Your report (Stop and search: police targeting ‘black men in gangster clothes’, 28 January) quotes the IPCC commissioner, Cindy Butts, as saying: “This incident has received widespread social media attention and in the press and it is therefore important for public confidence in policing that the matter is independently investigated. That is why we required the Metropolitan police to refer the incident to the IPCC.” She seems to be overlooking the fact that the incident should be referred to the IPCC because, if the facts as reported are true, the behaviour of the individual officer is shocking and there is every reason to suppose, from the (recorded) words the officer used, that his behaviour was symptomatic of systemic racism in the Met.
It is depressing (to put it mildly) that the commissioner is concerned primarily with publicity and perceptions, the clear implication being that if she had the same facts of the incident but it had not had the same level of publicity, she would have treated the matter far more lightly. She should be replaced by someone who will take the job seriously.
Tom Beaton
London
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