Cops handcuff, search Black man, but not his white friend
Police searched the man for drugs in part because he was wearing too many layers of clothes for the season.
A Black man from south-east London has reached an out-of-court settlement with the Metropolitan Police force (The Met) after he accused officers of racial discrimination, the UK Mirror reports.
Tallan Bent, 36, was sitting on his bike talking to a friend who was in a parked car in Lewisham in April 2020 when two police officers confronted him. The Mirror reports that they handcuffed and searched Bent under the Misuse of Drugs Act, partly because he was wearing an unseasonable number of layers of clothes. The cops also deemed him suspicious because of the small bike he was using.
They did not search his white friend or the car, nor did their search of Bent yield any illegal drugs.
After the encounter, Bent filed a complaint with the department and the watchdog agency, the Independent Office for Police Conduct. He ultimately pursued legal action that the Equality and Human Rights Commission funded. Without admitting liability, The Met settled the claim for an undisclosed amount before going to court.
The father of three said in a statement that he finds it “hard to believe that the police are still targeting young black men.”
“The only reason for this seems to be racial discrimination and it has to stop,” added Bent, who works as a security officer at the Houses of Parliament.
As the BBC reports, the Equality and Human Rights Commission will continue to monitor police use of the controversial practice of stop and search.
“The law is clear: no one should be subjected to harassment or discrimination due to their race or ethnicity, either at work or elsewhere,” a commission spokesperson said.
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