In France, Belgium, Germany and Hungary, former high-ranking police officers have become far-right mayoral and parliamentary candidates. In the UK, a series of recent cases involving the Metropolitan police have further damaged the reputation of a force long accused of being “institutionally racist”. They include police officers sharing on WhatsApp images of two murdered black brothers. Another group of officers, in a central London station, was found to have joked about rape, killed black children and beaten their wives. The Met was last month put into special measures following scandals including the killing of Sarah Everard by a serving Met officer, the strip-search of innocent black children and stop-and-search controversies, including that of British Olympic sprinter Bianca Williams. Liz Fekete, director of the IRR, said: “Our conclusion that the dehumanizing mentality and general sense of impunity and entitlement exhibited in police WhatsApp groups is a symptom, not a cause, of authoritarian tendencies in policing will undoubtedly make for uncomfortable reading. “ Fekete added: “Racism has become entrenched in policing as the rank and file are recast as victims of society and organized around an increasingly extremist agenda.” The report also warns that the “thin blue line” avatar and hashtag continue to appear on the Twitter feeds of police officers, including a safer neighborhood group in London, and have been spotted on officers’ uniforms in Manchester. In the US, the thin blue line avatar and the blue lives matter movement are associated with white nationalism, with active and retired officers involved in the Capitol siege. Fekete warned that the thin blue line had become a “beleaguered and misunderstood minority group” with an abundance of victim narratives representing police officers as the aggrieved party in discussions of police racism and the use of force. The report also warns of a link between racist attitudes and operational practice, particularly in relation to predictive policing and racial profiling. Last December, concerns were raised about the Met’s Operation Pima, in which 61% of people identified in intelligence reports as London’s “most prolific or violent offenders” were black. Ilyas Nagdee, from Amnesty International, said the research was particularly important as discussions about “alternative approaches to public security” gained ground. Mark Rowley was unveiled last week as the Met’s new commissioner, a figure whose previous position as head of the counter-terrorism agency means he is well aware of the challenges posed by extremism, both inside and outside the force.
