09/04/2023
The Guardian newspaper says that a three hundred page report by Dame Louise Carey which was commissioned in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard has found that the Metropolitan Police are institutionally racist, misogynist and homophobic. Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said: “This damning report leaves the Met nowhere to hide when it comes to the depth of its problems with institutional misogyny, racism and homophobia.” Jamie Klingler, co-founder of Reclaim These Streets, a social justice organisation said “The report removes any possibility of the discussion being about if the cultural issues are systemic. The Met is racist, sexist and homophobic, no more whataboutery, no more talk of bad apples. This is root and branch.” The family of Jack Taylor, a gay man murdered by the serial killer Stephen Port, remarked “Someone needs to take responsibility for tackling issues such as homophobia, someone needs to own it”. In the House of Commons, Yvette Cooper for the Labour shadow cabinet drew attention to the Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s attempts to stop the Met from discussing issues which the Tory papers consider “woke”. Cooper said “The home secretary rightly says she wants discrimination tackled in all its forms, but she has been telling police forces the opposite and telling them not to focus on those issues,” she said. “So where is her plan now to turn that around? Where is the Home Office plan in response to this?”.
