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.

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