Letter: There’s No Room for Complacency Over Black Lives Matter

Published on: 12 Jun, 2020
Updated on: 12 Jun, 2020

From Paul Kennedy

Liberal Democrat Candidate for Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner

In response to: Lib Dem Letter is a Disgraceful Slur on British Policing and Mole Valley MP Accuses Guildford’s Lib Dems of Political Opportunism

I would like to thank my Guildford colleagues for their open letter to local MPs calling for Government action in response to the brutal Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. It was good to receive a largely constructive and understanding response from Guildford’s MP.

I have mostly given up asking Mole Valley’s MP to challenge the party line. But even I was disappointed by his pompous dismissal of calls to end the Government’s complicit silence over Donald Trump’s racism.

It was also disappointing that his ex-Conservative colleague and now Surrey PCC David Munro should react to calls for scrutiny of the UK’s own performance with a mixture of complacency and outrage.

Although progress has been made in policing, there is still much to do. Police officers are some of the most caring and understanding people I meet both on duty and when I knock on their doors. But BAME communities are still under-represented in many police forces, including Surrey’s where fewer than 5 per cent of officers are non-white which is less than half their local population share.

There are similar differentials in other statistics such as sentencing, and many black people feel threatened by crime, discrimination and antisocial behaviour.

As we have seen over the past few weeks, Surrey’s police are in the front line against racism, and every day they have to deal with the impacts of structural racism in our society. It is absolutely vital that they are properly equipped, and challenged, if they are to perform their vital role and keep everyone safe.

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