism’, Guardian , 12 December 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/12/uk-police-leaders-debate-public-admission-institutional-racism.
147.
As so clearly described in S. Hall et al., Policing the Crisis: mugging, the state and law and order (London: Macmillan, 1978), the imported word ‘ghetto’ was used as a metonym for poor Black communities and the stigmatisation of Black working-class neighbourhoods laid the ground for criminalising young Black men.
148.
As cited in L. Fekete, ‘Policing with accountability or policing with impunity’, IRR News , 14 January 2016.
149.
I. Tyler, Stigma: the machinery of inequality (London: Bloomsbury, 2021).
150.
Cited in Dodd and Busby, ‘Former top black Met police officers’.
151.
Megan Baynes, ‘Police officer warned after tweeting “kicking down doors is our favourite thing” from official account’, Independent , 2 July 2020, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/metropolitan-police-homerton-twitter-account-kicking-down-doors-a9597126.html.
152.
Alanna Francis, ‘Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman: officers who shared photos of murdered sisters called them “dead birds”’, Inews , 24 November 2021, https://inews.co.uk/news/bibaa-henry-and-nicole-smallman-officers-who-shared-photos-murdered-sisters-dead-birds-1315367.
153.
David Cameron, ‘Estate regeneration’, 10 January 2016, https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/estate-regeneration-article-by-david-cameron.
154.
G. Scambler, ‘Weaponising stigma’ (Blog), 21 January 2018, http://www.grahamscambler.com/weaponising-stigma/.