South Thames College was the venue for a heated conversation as learners shared their thoughts on the Metropolitan Police and their relationship with young people. Hugh Muir, Senior Assistant Editor of The Guardian and PC Kaelon Parkes of the Metropolitan Police took several questions from six learners as they asked everything from the process involved in stop-and-searches to whether there was any truth to claims that the Metropolitan Police is inherently racist.
Level 3 Creative Media learner James Haye believes that the Police have an inaccurate depiction of young black people through Social Media and various news reports. “When they [the Police] see a group of kids on the street … who are black, they'll stop them and think, ‘Oh, yeah, they're part of the gang, or they've carried some kind of weapons’ ... but then you don't know that. But the media is portraying it like that”.
Officer Parks and Muir in return asked learners if they would ever consider joining the Police and challenged them to consider the difficulties Police Officers face in their everyday duties. Patrick Ewulum, who is studying Level 2 GCSE Maths, had previously wanted to work with the Police but prior incidents have had an influence in his decision. “When I was younger, I wanted to join the Police but … being a black kid you see all these stories about people getting stopped and searched … falsely arrested, being abused”.
The discussion was held in relation to the BBC miniseries Small Axe being aired, which tells the story of various West Indian immigrants living in London during the 1960’s and 1970s.
Speaking on the importance of communication between citizens and the Police, Officer Kaelon Parks said, “There's no need to enforce anything. Just speak to people. That's how you find out a lot of information as well. You don't even know that a problem is happening, or someone's being affected by something, or elderly persons actually being taken advantage of you got to speak to people, you've got to get inside communities”.
The conversation was recorded and is set to be included in a future BBC Radio 4 Documentary which will be aired on Tuesday 26th January 2021.
