INQUEST/PA WireBritain’s most senior police officer has accused “those in authority” of fueling a “dangerous narrative” about the shooting of black Londoner Chris Kaba after he was stopped by officers in 2022.
Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said by focusing on Mr Kaba’s ethnicity, he was creating “rumours and innuendo” which could “hurt people who work against the public.”
Labor MPs Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott and Kim Johnson were among prominent people who raised concerns about potential police racism or called for “justice for Chris Kaba”.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the shooting had caused “anger, pain and fear” for black Londoners.
A charity, The Runnymede Trust, tweeted that “the legal system is not providing real justice for families who have suffered because of racist state violence.”
The tweet was taken down after a jury acquitted police firearms officer Martyn Blake of Mr Kaba’s manslaughter and an Old Bailey judge lifted restrictions on reporting on Mr Kaba’s criminal past.
Sir Mark’s comments came at an event organized by the charity Crimestoppers, which offers confidential methods of giving police information.
Discussing the erosion of trust in the police, he said: “Those who have authority should attract the same trust. I unfortunately very often this is just not small. I think some people should know more about the weight of words.
“His attitude and actions can scare people who work against the people.
“From the beginning over the past two years, the majority of online conversations have focused entirely on Chris Kaba’s ethnicity.
“Rumors and innuendo fueled a dangerous narrative about the facts removed from the evidence presented in court and the verdicts handed down by 12 Londoners recently.”
He did not name them, but said “a few people, with a lot of influence, risk damaging the British justice system, and these people should know better”.
ReutersMr Kaba’s car was being followed by police in south London in September 2022, when he was stopped by Mr Blake and his friends. The car was pushed backwards and forwards in a rescue attempt.
Mr. Blake fired one shot, killing Mr. Kaba. At the hearing, Mr Blake said he feared he or his friends might be killed or hurt by the car being driven.
The shooting sparked widespread online commentary and protests.
Attending one of them, former Labor leader, Jeremy Corbyn said “we can’t bear the pain his family is feeling, but we can support him by demanding #JusticeForChrisKaba.”
Rapper Stormzy also protested and reported that the police “when these people do these things, they get away with it”.
“What they’ve done is kill people. We can’t cover it up.”
In an article, MP Diane Abbott wrote that Mr Kaba had suffered a “horrible fate”.
“People may lose their lives as they go about their daily lives.”
He said the case was linked to “the wider treatment of black people and other ethnic groups in this country”.
IOPCThe Old Bailey jury heard that Mr Kaba was unarmed, and that Mr Blake gave evidence that he could see the driver as a “relatively young and athletic” black man, police did not know who was behind the wheel, and that the car had been towed. to the previous incident.
He later released video evidence that Mr. Kaba had shot a rival in an incident a few days before he was stopped and killed by police.
The Met said Mr Kaba was a key member of the 67 gang, active in south London.
While news organizations, including the BBC, knew about the background, for legal reasons, they could not report it until after the verdict.
In the Commons, Labor MP Kim Johnson claimed the media used “racist gang tropes to justify his murder”.
But in his speech Sir Mark said Mr. Kaba is part of an extensive gang in Lambeth, south London, which “coerces and exploits black men and draws them to gangs and crime”.
“They are among the 10 or so most active gangs in London,” he said, and were involved in 11 shootings last year.
He said much of the online discussion focused not on the issue at the heart of the case — whether a police officer was justified in shooting, given the circumstances — but whether the police were racist.
He said “no one is saying that there is no national conversation about disproportionality in the justice system”.
“We have a decade of data that tells us that young black people in London are 13 times more likely to be murdered than their white peers.”
He said this should provide a national outcry in the same way that the police have been criticized for the Covid policing.
“Confidence in policing will be helped by honest conversations about the risks facing different communities and a collective effort to give everyone equal opportunities to thrive in London and not become criminals.”
But after Mr Kaba’s case, he supported calls for police firearms officers facing serious criminal charges to remain anonymous.
In response, Ms Abbott tweeted that Sir Mark was supposed to have a “new broom” at the Met, but instead of offering a “fresh start” he had continued to support “less police accountability”.
In his speech Sir Mark said that as the case affected officers, he was “more concerned about legal danger than about physical danger”.
