Bianca Williams stops: police ‘want to discuss speedsters’ concerns’

The chiefs of the Meteorological Police say they want to speak to a Team GB sprinter who is accusing officers of racially profiling her at a stop and search.

Bianca Williams and Ricardo dos Santos, a 400-meter Portuguese runner, were arrested on Saturday in Maida Vale, west London.

Ms. Williams, whose three-month-old son was in the car at the time, called it a “horrible experience.”

Cdr Helen Harper said she was “really interested” in talking to the couple “to discuss … their concerns.”

The Met had said officers were patrolling the area in which Ms. Williams was detained due to an increase in youth violence.

But the Commonwealth and European Games gold medalist believes the pair were attacked because they are black and were driving a Mercedes.

• What are my rights if they arrest me and search for me?

“They [the officers] He said there is a lot of youth violence and stabbing in the area and that the car seemed very suspicious, “he told BBC Radio 4 Today.

“They see a black man driving a nice car, a completely black car, and they assume he was involved in some kind of gang, drug and violence problem.”

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In a statement Sunday night, the Met said the Mercedes was stopped after it was seen suspiciously driving, including the fact that it was on the wrong side of the road, and that the driver had rushed when asked to do so. stop it.

‘Make a fool of yourself’

But this was rejected by Ms. Williams, who said, “That is false, we were never on the wrong side of the road. We drove on single-width roads.”

“We only found out that we drove on the wrong side of the road once they tweeted.”

“This is not the first, fourth or fifth time, it must be around the tenth. It is getting ridiculous.”

“We are planning to take him down the legal route. I feel very hurt by his actions, and when my partner is taken from me and away from my son, my heart hurts.

The Met said officers from the Professional Standards Directorate had reviewed images from the officers ‘social media and body cameras and were satisfied that there was no concern about the officers’ conduct during the arrest and search of the two athletes. .

“That doesn’t mean there isn’t something to learn from every interaction we have with the public,” said Cdr Helen Harper.

“We want to listen and talk to those who raise concerns, to understand more about the issues raised and what else we can do to explain police actions.”

“Where we could have interacted in a better way, we have to consider what we should have done differently and embrace that learning for the future.”

Social media clips about police incidents should be treated with great care.

Often what you see is a short segment of an event that has been going on for some time; background and context information are rarely provided.

In this case, there are conflicting reports about what happened and why, that only one investigation is likely to resolve.

However, the incident rekindled the claims and the search targets black people, especially young men, and has raised concerns that handcuffs are being unnecessarily deployed, despite police guidance that they should not be.

It appears that the tactic, which Scotland Yard says has helped reduce knife violence in London, remains as controversial and divisive as it ever has been.

Speaking at a remote hearing of the House of Commons Human Rights Committee earlier, Baroness Lawrence said it was “absurd” that blacks could not drive in expensive cars.

“Stopping and searching will continue to be an element that young people go through on a daily basis,” said the activist, whose murdered son was found by an “institutionally racist” Met Police.

“And when they are detained, it is not just an officer or two officers, you have six or seven officers standing around an individual, a young man who is probably scared to death because he does not know what is going to happen to him.

“So if people now have mobile phones and start recording what is happening to them, we have problems where the police say it is one thing and the individual says it is another, and the authority believes that the police about the individual”.

“That is something that continues to happen.”

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London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he took the racial profiling allegations “extremely seriously” and had raised the case with the Met.

The Independent Police Complaints Office said it has not yet received an official complaint.