LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd February, 2021) A 2018 review of the Names on the Metropolitan Police's gang violence matrix ordered by the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, found that young black men were overrepresented, leading to the removal of 1,000 individuals deemed posing little or no risk committing violence, The Guardian newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The paper warned, however, that despite the nearly 40 percent drop in the number of people listed, 80 percent of the 2,301 names that still remain on the allegedly discriminatory list are of African-Caribbean backgrounds.
Critics of the police approach to deal with London's gangs quoted by the media outlet claimed that being wrongly listed on the matrix can affect employment, housing, driving licences and education.
"People are on there because of their associations, not because of their behaviours. It's about where they live, the communities they are from, skin colour and their friends and family. We need answers how this could have happened," The Guardian quoted Patrick Williams, a criminologist at Manchester Metropolitan University, as saying.
Campaigner and consultant on racial equality and community engagement Stafford Scott called it an "indicative" of the racist policing black people in London have been facing.
"It is still discriminatory, the gang matrix is still tainted," he said.
The outlet also quoted the London mayor as saying: "we simply cannot ignore the fact black Londoners have less trust in the Met and that is why my comprehensive overhaul of the Gang Violence Matrix is so important to improving the trust and confidence London's diverse communities have in our police."
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police admitted that the young black men continue to be overrepresented in the gang violence database, but claimed that it is also reflective of the levels of violent crime that affect them, both as victims and offenders.
