UK police overlook racist threat due to political legitimisation of racism, says CAGE

Police forces in the UK are overlooking the threat of racist pogroms due to the leadership’s alignment with political agendas that legitimise racism, community advocacy NGO CAGE has claimed today.

Recent revelations in the Guardian, said CAGE, have highlighted a “significant failure” in the UK’s policing strategy, exposing the police leadership’s dismissal of the far-right threat after an initial risk assessment deemed it “minimal”. This failure is not merely an oversight, it pointed out, but a manifestation of a broader, politically-motivated agenda.

“The police have strayed from their duty to serve and protect the public by aligning themselves with Whitehall’s embrace of far-right ideologies,” explained the NGO. “Police leaders have contributed further to normalising these dangerous narratives by prioritising their careers over challenging directives from Whitehall critically.”

The UK government’s “counter-terrorism” programme PREVENT has institutionalised this form of politicised policing, said the organisation, as it disproportionately targets Muslims and minorities while downplaying the threat posed by the far right.

“The Shawcross review of PREVENT exemplified this shift by recommending a focus on Muslims. Similarly, John Woodcock, the Government’s adviser on political violence and disruption, issued a report that sought to curtail civil society’s capacity to mobilise, advocating for various policing and legal measures to achieve this.”

This approach, it is argued by the NGO, reflects a political consensus that has diverted policing efforts from addressing the resurgence of fascism — on a scale not seen since the defeat of Hitler and Mussolini in 1945 — and instead focuses on suppressing the anti-genocide movement by forcing the police to waste resources on those carrying placards ridiculing complicit politicians as “coconuts”.

“The strategy document underscores this shift by euphemistically downplaying the dangers of racist movements, while intensifying efforts to impose surveillance, control and silence anti-genocide voices in the midst of a livestreamed genocide.”

The tradition of policing by consent has effectively been abandoned, added CAGE. “Undermined by political interests and entrenched institutional racism, policing in the UK is increasingly authoritarian.”

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