Report: UK's Met Police 'Racist, Misogynistic, and Homophobic'

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Facts

• The UK's Metropolitan Police (Met) is rife with 'systematic and fundamental' issues, and the institution itself rests on a bedrock of discrimination, according to a report from Baroness Louise Casey released on Tuesday.¹
• The review, commissioned following the rape and murder of Sarah Everard in 2021 by a serving officer, details shortcomings in basic procedures, including the poor state or usage of fridges containing forensic samples, reportedly leading to evidence becoming unusable and rape cases being dropped.²
• The report found that 22% of staff with protected status and 33% with an ongoing illness or disability experienced bullying. Homophobia was also found to be prevalent, with almost one in five lesbian, gay, and bisexual Met staff members having experienced homophobia, according to the report.³
• Other details revealed a female officer who tried to take her own life after becoming the 'victim of domestic and sexual abuse,' reportedly at the hands of an officer on her team. After two years of investigation into her allegations, nothing was done.⁴
• The report — which also concluded that the Black community in London is over-policed and under-protected and the internal misconduct system is in need of a serious overhaul  — makes 16 recommendations for reform.⁵
• Current Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley – who has been in the role since September — has kicked back against Casey's statements, saying he wouldn't use the labels of institutionally racist, misogynistic, or homophobic to describe the force. A new oversight board for the Met — to be chaired by London Mayor Sadiq Khan — will  be put in place.⁶

Sources: ¹Times, ²Forbes, ³HeraldScotland, ⁴Sky News, ⁵The Telegraph and ⁶Guardian.

Narratives

• Left narrative, as provided by New Statesman. The severity of this report raises the possibility of abolishing an institution that's failing the public and is set on a bedrock of discrimination. Perhaps most significantly, Casey finds that the depravity and suffering detailed in the review all link back to the austerity imposed under the coalition and Conservative governments since 2010. There's little chance that the Tories will be able to defend their record on crime in the lead-up to the next election. Their blind-sided focus on balancing the books has put the British public at risk and led to the country's largest police force reaching a potentially irreversible state of corrupt dilapidation.
• Right narrative, as provided by Spectator (UK). Overemphasizing the role of austerity in this sorry state of affairs risks implying some kind of vindication of Met management, which Casey identifies as a 'series of disconnected and competing moving parts' with 'broken' vetting procedures and a lack of long-term planning. Senior officers facilitated a culture of bullying and discrimination to dominate an institution that's supposed to ensure justice and provide protection. Though the findings that the Met is institutionally sexist, racist, and homophobic are certainly contentious, there's no doubt the Met requires fundamental reform, which must come from the top.