Atoning for past sins and present pain

The Daily Telegraph has reported that the British Transport Police intend to fund a bursary for black students to study law to ‘make amends’ for the actions of a corrupt officer (DS Ridgewell) and his associates nearly 50 years ago. Ridgewell was corrupt. He fitted up innocent young black men (The Oval Four and the Stockwell Six etc), was involved with organised crime groups and he stole large amounts of property. The story of his downfall, imprisonment and death is well known but it is only in the last couple of years that the cases have come before the Court of Appeal which has quashed numerous convictions. Ridgewell also targeted white men (including other serving officers) but the impact on the black community transcends even the horrors experienced by the victims of his crimes. Nearly half a century on the issues caused by police corruption and racism of the 1970s still casts a long shadow.

The Chief Constable of BTP is quoted as saying:

“Last year we issued an apology for the trauma suffered by the British African community through the criminal actions of former police officer Derek Ridgewell, who worked at BTP in the 1960s and 1970s.

“His inexcusable actions led to the conviction of innocent people and do not define the BTP today. It is important to do more than simply apologise and commit to learning from our past.

“We want to bring about real and meaningful change – improving community trust and confidence, whilst investing in future talent. This bursary aims to ensure that British African communities are better represented within the UK judicial system, which will benefit us all.”

There will be commentators who will dismiss this as a PR exercise, or as an example of mere tokenism. I disagree. This is an attempt to acknowledge and to atone. That it has taken so long for this to happen is another source of regret, but that does not detract from the sincerity which is a hallmark of this approach. Sometimes confronting the bad things in our history – especially the bad things that still have an effect – takes more than words. I applaud the efforts of BTP in taking some practical action.

Comments

Give me a firm place to stand.........

Is policing better today than it was 50 years ago? Is this even a valid question? My answer to both is straightforward: ‘I don’t know’. I suspect that most things are better and some things have declined but generally it is the sort of question that can take up a lot of time and enough hot air to power a dirigible. I really DON’T want to start a debate on this because what concerns me most is my own shifting perspective. As a grumpy git I find the sight of scruffy police officers looking bored and staring at their telephones really annoying. I don’t understand why wearing a traditional helmet is so difficult and I don’t like the rather lightweight approach to discipline. On the other hand my professional dealings with police officers show me that modern officers are bright, caring, thoughtful and determined to do the right thing. As events demonstrate there is no shortage of brave people in today’s service. The horrors of racism and misogyny still haunt the service

Law and History 2: JUST THE SAME AS OTHER FORCES?

Reading through this before posting makes me fear that it is not historical enough for this blog and trespasses into contemporary issues. So be it. But I do feel it necessary to remind readers that this blog does NOT represent the view of the BTPHG. These ramblings are mine alone. It is rarely accurate to say that history repeats itself, but it is true that somethings that we think are settled in the past return to challenge us again. When I was a serving police officer in BTP I saw a steady evolution in the status of the force. The achievements of officers, particularly in facing the ‘decade of disasters’ (1980s) and the acknowledged expertise of BTP in dealing with certain classes of activity (terrorism, theft person, theft of goods in transit, major incident response, football disorder etc) all led to an increasing recognition that BTP was an equal member of the police family. In concrete terms this had been marked by the recommendation of the Wright Committee into the

Police Review & Parade Gossip 1902/3

I have, at long last, returned to my project of searching early editions of Police Review & Parade Gossip for items relating to the Rail, Dock and Canal (RDC) Policing. I have run into a couple of years where the index (which was compiled at the end of end calendar year) is missing which means I have had no choice but to go through every page of every edition. Police Review was a weekly publication that described itself as ‘The Organ of the British Constabulary’. It provides a valuable insight into the issues that concerned police officers and the public. So, what were the big questions of the early Edwardian period? Well, questions of law make a frequent appearance together with operational demands. The delay to the Coronation of Edward VII in 1902 (he was ill) led to a lot of operational angst. Even today mutual aid brings challenges but imagine what it was like when there were 243 forces (i) covering England, Scotland and Wales. Assaults on officers were at a v

Policing Public Transport: A Neglected History

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