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Two years after fatally shooting 24-year-old Chris Kaba in the head, the London Met Police firearms officer Martyn Blake was acquitted of Kaba’s murder.
As soon as the trial concluded, newspapers published information about Kaba that they were barred from reporting during the proceedings. Chief among the details was the news that Kaba had allegedly shot a man in both legs at a nightclub days before his own death, although he was never prosecuted for or convicted of the crime.
The post-trial publication of details of Kaba’s alleged criminal history should not affect how we view Blake’s prosecution and acquittal. But it will have implications for future cases where black men are killed by police. It will also further damage already-strained relationships between black communities and police.
Kaba was shot by Blake after police stopped the car he was driving in south London. Kaba was unarmed. Police did not know that Kaba was driving, but believed the car had been connected to a shooting the night before. Blake told the court he fired his weapon because he believed his colleagues’ lives were at risk.
The jury was not told of Kaba’s prior convictions during the trial, nor should they have been. Kaba was not on trial – Martyn Blake was. So this information did not play a role in their decision to acquit. Because Kaba was killed by Blake, Kaba’s prior convictions were not relevant in Blake’s trial. We correctly shun victim-blaming when it comes to other victims: it should be no different in this case, in which Kaba was the victim.
Had Kaba been alive and testified for the prosecution against Blake, the judge could have considered whether his prior criminal convictions were relevant to his testimony and credibility. But disclosure of a witness’s previous convictions is rightfully very narrowly construed by the courts, and would have to meet a specific legal standard.
Racial stereotypes
The research is clear that when a person of colour is killed by police and posthumous information about the victim is released to the public, it has an impact on public perceptions of blame, sympathy and empathy for the black victim and police shooter, and perpetuates racial stereotypes. And this seems to be what is occurring here.
Studies have shown for decades that black people, men in particular, are first and foremost viewed as perpetrators by police and members of the public, not as crime victims. We have seen the impact of this in the many killings of unarmed black men by police in the US, from Michael Brown to Eric Garner to George Floyd.
These stereotypes have also played a role in cases in the UK. Black men and boys are often treated by the criminal justice system and the media as somehow responsible for their own deaths. For instance, Stephen Lawrence, who was killed in 1993 by a group of white men while waiting at a London bus stop, was regarded by police for a long time as a suspect, not a victim.
Or Dea-John Reid, a 14-year-old black boy who was chased and killed by a group of white teens and adults in Birmingham in 2021. After his death, police initially doubted racism played a role in the killing, and it was suggested at the trial that Reid was involved in instigating events leading to his killing. While multiple defendants were brought to trial, only a 15-year-old boy was convicted of manslaughter for Reid’s death. Two adults, aged 36 and 39, and two other teenagers were acquitted of his murder.
For decades, scholars have tracked how black men are viewed through the lens of the myth of criminality. This view, rooted in slavery and colonialism, erroneously suggests black men have a propensity for criminality. It persists today in crime figures that show minority ethnic people disproportionately represented in every stage of the criminal justice process.
Yet the reality from government offending surveys is that black and white people commit crimes at the same rates. The myth is reinforced through the criminal justice system, which focuses on some crimes (and alleged criminals) more than others through decisions around deployment of personnel and resources, and decisions to arrest, charge, prosecute and sentence in disproportionate ways.
For example, police stop and search rates for decades have been disproportionately shown to target black men. Arrest rates show similar disproportionate outcomes. These disparities are not due to a propensity for criminal offending, but rather the implicit and explicit stereotypes of the justice system.
Read more: Stop and search disproportionately affects black communities – yet police powers are being extended
These stereotypes mean that people of colour, and black men in particular, are not seen as deserving victims when they are the victims of crime or police wrongdoing.
Academic research, as well as government inquiries by Lord Macpherson and Baroness Casey, have observed how policing culture is embedded with these stereotypes.
Future of policing
Following the Blake verdict, police leaders have called for further protections for officers who use force while on duty (even if not deadly force). The government has said that officers charged in future cases will stay anonymous unless convicted.
The UK legal system already has rigorous standards for investigating, charging and convicting individuals, including police officers, of wrongdoing. Moreover, is it important to bear in mind that misconduct prosecutions in court against police officers are already very rare.
Blake was the first officer in England ever charged with murder for killing someone on duty, and therefore none have ever been convicted of murdering a member of the public while on duty. There are therefore already sufficiently robust due process protections in place for officers charged with a crime and they do not require further enhancing.
At a time when police have lost the trust of many of the communities they are meant to protect, particularly ethnic minority Britons, this sends the wrong message to the public that police can act without accountability.
“We went two steps forward in terms of building relationships and it just feels like we’ve taken a step back,” said Anthony King, who runs a youth crime reduction organisation in London, of the Blake verdict.
The persistence of negative racial stereotypes of people of colour generally, and black men in particular, continues to put black communities in a position of being overpoliced and yet underprotected. Treating Chris Kaba as a suspected criminal ahead of seeing him as a victim will only further this inequality.
Tara Lai Quinlan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
