BRITISH SPRINTER Bianca Williams plans to sue the Metropolitan police after she and her partner, fellow athlete Ricardo dos Santos, were stopped by police while in a car with their three-month old son.
Williams, 26, and Dos Santos, 25, say police officers racially profiled them and were violent towards them.
The couple say they were followed by police who eventually signalled to them to pull over.
Footage of the incident shows Williams and Dos Santos being pulled from their car and handcuffed as their baby son sits in the back seat.
In the video, which was shared by the couple’s coach, Linford Christie, Williams, who sounds audibly distressed, can be heard telling officers “my son is in the car”.
One police officer can be heard telling Williams that the pair are being detained for a “search for weapons”.
Speaking to LBC’s Nick Ferrari this morning, Williams said she was separated from her son for around 45 minutes and that a neighbour’s pleas to take him out the car and comfort him were denied by the police.
Williams said she believed she and Dos Santos were pulled over and handcuffed because they are black. Asked if she was going to sue the police, Williams replied, “yes”.
“We’re going to take the legal route,” she said.
In a statement the Met said that the car, driven by Dos Santos, had blacked out windows and sped off when officers tried to stop them. Police also said the couple were driving on the wrong side of the road, although this was not included in the written report of the stop given to the couple, The Times reported.
The couple deny that they drove at speed or on the wrong side of the road.
Williams, a gold medallist, told The Times: “It’s always the same thing with Ricardo. They think he’s driving a stolen vehicle, or he’s been smoking cannabis. It’s racial profiling. The way they spoke to Ricardo, like he was scum, dirt on their shoe, was shocking.”
In a statement, the police said footage of the incident – both from social media and body cameras – had been reviewed by officers from the Directorate of Professional Standards and they are “satisfied that there is no concern around the officers’ conduct”.
Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour party, told LBC senior Met officers should feel “very uncomfortable” about how the stop was handled.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct has said it is making further enquiries into the incident.
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Another example of “round up the usual suspects”.
Of course, it’s not considered ‘misconduct’ unless one or more of the targeted-cuz-black arrestees ends up in the hospital … or the morgue.
It is shameful that the Police see it fit to handcuffed both of them even when they realise there is a baby in the Car. The Met Police should hang it’s head in shame, ‘driving whilst black’ should never be an offence.