The British police was seized this Monday after the road control of the black athlete Ricardo Dos Santos, already arrested two years ago along with his companion, a case that had fueled the accusations of racism that shook the London police forces.
“We are now considering this case as a complaint. We have decided to bring it to the Independent Office for Police Behavior” (IOPC), the body responsible for complaints against law enforcement, Scotland Yard said in a statement.
The episode took place overnight from Saturday to Sunday at around 4am in central London.
A questionable first arrest in 2020
Ricardo Dos Santos, a 27-year-old Portuguese athlete specialized in the 400 meters with modest results, explained on his Twitter account that he was intercepted when he was traveling alone in his car. He accompanied his messages with videos taken from various angles by cameras installed in his vehicle, a Tesla electric car.
According to him, “the police pulled me over because they thought I was talking on the phone while driving.” He assured that “it was stopped as soon as possible with total security”, but he was surprised by the participation of “seven armed policemen” in the operation, and regretted that “after two years nothing has changed”.
Ricardo Dos Santos and his partner, black British sprinter Bianca Williams, were arrested in July 2020 while driving with their three-month-old baby. The couple had been handcuffed and searched by the police, who found nothing. The videos of the arrest shared on social networks caused a scandal and the athlete accused the police of having attacked her because of the color of her skin.
A report points to discriminatory behavior
This case had fueled accusations of racism against the prestigious “Met Police” in London, in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement. An extensive investigation launched at the time into racial discrimination within the police force led to disciplinary proceedings for five officers.
Since then, former Scotland Yard director Cressida Dick resigned in February in the wake of a damning IOPC report pointing to racist, misogynistic and discriminatory behavior within her teams.
Regarding the last incident, the London police justified the number of agents mobilized by the fact that the driver did not stop immediately when he had “clearly asked”. From the same source, after police spoke with the driver, he “was cleared to resume his journey.”
Source: BFM TV
