I was unable to attend the Lambeth Police Consultative Committee meeting last week due to having to be at another meeting, but my colleague Shane Collins, the Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for Dulwich & West Norwood, did attend as per usual and put some questions for me. Firstly, I asked how the award of the Queen's Policing Medal to Asst Commissioner Cressida Dick, who was the commander on the ground during the Stockwell shooting operation where an innocent man, Jean Charles de Menezes, was shot, would help relations between the community and the police in Lambeth. This during the week when a permanment memorial to Jean Charles was erected at Stockwell Underground station - and Transport for London deserve credit for allowing it to be placed there. There has long been a makeshift memorial there but it is good that there is something more permanent. It simply beggars belief that nobody has ever been found responsible for these actions.
Shane also asked on my behalf about the Lambeth Police LGBT Liaison Officer and was told that there was someone still in post. I also put a question about the figures for homophobic hate crime in Vauxhall, considering there has been a noticeable increase across London. The police said that these figures were available on the website.This is not an altogether satisfactory response for me and I will be doing further digging about this. Vauxhall is, after Soho, London's second 'gay village' and I would be surprised if it has been isolated from the homophobic violence in the rest of London.
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