Forced Out
By Kevin Maxwell
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Granta Books
Gifted*
Watch the Breakdown
Forced Out is a memoir/ exposé providing an insight into the day-to-day operations of the British Police Force. Told from the experiences of Kevin Maxwell, a mixed-race/Black gay man. Kevin Maxwell was raised in a working-class home in Liverpool with a clear vision of his future career. Regardless of other peoples views growing up he believed in the work of the Police and wanted to join. He followed through and in 2001 started working for the Force. That wasn’t before he received a phone call just before his start date delaying it. It came out years later, unknown to Kevin, that Manchester police had stalled his application because Merseyside Police had troubled his brother who was in the process of holding them accountable. His brother received damages but was never apologised to.
Kevin quickly learned that his expectations and reality of the Police Force were in two different parties. During his training a memo was put out telling the ‘ethnic’ intake to meet up for a photo shoot, it was for a media campaign to show the public the police were committed to equal opportunities. Kevin declined, but the racial divide was clear even from then. Throughout his years working for both Greater Manchester and London’s Metropolitan Police forces, Kevin was subjected to homophobia, transparent racism and outright prejudice, by the hands of the force. Resulting in significant mental health problems and eventually an employment tribunal, which took what little of him he had left.
This book questions to the core how an establishment with such clear prejudice and racism can really protect and serve the people? After all, this book shows that they don’t even respect the differences in ‘their own’.
Is that how you’re feeling yeah
More than anything else I feel disappointment. I’ve had questionable experiences with the Police, read articles, and seen way too many videos that show how police discriminate certain groups of people, but to read so clear cut from an insider’s first-hand account how they treat their staff and intentionally target people is madness. I hate tick boxing exercises but HELLO!!! This is someone who could have really helped the force. A gay, black man, from the hood who signed up to the force off of his own back, and the results. STOP IT!
It takes it from potential paranoia, and cases being the exception to really acknowledging these things have been the norm not unrelated exceptions. More than anything it highlights popular belief, particularly in Black and Asian communities, that the police is institutionally racist and doesn’t serve the people. Big things said there, I know I know. Let me back my views up.
As a nation, Britain looks at America judging their police brutality and racism but you really don’t have to look ‘across the pond.’ This book was written before the murder of George Floyd in America. This is the police that was declared institutionally racist after the handling of the murder investigation of Stephen Lawrence in 1992. This year alone it’s gone public that a Black bank manager is suing the Metropolitan Police for racial discrimination and profiling after a 26-month investigation that saw charges of firearms, money laundering and terrorism rise and is dropped against him.
On a side note, I appreciated the information but found the writing tone of this book to be really bland. the exposé was informative, but the memoir was dry, there was no charisma to it. The information and insight that came from the book are the most important, so I can live without it being engaging.
It Hit me When
I realised that the Police job is a part sales gig. To learn that they have targets and league tables was a real shock to me. I’m all here wondering if they get a commission.
“Being the best cop in the station no longer meant being the one who could talk someone down from the rooftop or comfort a family after the death of a young child. Now, the best cop was the one who made the most arrests, gave out the most traffic tickets, and produced the most paperwork.”
Call me naive but I certainly didn’t realise that there were quotas and targets to be met within departments.I found 2 things in particular to be chilling: Landing cards, Stop & Search procedures.
“A young black person is walking or cycling along a high street when he is stopped by the police. The reasons for the stop don’t matter. The officer asks if he is known to the police. The young person says no. Because this is how he is programmed the officer doesn’t believe this. After the officer has made his checks, the young person is confirmed as ‘not known’ and sent on his way. The officer, not wanting a complaint, places the young person on the criminal intelligence database by recording the stop. Now we have a young person who is not a criminal, and has never been in trouble with the police, appearing on a criminal database. Two weeks pass, and the young person is walking along the same, or another street. Again, he is stopped, by different officers. He is again asked to account for his presence and if he is known to the police. He says no. Technically, he is right. But to the officers, he has lied. The database lists him as known.”
To have a target for Stop & Search/ Stop & Talk procedures is so dangerous. When it is was broken down in the book it hit me how the system is really affecting people. People are ending up with criminal records and being listed on the criminal database for no ethical or legal reason. They are being dragged into a system. And one potential wrong turn during these procedures can have major knock on effects.
“In order to keep up their stop figures, my colleagues would attend the immigration desks, mainly when they were unstaffed, and take a handful of landing cards that had been filled in by passengers who had long gone. They would sift through the cards, looking for what they considered non-white names. These passengers would then be processed, using the information from the cards, and put onto a police database as if they had been stopped.”
Imagine you enter England at Heathrow airport, you fill in your landing card as per the requirement and go about your day. To find out that peoples details are being used by the Police wrongly, to help them achieve their targets is mindblowing. The book talks about officers who have chilled in the booths in the airport all day, not even being bothered to do their jobs and then like clockwork towards the end of their shift going fishing for landing cards. C’mon this is clear behaviour of people who believe they are untouchable.
Seasoning Level
CO2 | Salt | Pepper | Mixed Herbs | All Purpose Seasoning
Length
332 pages, including the acknowledgement and notes. The book is way too long. The writing style isn’t engaging at all.
*Gifted by Granta Books