Police get the stick

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, JUNE 27. Police in the riot-hit Burnley were today portrayed as a bad advertisement for race relations after a prominent Asian community leader complained that he was assaulted by policemen and arrested for allegedly creating disturbances when he was in fact trying to calm down a group of rioters on Monday.

Meanwhile, the fragile peace in Burnley came under pressure when a white man was knocked down by a car allegedly driven by Asians. Police said they were treating it as a racist incident. It was stated that two white men were walking down a street when a car, in which there were some Asians, pulled up. There was an argument and the car sped away. ``It then turned around and came back towards them,'' said the police. While one man quickly got out of the way, the other was hit. He was admitted to hospital with a broken leg.

The widely reported incident involving Mr. Shahid Malik, a high- profile Labour activist and member of the Commission for Racial Equality who had been praised for his role in pacifying the Asian youth, deeply embarrassed the police, already under pressure to improve their image. An investigation, announced by the Lancashire police, was dismissed as a formality even as Mr. Malik insisted on an apology and threatened legal action.

Mr. Malik, whose bleeding visage and heavily stitched eyebrow told their own story, said the episode was the ``biggest (police) botch in history'' and had badly damaged race relations.

``The community desperately wants to have confidence in the police service. On this occasion by hurting someone who has been very supportive, they have made the biggest botch in history,'' he said describing the attack on him as ``completely unprovoked''. He was surrounded by riot police officers and assaulted with shields even as he kept protesting that he was on their side, and was trying to help ease the situation. He said he had been telling Asian youths that they should not target the police when he himself became a target of police attack.

His father, Mr. Rafique Malik, deputy mayor of Burnley, was distraught. He said he had always believed that the community should help the police but the assault on his son had shaken him. ``That part of my job will become terribly hard now. How on earth can I say to any young person that their complaints against the police are wrong. They will say: look what happened to your son.'' He said he was an eyewitness to the police clobbering of his son. ``I couldn't believe what I saw. I saw the police officers hitting him when he was on the ground,'' he told journalists.

Mr. Paul Stephenson, deputy chief constable of Lancashire police, admitted that there had been `confrontation' but said it would be wrong for him to comment on the ``rights and wrongs'' of the incident which would be established by an investigation. ``There is video evidence, and there is evidence we have. It would be quite wrong for me to sit there and listen to the allegations made in the media and not respond. That is why I have launched an investigation. We have to wait for the outcome of that investigation,'' he said. Asked if it was proper to hit someone with a riot shield, he said it would be justified if the officer's safety was threatened.

Local Asians said the incident simply confirmed their charge of racial bias against the police, and argued that if this could happen to someone who was seen as an `apologist' for the authorities, how could anyone have faith in them? Commentators feared the police had further alienated the ethnic groups, and made its own job more difficult. ``The incident marred what otherwise was considered to be a successful night for the police, said The Times .

Meanwhile, Burnley started to return to an uneasy normality amid continued verbal sniping from both sides. In media interviews, both Asians - nearly all Pakistanis and Bangladeshis - and whites blamed each other for creating tension, each side accusing the other of causing provocation. ''We are not looking for trouble, but if they come after us we are going to go after them,`` an angry Asian youth told a TV channel echoing a widespread sentiment among young Asians that unlike their parents they were not prepared to turn the other cheek in the face of racial abuse.

Mr. Nick Griffin, chairman of the far-right British National Party which has been blamed for tension in mixed neighbourhoods, repeated his demand for racial segregation. He said the white and Asian communities should be separated by building walls between their homes. He denied his party was stoking trouble and said tension was inevitable when ''liberals in ivory towers`` tried to push `multiculturalism' down people's throats.

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