Dear Katherine Birbalsingh,

I came across your piece about the London riots. You talk a lot about how the riots were caused by black youths. This is the point that stood out most to me. In the first paragraph of your article, you question “what colour is Mark Duggan? ” and answered “I suspect on the whole black”. This to me sounds as if you have an agenda towards black people and think they are a problem. You suspected that Mark Duggan was black. That shows you may have a racist view against black people. In this piece I will be giving my views on your thoughts about the cause of the London riots and black youths.

I disagree with your point because of the way you spoke about not being surprised about Mark Duggan’s skin colour, and how you suspected “on the whole, black”: this shows you automatically assumed that Mark Duggan was black. To my surprise, you admit that you have only listened to information about the riots on the radio, without knowing or researching anything in depth about it. You assumed a certain skin colour was behind the riots which proves you picture black people as trouble and the cause of crime.

I have listened to the interview that was made with a friend of Mark Duggan: it described the reasons why people wanted to protest and what they did in the protest to show justice for Mark Duggan and his family. You responded to this by trying to say how the police force were being judged in order to “make it sound as if the police are killing black people every other weekend”. The historian David Starkey likewise believes to be black is to be violent or a gangster. This is a point similar to yours as you both believe crime is a constant theme of blackness. In Starkey’s interview he says, “the whites have become black”, suggesting that it is only black people who influence crime. He then says blacks are a ”destructive, nihilistic gangster culture” and this ”has become the fashion”

In fact, statistics show that for every one white person, three black people are stopped and searched by the police. Institutional racism has been a problem in the police force for many decades. The murder of Stephen Lawrence in South East London on the evening of 22 April 1993 was a racially motivated attack and revealed the racism within the police force. A public inquiry was held in 1998 by William Macpherson and found that the police force was institutionally racist. Twenty years later in 2012, two of the perpetrators were finally convicted. As recently as June 5th 2015, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, gave an interview admitting there was institutional racism within the police force. He said ,“If other people think we are institutionally racist, then we are. It’s no good me saying we’re not and saying you must believe me. That would be a nonsense, if they believe that.” You think people are over exaggerating about police brutality, but the fact that there have been 333 deaths in police custody since 1998 and no police officers have been convicted suggests that there is a serious problem that needs more attention towards it.

I believe most of your points and statements were based on racial hatred towards black people, and that you are trying to cover up police brutality by saying in a very simplistic and sensationalizing way that the cause of the London riots was black youth culture.

These are my views on your opinion on the causes of the London riots and Mark Duggan

Yours sincerely Justin Liu Kai Kit