Met Police under fire for ‘racist’ emoji on social media photo

A senior police officer has criticised the Metropolitan Police for using an offensive emoji on social media in a photograph it posted of a Black man.

The force published an image of a Black man being stopped by two officers and covered his face with an ace of spades emoji which concealed his identity, along with a post alerting followers of heightened police presence in Edmonton, north London.

“You may have noticed significant police presence” around Edmonton, said the post, published on Thursday.

Andy George, a serving police officer in Northern Ireland and president of the National Black Police Association (NBPA), said it is “unbelievable” that the emoji was used, given that the word “spade” is a well-documented derogatory slur for Black people.

Posting on X/Twitter on Monday, he said: “Unbelievable that an ace of spades was used to cover the face of a Black person stopped by police.”

The incident comes after the Metropolitan Police was found to be institutionally racist in a recent report by Baroness Casey, which was commissioned in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer.

It also comes after a number of investigations into Black people for using emojis and other imagery to make political points.

Michael Morgan, social commentator and content creator, said: “The institutionally racist Met Police love to arrest and charge us over emojis we use and placards we hold.

“It’s been a while since anyone has dared call me a spade to my face. Imagine seeing this in 2024. I’m. livid…”

The Met Police deleted the post and issued an apology on Friday.

“We apologise for several posts which appeared on this account last night,” it posted through one of its local branch Twitter accounts.

“An inappropriate emoji was used and we know this has caused offence. We are speaking to the officer involved and professional standards colleagues.”

The “spade” slur dates back to at least 1919.

Linguistic experts have written extensively about how the term is derogatory towards Black people, steeped in racist comparisons between the symbol’s black colour and Black people’s appearance.

This criticism of the Met Police follows concern regarding highly publicised investigations by forces into Black and Asian people’s use of online images, such as a raccoon emoji and Daffy Duck GIF, on social media.

It also comes amid public outcry regarding the case of Marieha Hussain, a pregnant British-Asian woman, who has been charged with a racially aggravated offence for holding a satirical placard during a pro-Palestine protest last year that depicted Conservative politicians Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman as coconuts.

Coconut is a term of abuse, used to describe people from minoritised communities who are perceived as being sympathetic with white supremacist agendas – implying that the person is brown on the outside but white on the inside.

When approached by The Independent for comment, Chief Inspector Rob Gibbs, who is responsible for neighbourhood policing in Enfield, said: “We apologise for a post which appeared on Enfield social media accounts on Thursday evening.

“An inappropriate emoji was used and we know this has caused offence. We are working hard to raise standards and build trust with our communities.

“We understand this has not been to the standard that you or we expect. We are speaking to the officer involved.

“This matter has also been shared with professional standards colleagues to advise on next steps.”

The incident came hours after a damning report hit out at the “glacial” progress in police chiefs’ flagship plan to stamp out racism in Britain’s forces.

The new Labour government has been urged to step in and take responsibility for the police race action plan and take it out of the hands of chief constables by the Independent Scrutiny and Oversight Board (ISOB).

Their critical report comes just weeks after the National Black Police Association withdrew its support for the action plan, which was launched four years ago in a bid to drive discrimination out of police ranks.

It was announced by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing in the wake of the murder in the US of George Floyd by a police officer, which triggered anti-racism protests around the world.