The video addresses the rise in violent crimes in London, shedding light on the challenges the Metropolitan Police face in handling this issue. There have been seven murders in seven days, with most being stabbings, leading to questions about whether the police are losing control of the streets. The police have initiated various strategies, including the controversial stop and search tactic, to curb crime rates, while also emphasizing that effective policing cannot solely rely on arrests or this method.

The discussion expands into broader societal issues, focusing specifically on the impact of stop and search practices on young black men. Despite accounting for a small percentage of the population, statistics show they are often both victims and perpetrators of violent crime. Concerns are raised about racial profiling and disenfranchisement, highlighting the tension between ensuring safety and fostering trust within communities. Various voices in the video argue for a socio-economic approach to tackle crime, recognizing the need for community engagement and addressing systemic issues.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. disproportionate [ˌdɪsproʊˈpɔrʃənət] - (adjective) - Too large or too small compared to something else; not in correct relation or balance. - Synonyms: (unequal, unbalanced, excessive)

Yes, we are stopping a disproportionate amount of young black men

2. disenfranchisement [ˌdɪsɪnˈfræn(t)ʃaɪzmənt] - (noun) - The state of being deprived of a right or privilege, especially the right to vote or other social and civil rights. - Synonyms: (disempowerment, deprivation, marginalization)

What do you say to a father who's seen his son stopped and searched 20 times in the space of a few months? Who's done nothing wrong, though, when a black person is four times more likely to be stopped and searched than a white person, you can see how that creates the cycle of disenfranchisement and anger

3. animosity [ˌæn.ɪˈmɒs.ɪ.ti] - (noun) - Strong hostility or opposition. - Synonyms: (antipathy, hostility, resentment)

So obviously it creates this animosity with the police.

4. socio-economic [ˌsəʊ.si.əʊˌɛk.əˈnɒm.ɪk] - (adjective) - Relating to or concerned with the interaction of social and economic factors. - Synonyms: (financial-social, community-economic, economic-social)

I believe that this crisis is a socio-economic crisis.

5. suppression [səˈprɛʃən] - (noun) - The act of stopping something by force. - Synonyms: (repression, quashing, subduing)

The violent suppression unit we filmed with had a big success last week.

6. apology [əˈpɒlədʒi] - (noun) - An expression of regret for having caused trouble or insult. - Synonyms: (regret, expression of remorse, mea culpa)

The Met has apologized for the distress.

7. institutionalized [ˌɪnˌstɪˈtuʃənəˌlaɪzd] - (adjective) - Established as a norm in an organization or culture. - Synonyms: (systematized, entrenched, codified)

...what we understand to be institutionalized racism.

8. intervention [ˌɪntərˈvɛnʃən] - (noun) - The action or process of intervening, often to prevent a result. - Synonyms: (mediation, involvement, intercession)

In the counterterrorism world, a lot of money is spent on early intervention.

9. engagement [ɪnˈɡeɪdʒmənt] - (noun) - The action of engaging or being engaged. - Synonyms: (involvement, participation, commitment)

In terms of that engagement piece.

10. enforcement [ɪnˈfɔːrsmənt] - (noun) - The act of compelling observance of or compliance with a law, rule, or obligation. - Synonyms: (implementation, execution, application)

The enforcement piece should really only come right at the end.

A day inside London's Metropolitan Police - BBC Newsnight

A man thought to be in his twenties has died in a shooting in north London. Detectives are investigating the shooting of three teenagers and a fatal stabbing in Kilburn last week have made an arrest. Seven murders in seven days in the capital, six of them by stabbing. We are not losing control of the streets. We have not stopped policing throughout Covid violence.

Crime has been markedly down during lockdown, but there are disturbing signs surging back. The best way to explain the lockdown. Imagine that you take a fizzy drink, you shake it and then you just open the lid. That's exactly what is happening. The Metropolitan Police has new dedicated teams to tackle violence. The aim is to prevent violent crimes, returning to pre lockdown record levels.

But one of the most controversial tactics in modern day policing, stop and search, remains at the core. You can't arrest your way at the problem. You can't stop and search away at the problem. Seven deaths in seven days from violent crime in London. Are you losing control of the streets? We are not losing control of the streets. We have not stopped policing throughout Covid.

We have been getting into those spaces where we know violent crime is likely to reoccur. We've been getting into those individuals who cause the most harm to our communities. We've been offering those who have been drawn into this opportunities to divert and do different, you know, make different choices. As lockdown eases, illegal parties and turf wars over drugs are fueling the rise in violent crime. So what will be the police response?

So we're targeting knife point robbery offenses happening on Friday. We were given access to an operation by one of the new counter violence teams. They had information that a known gang of black teenagers would be out robbing, possibly with knives. We're out with one of the Met's new violent suppression units, one of twelve covering London.

There's been some intelligence that there's been a spike in violent robberies in Wandsworth common. On the way, officers think a man driving a car is acting suspiciously. He seemed to be deliberately not making eye contact with us, which is sometimes a suggestion that they don't want to draw attention to the police. It's also known for being involved in drugs in the past.

It turns out he's the legal owner and has done nothing wrong. One of more than 20,000 young black men stopped in London during the lockdown. Who do you worry you're stopping? Too many young black men. It's a difficult subject.

Yes, we are stopping a disproportionate amount of young black men. But as we've said, we're the violent suppression units. Violence is the Met's number one priority at the moment. My officers come to work every day because they want to save lives, because they want to help the community.

Violence has ruined enough lives in London and we're out there to try and stop it. So you completely reject the idea that's been put forward by some people that says the reason why the Met stopping so many black men is because some people are racist? I absolutely reject that. I'm not going to sit here and say that the Met is 100% perfect. It's not.

I am going to say that we're out here doing our job because we're reflecting the crime. In London, crime is disproportionate, therefore the policing response is aimed at that crime. It's going to be disproportionate. I know that there are concerns in our community about the disproportionality within stop and search.

There is also disproportionality in crime, and the causes of crime are fairly complex and beyond the reach of policing. The Met says young black men are more likely to be the perpetrators and victims of violent crime. 72% of homicides in the capital are of black men under 25. Back on Wandsworth Common, uniformed officers start their patrol.

Suddenly, they see a group fitting the suspect's description, run and give chase. The group disperses, but the police stop this 16 year old. They find no evidence of wrongdoing and release him. He's stopped and searched again ten minutes later by a different officer. Suddenly there's a confrontation. The police say one of their officers was pushed to the ground.

One of them was on the Santander bike. He's looking over his shoulder at police as they got off the vehicle. He's then given the bike to someone else in a group, which is a tactic they do to try and confuse us as to who we were looking for in the first place.

And he's then also uploaded his bag to another person, so very suspicious activity, and my officer has gone in to try and detain them for a search. During that time, we've gone through a very large crowd of young teenagers who are obviously at some sort of music event. And what they've seen is officers moving straight into a large crowd targeting young black men.

So they have immediately got quite angry about this and think that we're just targeting them because we're racists. And so a large crowd has formed around us and in that, two officers have been assaulted and two people were arrested for assault on police in the circumstances, I believe my officers did the right thing.

We're out here to try and protect these people who are out for a music event. They're prime targets drunk teenagers near the wooded area with lots of valuables, phones and things like that. That's the reason this group is here. They're going to target them all night trying to steal their phones, rob them in the woods. And so my officers have done the right thing to try and disrupt that.

However, the public perception is that we've just stolen straight into a group of white people and targeted the only black men in it. A major problem for the police and for wider society is that county line's drugs. Gangs are increasingly using children as young as eleven or twelve teenagers.

Young kids will be given drugs to then run, take to a location and the gang will organise for them to be robbed. And therefore the kid gets himself into a debt to the gang because he's lost the drugs and that way he then has to work for the gang to pay off the debt, quite often under the threat of violence.

So quite often these kids are trapped. We are doing as much as we can to prevent a resurgence of violent crime. We're tackling the individuals and we are tackling the places in which violent crime occurs. And that's at a very local level, so that happens with our neighbourhood teams.

It also happens with our newly formed violent suppression units. We have an additional over 700 officers working in those local teams whose sole objectives is to work on violence reduction in that local area. The Met says stop and search remains a vital tool, but this is controversial territory in America.

The white policeman who knelt on George Floyd's neck for nine minutes as he begged for help has been charged with murder. Protests erupted all over the world, prompting a reassessment of racial justice in all walks of life, including policing. And in London, team GB athletes Bianca Williams says she was handcuffed during a stop and search. Baby in the back.

The Met has apologized for the distress. Sang ezemi Cruz works with gangs and is doing a doctoral degree on violent crime. I asked him about what repeated stops do to young black men. It basically destroys them. As my own son, we used to live just around the corner from him, from here.

He was stop and searched 21 times in about two months when he was 15. So obviously it creates this animosity with the police. It creates a sense of injustice, especially because they never found anything. Normally they will say there has been an incident, there has been a robbery, and you fit the description. All black british always fit the description.

If a black boy is the one that committed the crime. And there are deeper questions, too. In the counterterrorism world, a lot of money is spent on early intervention, trying to find alternative pathways for potential recruits. There's an understanding that this kind of work is vital and the funding is huge. There are clear parallels with gangs and violent crime.

Is it possible to police your way after this crisis? My view, no. There is an element to it that it can be helpful. But I believe that this crisis is a socio economic crisis.

And I think that what needs to change is some of the structures, especially in the inner cities, in terms of opportunities, in terms of what we understand to be institutionalized racism. And one of the founding members of the black Police association agrees. Leroy Logan spent 30 years in the Met. I'm a great believer that you can't arrest your way at the problem, you can't stop and search away at the problem.

You have to really look at this issue of crime and violence from a public health approach, you know, talking about adverse childhood experiences and toxic stress that a lot of youngsters grow up in, whether it's in the home or in the streets or socially. And of course, we need to don't just see people as potential prisoners, but as potential patients.

The violent suppression unit we filmed with had a big success last week. The stop and search operation led them to an alleged drug dealer's house, 60,000 pounds in cash and a Rambo knife. But the clue is in the title suppression, not solution. Many now say violent crime is so bad that a fundamental rethink is needed.

Richard Watson, with that report, will join us now. Janet Hills, chair of the Metropolitan Black Police association, and Norman Brennan, retired London police officer of 31 years and founder of the campaign group Protect the protectors. Norman, young black men were stopped and searched 20,000 times in London during lockdown. The equivalent, I think, it ended up being a quarter of all young black men here. Is that justifiable?

Well, if you look at the statistics this way, last year, for example, young black males account for one to 2% of the british population, yet they were responsible for 15% of all murders in Britain. Now, that is a statistic that's real, alive and it's something that needs to be addressed. And the only people that can address that are the police, the communities and the offenders themselves.

If the offenders don't put down their guns and their knives and robbing people and stabbing each other and shooting each other to death, I'm afraid the circle goes round and round and unfortunately the police are caught in the middle, they're caught between good and bad, right and wrong, and, sadly, life and death. And the caveat to all of this is this, is that these young boys and young youths can take a life, lose a life or face life imprisonment in 20 seconds of madness, of pulling out a knife or a gun and stabbing somebody. That's the reality of crime on the streets of London and other cities in Britain.

What do you say to a father who's seen his son stopped and searched 20 times in the space of a few months? Who's done nothing wrong, though, when a black person is four times more likely to be stopped and searched than a white person, you can see how that creates the cycle of disenfranchisement and anger. You heard somebody saying, it destroys these young men. You can see that, right?

Well, I would say to these fathers, the ones that are actually still in the household and playing a parental figure, sadly, too many don't hang around too long. I will remind them of all the children that family liaison officers in Britain have seen in maltreats. And the mothers and sometimes the fathers and family members fall into their arms screaming, bereft, as their child lays dead on a mortuary slab 6ft away. Please let my child be the last one. Do whatever you can.

So I will say to that father, that's what we have to do. Let me bring in Janet Hills. What do you make of the statistics that Norman has pulled out there that you're basically following the intelligence here?

The thing is, there is no evidence to suggest that the use of stop and search reduces violent crime. There is no evidence that is, you know, readable or been written about that suggests that you've got 80% of stops that are. Nothing's being found. So when nothing's being found, you've then disenfranchising communities around stop and search.

Stop and search as a tool, whatever is pretty useless. Or are you saying it should be used, but without the disproportionality? It absolutely should be used. That is the position, from a Met BPA and national perspective, that you should be using the power. But the fact that we have 80% of stops that result in nothing being found needs to be looked at, because it's disenfranchising communities.

Violence, Policing, Community Engagement, Global, Technology, Education, Bbc Newsnight