Police attack media for 'ignoring' black killings

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'Yardie' crimes often fail to hit the headlines

One of Britain's most senior police officers has accused the media of verging on "institutionally racism" for failing to report a series of murders involving black people.

Ian Blair, the Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, described as "outrageous" and "shaming" the fact that 16 fatal shootings of black men in London by other black men during the past eight months had gone largely unreported. There were a further 74 attempted murders in the same period involving so-called black on black shootings as part of a drugs war.

Mr Blair, who is second in command of the Met, told The Independent: "If this was white young women being murdered at the rate black men are being murdered it would be headlines everywhere. I think there's something really wrong.

"To me, it is pretty close to institutional racism within the media. It seems extraordinary that this level of violence is not reported. I think there's a sense of 'these people are black drug dealers and so what'. I think it is quite shaming."

He said the murders and attempted killings, often involving rival Jamaican "Yardie" crack cocaine suppliers and British-born drug dealers, were having an "incredibly destructive effect" on parts of the black community who were in fear of their safety.

He said that was partly due to "the inevitability of innocent bystanders and police officers being killed in the crossfire".

Mr Blair's use of the phrase "institutional racism" echoes the words used against the Metropolitan Policein a report by Sir William Macpherson of Cluny in 1999, after the inquiry into the police's botched investigation of the murder of the black teenager Stephen Law-rence, by a white gang.

The officer's criticism of the media follows new figures from Scotland Yard that show a record number of people are being killed and injured in shootings in London, and that more than 1,000 firearms were recovered on the capital's streets in the past eight months, one-third of which were real. Mr Blair admitted: "The problem is getting worse."

Although detectives investigating the shootings were having some notable success in convicting the killers, they were frustrated at the media's apparent lack of interest. Without widespread publicity, many potential witnesses might stay quiet or be unaware they may hold vital information.

The problem of gun crime in London is soaring, with a record of 30 fatal shootings from April to November, compared with 16 in the same period last year. Of those, there were 16 "black on black" killings compared with nine last year, a rise of 77 per cent.

Lambeth, which includes the Brixton area in south London, was still the hotspot for gun crime involving drug-dealing gangsters, while other high-crime areas included Hackney, Haringey, Brent and Camden.

Commander Alan Brown, the head of the Operation Trident task force against "black on black" crime, said: "We have seen shootings in the West End. This is not just happening in Hackney or Brent, this is a problem for all of London."

But he said there was the beginnings of a "sea change" in police relations with the black community. "The level of violence is increasing and the black communities are saying enough is enough."

Of the 14 non-black fatal shootings, the victims of all except three were involved in criminal disputes. Six were white, four were Turkish and one was a Pakistani. The remaining three were victims of a domestic dispute in which a father shot his family.