Star of ‘The Black Cop’ film calls London police out on racism
London police are still institutionally racist despite vowing to reform two decades ago, said the city’s first openly gay Black officer, whose story has been nominated for a top film award. “The Black Cop“, commissioned by The Guardian newspaper, won in the British Short Film category at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards held on 13 March.
A mixture of documentary and drama, the 24-minute film traces the experiences of Gamal ‘G’ Turawa, the Metropolitan Police’s first openly gay Black officer, in the early 1990s as he confronts racism and struggles with his own sexuality.
Both Turawa and the film’s director Cherish Oteka said Britain’s largest force remains – in the words of a landmark report into the botched investigation of the 1993 murder of Black teenager Stephen Lawrence – “institutionally racist”. “Society at large is still institutionally racist,” said Oteka, adding that the police must do more to tackle the problem. “There is just this blanket denial of the way that Black communities are treated … I will never feel safe in the hands of the police when this is not being acknowledged,” Oteka said.
London police chief Cressida Dick resigned last month in the wake of a report into racism and sexism within the force. An investigation by the police watchdog into a central London police station detailed offensive WhatsApp messages about Muslims, Africans, Somalis and LGBTQ+ people, and jokes about making dog food out of African children.
