Race and Ethnicity
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->

Short Cuts - USA - USA Police - UK - UK Police - Operation Trident

• Black people are 9 times more likely than white people to be victims of gun related homicide (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2006)
• Firearm violence for blacks age 12 or older was: 40% higher than the rates for Hispanics, 200% higher than the rates for whites. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2006)
• 1999- 2001 Black people were 54% of the victims of firearm homicide but only 12% of the population. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2006)
• The greater the racial discrimination, the greater the homicide rate. (Beeghley, 2003, p135)

Michael Moore in his documentary ‘Bowling for Columbine’ (2002) suggests that white people in America actually fear black men because the media portrays them as criminals, and that they have been fearful of black men since the slaves revolted against the landowners in the 19th Centaury. Michael Moore says that it is interesting to note that the same year that the Ku Klux Klan became illegal the NRA was set up and black people were actually banned from owning guns until the civil rights movement overturned this in the 1960’s.

Peter Blau (1977) found that when the majority prevent the minority from getting jobs, housing, medical treatment etc, social ties between the majority and the minority groups grow weaker and inter-group conflict results this also creates more conflict within the minority group (cited in Beeghley, 2003, p135). In America as we now know the gun problem in black areas is a lot worse than in England this is for a number of reasons.

Firstly African Americans suffered more than two hundred years of slavery and one hundred years of legal segregation. (Beeghley, 2003, p136). Secondly Douglas Massey observed that throughout the 20th centaury African Americans endured more housing segregation than any other group. He looked at 30 metropolitan areas and found that 40% of all African Americans live in areas where virtually everyone is African American. He found the main reasons for this segregation to be: (cited in Beeghley, 2003, p137).

1. White prejudice of African American neighbours.
2. Discrimination of banks and real estate companies.
3. Discriminatory public policy.

Living in different areas also mean that black people and other ethnic minorities will often attend different schools and according to Walker (1995, p25) blacks are more likely to be born out of wedlock, to be victims of crime, unemployed, even to die earlier. But he says that the differences do not end there, that black people actually consume and even think differently for example buying different magazine, watching different TV programs and even voting differently.

Despite 30 years of civil rights legislation and 20 years of affirmative action in colleges and jobs, blacks and whites remain to a striking degree two separate nations” (Walker,1995, p25).

The Police

Although some claim that racism in the American police force is not typical or wide spread Leslie Setmor chairwomen of the black police association and 22 year old veteran of the police force says "The problem of police prejudice and brutality, even against other police is widespread" (Cited in Walker, 1995, p25). The American police force is 60% white, 22% Hispanic, 14% black and almost 3% Asian (Ellicott, 1992)

UK

• In London 70% of gun crime is committed by Black youths (Murder Blues, BB1, 2005).
• In London, in last 5 years over 100 black youths have been shot dead (Murder Blues, BB1, 2005)
• For Black youths in London guns have become a fashion accessories (Murder Blues, BB1, 2005)

The areas worst affected by gun crime are London’s Afro- Caribbean communities and due to this the phrase black-on-black crime has been coined. Tarique Ghaffur (assistant commissioner) of the metropolitan police believes there is “an arms race going on”. (Palmer, 2005). Ethnic groups are copying the gun use of afro Caribbean gangs. Black drugs crime in Britain has long involved Jamaican yardie gangsters but now increasing numbers of young black British men in deprived communities are being sucked into a gun culture (Brown, 2002). The most concerning aspect about this is that some of these young men see the firearm as something that enforces power and respect (Brown, 2002). Lee Jasper the London Mayor’s race advisor and member of trident has appealed to ministers to tackle low educational achievement and unemployment in some black areas which he said are issues adding to the growing gun culture. In 2002 Lee jasper found that around 45% of London’s unemployed are black. For Black people in London teenage pregnancies and single parent families are some of the highest in Europe.

The spread of sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV has also disproportionately impacted the black community. These are conditions that create a fertile breeding ground within which drug dealers can seduce young kids who have little hope of escaping the ghettos. (Casciani, 2002). This has led to the emergence of a gun culture in some sections of the black communities (Gould, 2002). This has caused the black prison population in Britain to double since 1994 (Jasper, 2002)

In London boroughs, ethnic communities now make up 22% of the population compared with 11% in 1981. Some of the poorest minority groups contain a high proportion of young people living in high crime areas. (Gould, 2002).

Partly as a result of black on- on- black shootings the borough of Lambeth has some of the worst figures for violent crime. According to the CRE, half of London’s young unemployed are black (Gould, 2002). Ethnic minorities are also at greater risk of being victims of homicide. Home office figures from 2002 show that 1 homicide victim in 5 is a member of a minority ethnic group. The perpetrator is usually also from the same ethnic group. The police’s victim figures shows when the perpetrator is black police are much less likely to identify a suspect (Race Against Crime, Channel 4, 1999).

The Police

After the Stephen Lawrence inquiry in 1999 the Metropolitan police were found guilty of racism. This led to a major effort to rid the met of racism (Race Against Crime, Channel 4, 1999). There was a lot of criticism of the stop and search policy that police had at that time, which seemed to be stopping a disproportionate amount of people from ethnic minorities, in particular people from the black community. The police were accused of miss-treating black people during these stop and searches. The police however justified this saying that 85% of robbery suspects in London were black and a large amount of street crime is committed by a few black men (Race Against Crime, Channel 4, 1999).

The police said that the group they found most difficult to deal with were young black men because they were often fearful that they may be carrying weapons in particular guns and knives. They said that in general they find ethnic minorities difficult to understand (Race Against Crime, Channel 4, 1999). While the police are trying to stamp out racism in the force the documentaries 'The Secret Policeman' 2003 proved it does still exist.

The police are now more cautious when carrying out stop and searches as they are afraid of being accused of harassment they say that black people are most likely to accuse them and that black people do not trust the police and in fact discriminate against them. (Race Against Crime, Channel 4, 1999).Black people have a lot of distrust for the police and many think they are racist. What the force desperately needs are more black officers (Race Against Crime, Channel 4, 1999).

Operation Trident

An elite squad was set up in the metropolitan police in 1998 to try to help bring an end to a spate of shootings and murders amongst young black Londoners and is called operation Trident.

Due to the poor relations in the past with police some people in the black community are frightened and don’t know where to turn due. Operation trident is a good start to repairing the lost trust. Operation trident is building up a witness protection program to encourage more people to come forward and give evidence (Gould, 2002). The black community has had enough and they have become more willing to help the police to solve crimes. Tridents aims are;

• Arrest and prosecute anyone involved in shootings within the black community
• Reduce the fear of crime in London’s black communities
• Increase community confidence

There are now 300 police officers and 70 support staff dedicated to Trident, who work closely with the communities and the metropolitan police authority. In 2004/2005 Trident solved 12 murders (a 67% success rate) and seized 420 firearms and 1839 ammunition. There success depends on members of the community coming forward. They work with the community to raise awareness about gun crime and to try to impress on youngsters the dangers that come with firearms. Alan Brown from trident says London’s black community are at a cross roads where there is still a chance to break the cycle that is leading more and more young men into drugs related crime (Cited in Casciani, 2002) In January 2005 alone there were 2 murders and 13 shootings in 6 days in the black community in London.

Conclusion

So it seems that whether in America or in England the greater the racial and ethnic discrimination the greater the homicide rate. In both countries the governments need to do something to tackle poverty, unemployment and racial segregation otherwise black on black violence is just going to get worse.

For Race & Ethnicity and the Media click here