Relations between UK police and the black community are worse than ever, Britain was told as it marks 10 years since its worst riots in a generation.
Rioting broke out in London on August 6, 2011, after Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old mixed-race man, was shot dead by armed police.
It spiralled into days of unrest as anger over the shooting combined with economic hardship and criminal opportunism. Five people died and the bill for the damage ran into the millions.
A decade on, Ken Hinds, who leads a policing watchdog in London, said lessons from the riots were not being learned.
People in the area view the police as an “occupational force” and relations with ethnic minorities are at an "all-time low", he told AFP.
“There's no respect for the police. They're not going to earn it if they do the same thing and expect a different outcome,” he said.
A particular point of controversy is "stop and search", which allows police to frisk people they suspect of carrying weapons or drugs on the street.
In the year to March 2020, black people were nine times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people in England and Wales.
Ministers plan to relax restrictions on the use of stop and search under a new anti-crime initiative spearheaded by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The government said it led to more than 74,000 arrests and 11,000 weapons being seized in the past year.
But David Lammy, an MP for the area of North London where the riots erupted, said stop and search checks contributed to low trust.
“These are the notices that allow the police to stop and search every person leaving school in a particular neighbourhood,” he told Sky News.
“What they did was they breached trust between the hundreds of thousands of innocent young people who constantly felt that they were being harassed by the police. I’m afraid that issue has got worse, with black young people particularly.”
Mr Lammy criticised the government for cutting the number of police officers, which he said had fallen by 20,000 since 2011.
Ethnic minorities are under-represented in police forces, especially within senior ranks.
The latest figures show 7.6 per cent of officers in England and Wales were of a minority background, compared to 14 per cent of the total population.
Mr Hinds said heavy-handed arrests and frequent rotation of commanders hampered any efforts to improve relations.
The issue gained worldwide resonance last year during Black Lives Matter protests triggered by the death of George Floyd in the US.
British police chiefs saw their own officers as less heavy-handed but acknowledged there were tensions with the black community.
These tensions remain more than 20 years after a landmark report described London’s Metropolitan Police as institutionally racist.
UK lawmakers last month decried "persistent, deep-rooted and unjustified racial disparities" in policing and a "systematic failure" to tackle inequality.
A parliamentary review said representative policing will not be achieved for another two decades.
In its own report released on Thursday, the opposition Labour Party said underlying social and economic conditions had not improved since 2011.
Labour said twice as many families were in need of government support than when the riots erupted.
Tim Newburn, a criminologist at the London School of Economics, said the official response to the response was insufficient.
Rioters “often felt that they were living in communities that were occupied communities by the police,” he told Sky News. “That relationship was often one that was very hostile and difficult and dangerous.
“Did our politicians, local and national, put in place things to mitigate, to improve? By and large no.”
The biog
Full name: Aisha Abdulqader Saeed
Age: 34
Emirate: Dubai
Favourite quote: "No one has ever become poor by giving"
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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SPEC SHEET
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Processor: 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1/Exynos 2200, 8-core
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Platform: Android 12
Main camera: quad 12MP ultra-wide f/2.2, 108MP wide f/1.8, 10MP telephoto f/4.9, 10MP telephoto 2.4; Space Zoom up to 100x, auto HDR, expert RAW
Video: 8K@24fps, 4K@60fps, full-HD@60fps, HD@30fps, super slo-mo@960fps
Front camera: 40MP f/2.2
Battery: 5000mAh, fast wireless charging 2.0 Wireless PowerShare
Connectivity: 5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC
I/O: USB-C
SIM: single nano, or nano and SIM, nano and nano, eSIM/nano and nano
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Price: Dh4,699 for 128GB, Dh5,099 for 256GB, Dh5,499 for 512GB; 1TB unavailable in the UAE
The National in Davos
We are bringing you the inside story from the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, a gathering of hundreds of world leaders, top executives and billionaires.
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Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster with a decades-long career in TV. He has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others. Karam is also the founder of Takreem.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Company name: Play:Date
Launched: March 2017 on UAE Mother’s Day
Founder: Shamim Kassibawi
Based: Dubai with operations in the UAE and US
Sector: Tech
Size: 20 employees
Stage of funding: Seed
Investors: Three founders (two silent co-founders) and one venture capital fund
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
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If you go
Flight connections to Ulaanbaatar are available through a variety of hubs, including Seoul and Beijing, with airlines including Mongolian Airlines and Korean Air. While some nationalities, such as Americans, don’t need a tourist visa for Mongolia, others, including UAE citizens, can obtain a visa on arrival, while others including UK citizens, need to obtain a visa in advance. Contact the Mongolian Embassy in the UAE for more information.
Nomadic Road offers expedition-style trips to Mongolia in January and August, and other destinations during most other months. Its nine-day August 2020 Mongolia trip will cost from $5,250 per person based on two sharing, including airport transfers, two nights’ hotel accommodation in Ulaanbaatar, vehicle rental, fuel, third party vehicle liability insurance, the services of a guide and support team, accommodation, food and entrance fees; nomadicroad.com
A fully guided three-day, two-night itinerary at Three Camel Lodge costs from $2,420 per person based on two sharing, including airport transfers, accommodation, meals and excursions including the Yol Valley and Flaming Cliffs. A return internal flight from Ulaanbaatar to Dalanzadgad costs $300 per person and the flight takes 90 minutes each way; threecamellodge.com
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• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally
• Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered
• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
• Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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