The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, has clashed with the Labour MP and former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott over the use of stop-and-search and the gangs matrix.
Abbott, who sits on the Home Affairs Committee, challenged Rowley over the use of stop-and-search and said the capital’s black community felt it was unfairly targeted.
She said the Scarman Report in 1981, which followed the Brixton riots, said the Met had poor relations with the black community and it was partly owing to the over-representation of black men in stop-and-searches.
Abbott said: “Are you able to tell me why, 40 years later, relations between the police and the black community is no better and there remains a wholly disproportionate level of stop-and-search on the black community?”…