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| Keith Jarrett | |
LONDON, England, October 22, 2007 - A policeman has suggested that more people from Black communities in Britain should be stopped and searched in an effort to reduce knife and gun crime.
The proposal by Keith Jarrett - outgoing president of the National Black Police Association's (NBPA) - will be made in a speech this week at the association's annual conference in which he will ask Police Minister Tony McNulty and Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair to consider searching more black people.
NBPA's legal adviser, Chief Superintendent Ali Dizaei, quickly distanced the association from the comments saying Jarrett's views were his personal opinion and not those of NBPA.
Dizaei said the suggestion is likely to create more tension.
There is already disquiet in the ethnic communities which complain of racial profiling.
Home Office figures show that Black people are six times more likely to be stopped and searched by police than White people.
The statistics emerged from an enquiry into the Brixton race riots in the 1980s.
Jarrett however has insisted that Black communities want police to increase searches of Black people because of what appears to be a rising number of killings.
"And [they said that] if it means their sons and daughters are going to be inconvenienced by being stopped by the police, so be it," Jarrett said.
"The black community is telling me that we have to have a look at this."
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