ANONYMOUS RAISES VALID ISSUES about the NBPA

I have special permission from the anonymous person and totally UNPC, who no longer does Custody!, to extract a quote, "BIB - about time you committed to change from within then. Stand for some of the NBPA's officer posts, locally and then nationally. Encourage others to do the same. You won't achieve much just moaning about it from the sidelines. Maybe you are doing this and can't get through the self-interest barrier set up by those already in position, but like all democratic organisations, you have to keep trying and use your vote - unless the NBPA isn't a democratic organisation, and members want to achieve promotion via tokenism and quotas? Maybe you could encourage the Federation to do more? Maybe they (Feds) are just as wary and scared of being labelled as racist for raising pertinent points. So difficult these days isn't it? " The anonymous person, whoever they are, and I am hoping they are inside the job, has hit the nail on the head. In my opinion it is so difficult. These are facts: It is nire on impossible to change things from within the NBPA movement. This body is full of power struggles at this moment in time. And whilst power struggles continue inside, the real work outside of anti racism falters. So who benefits? Current leaders of course. They don't want an NBPA THAT IS ROBUST because if it was, the NBPA would have a more significant impact on areas such as Trident, crime in the Asian communities, Black on Black gun crime, drug crime, etc. I do not hear anything from the NBPA when any of these key areas are mentioned. Why? Because those in the NBPA are incompetent to these issues. So what are these people doing there? And who put them there? These individuals are released by police organisations? Are police organisations going to release those that rock the boat to effect these key areas? No, because these individuals would identify the flaws in the system and challenge these liberal leaders, and they simply can't take it. The problem is not at a street level. The problem is in the middle and Senior positions, and the problem relates to these peoples ego's. How democratic is the NBPA? It is only as good as the people in it. Some Black colleagues that form the whole movement have no understanding of race, and like most organisations, attendance at conference is a jolly, so these people exist, and remember those in power are strategically placed by others in power. I have been trying my best from the inside to change things. It's impossible. Some of these people do one's legs and this is a polite way to put it. As for the Federation, I have known some switched on colleagues, who have argued disproportionality and I trust these individuals, but there is fear, fear of change, and a fear that we, as individuals want power. Put simply, some of us are not interested in power, but nor are we interested in the types of racial games organisations play. And these games, I would liken to, "Cowboys and Indians." These are horrendous games played by people in power against those Black and White colleagues that challenge rightly, because these people know, if things change, that will make the slippery slope they climbed, even slippier for THEM. Inside each organisation there will be Black and White colleagues that do treat minoirty ethnic people with dignity and respect, I think the majority do. Then there are innocent mistakes. We should be able to forgive these. Then there are some idiots. These are the ones that need dealing with. But inside your own organisation, you will see Black colleagues that do have a passion for this subject, they have no agenda at all, but preventing racial asaults, murder, etc. and of course race equality. These people are in a minority. Then you will see tokens, and to be honest Ghaffur was a token until the very end in my opinion. He hardly spoke out about racism and when he did he had moved up the ladder, but in moving up he also undermined some of us, and he knew it. So there is a difference in relation to those that care really and those that say they care. It's all our jobs to understand the difference in these peoples. I invite any comments. I would rather have genuine White officers in the NBPA then tokens who practice their own prejudices. A thank you to anonymous and totally UNPC, who incidentally does not do custody!, and a note, if you read the last blog you may realise why the NBPA as a movement exists. There are some vicious and dangerous academic bigots in the country, but in my opinion, these people remain hidden, the dangerous one's are not those at the sharp end at the lower ranks in the service. There are few dangerous one's at this level. There are, however, dangerous people out there, and some managers are incompetent, that is all. Any views about the NBPA, please add them here.