Ex-Met officer Rob Lewis is said to reflect a Met culture of racism and misogyny. Lewis was suspended by the Home Office following a BBC investigation that revealed he created a WhatsApp group filled with offensive and racist content. The group’s members included officers from the Diplomatic Protection Group (DPG).
The BBC’s Newsnight programme has received numerous messages from the group referencing the government’s decision to deport migrants to Rwanda for processing, slurring black MPs, and disparaging the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. At least one joke referred to the recent catastrophic flooding in Pakistan, which resulted in an estimated 1,700 fatalities and displaced millions.
According to BBC’s Newsnight, many of the serving police officers left the group after Sarah Everard was abducted and killed last year by Wayne Couzens, a member of the DPG.
Former DPG member Dave Eden gathered proof of prejudice in British policing, some of which he shared with the BBC. ‘This group tells me that the culture of the Metropolitan Police hasn’t changed. And in fairness, it’s not just this group, it’s other groups. It’s what I’m hearing out of the mouths of ex-colleagues. And what I’m witnessing all the time’, Eden said to the BBC.
Sir Mark Rowley, the new Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, claimed that his reform strategy is in progress. He said he ‘will be ruthless in rooting out those corrupting officers and staff, including racists and misogynists, from our organisation.’
Sadiq Khan commented on the Met’s history of dealing with these issues, stating that ‘the Met has previously been far too weak and slow to act when this kind of unacceptable behaviour has been exposed.’
Assuring Londoners that he would hold the Met accountable, he said that any officers discovered to have engaged in sexism, racism, misogyny, homophobia, bullying, or harassment certainly do not deserve to wear the Met uniform.
