Condon has now decided that to accept institutional racism in the Met is to accuse all his officers of being racists. That is not what is meant by the term. Institutional racism is shown in the clear patterns of differential policing meted out on a systematic basis against black people. The whole criminal justice system then compounds those racist patterns. Black events, black areas, black meeting places are targeted for special policing.
Black people are four to five times more likely to be stopped and searched.
No one gets found guilty of racism, no one gets suspended or punished and charges are never brought following a violent death in custody. All of these practices point to an institutional culture of racism - nurtured in the top ranks, spread through the canteen culture and reinforced in the unhealthily close relationship between police press officers and the yellow press. As a result, black people are rarely seen as victims of crime, which in turn means that racial violence is never taken seriously enough. If you are not paying your police officers a wage they can live on, you are almost inviting them to indulge in malpractice.