Of course you can connect the two. I admire your confidence that the difference in Covid mortality rates is down to genetics. But isn't your insistence on a genetic origin founded in your concern to avoid any suggestion that BAME people, or more specifically blacks, are generally considered as second-class citizens, have lower incomes, lower educational attainment and poorer access to health services?
Do you know how many white people have died in police custody since 1969? I don't, but I can tell you that in the 15 years to 2018/19 white deaths in custody were 43 per million people, and black were 72 per million. There is an even greater racial disparity in other aspects of policing: according to 2018/19 statistics, blacks were eight times more likely to be stopped and searched than whites; the police were five times more likely to use force against blacks than against whites; eleven times more likely to deploy firearms (but not necessarily fire them), eight times more likely to use batons, six times more likely to use handcuffs, and twice as likely to detain under the Mental Health Act. Thank goodness we're a long way behind the USA in police treatment of blacks, but we've still a hell of a long way to go.
As for yesterday's demo, there's no way I would have participated in it, but we shouldn't be too quick to condemn the protest, either because of the actions of a small unruly minority or bceause of failure to observe social distancing. At least the vast majority of people used masks, which is in stark contract to the majority of people in Chiswick.
Robert Fish ● 2340d