Michael, welcome to Waterstones. It's great to have you here to talk about your
memoir, Kill The Black One First. It's a very provocative title and we'll come
back to that a bit later but I actually wanted to start with the woman that this
book is dedicated to: Margaret Hurst. She's an incredible woman, clearly, from
reading your book. And she was the woman who looked after you whilst you were
growing up in care. I wondered if you could tell me first of all what were the
main lessons or things that you learned from her?
It's worth mentioning that Margaret Hurst
was a house mother so she looked after me. She was white and she
was an amazing woman and I suppose she taught me a number of
things which I've then used in bringing up children myself, very
successfully. And she set very clear boundaries in terms of what I could do,
you know, and what I shouldn't do. She was very much into Christian values of
mustn't lie, cheat or steal. And if I did something wrong there would always be
consequences, I wouldn't get away with it. So that affected how I was,
how I treated other children. And she was very concerned about fair treatment of others.
She also was the person who sort of
instigated this idea about how to respond to perceived moments of racism.
Could you tell us a bit more about why that was so important?
Well, in the book I describe lots of instances of racism and the one thing I know is the
natural thing and the instinctive thing is to react emotionally as soon as you
hear something that's offensive. And some of the police officers I met
were unashamedly racist. And so what I would do having been taught by Margaret was
stop, think about what's being said, process it and then decide how to react.
So I've regularly seen road rage in the streets where people don't do that, they
do the opposite, they react and then often regret what they've
said or what they do. I was taught very much the opposite, you know, just to stop,
keep calm, think about what has happened, what has gone on and then decide how
best to react and that has been a great
reaction and is often meant that I've taken things up through official
channels and issues have been dealt with, whatever they were, they might have
been children at school, they might have been other police officers and generally
that I've had a happy outcome that I've been happy with and a just outcome.
I think the other thing is that I found it very difficult when members of
the black community called me a traitor, a coconut, shouted insults, because that
that was far more hurtful than any other racist insults. And you know not
all police officers were racist, you know, I would not have got promoted and
reached the top of the police service if that had been the case.
They were one or two individuals who were unashamedly racist
and that was condoned by other people who may not be like-minded but you
know their behaviour was condoned or nobody did anything about it. So the
thing that hurt the most was my own, members of what I saw as my own community
and they didn't see me in the same light. But members of the black community in
particular calling me and shouting about the fact that I was a traitor and you
know clearly there was certainly noacceptance from certain members of the black community,
Do you think we've made a lot of progress since you were in the
police force or do we still have a long way to go?
I think we have.
Certainly at the start of the book, clearly there was tremendous hatred
towards the police, there were lots of sins
I was bearing the brunt of. When I got off that bus and walked into that riot
I was targeted, I was singled out, and I had a petrol bomb thrown at me.
I didn't realise it was a petrol bomb, there was very much
the sound of breaking glass and somebody had shouted 'kill the black
one first.' There was this strange sort of laughter, which I've described as
guttural and I thought well maybe he's just joking. And then the next thing
is I smell petrol vapor and then flames just shot up in front of me and the
officer who was beside me and you know if we hadn't had shields we
we would have been on fire. So it's quite obvious that I was bearing the brunt of
years of hatred and antagonism between the police and the black community. And I
couldn't understand it .I mean I'd never been in a riot like that. I'd never been
trained to deal with petrol bombs. And I thought well here I am, this nice guy, I'm
here to help people, and why are they being so horrible to me. And I felt very
naive and very green and you know I had to reflect very hard on whether I wanted
to continue doing that job.
I want to go back to to your sort of childhood in a
way because you seem to have this incredibly innate sense of justice and I
wondered where it came from. And there is this recurring image in the book of a
figure in a window because you saw a burglary being committed in the home
in which you were being brought up. And I wondered whether that was where that
sense of justice came from or is it again does it come directly from
Margaret and that idea of there being consequences for misbehaving?
I think both. So at the age of 8-years old, the children's home I
was in ,so we all moved, so the good thing is I wasn't moved around, there was
continuity of care and Margaret was a constant figure in my very early life
from the age of 18 months right through to 16 year old years old, where sadly at
16 she died, Margaret died of ovarian cancer. But she taught me this sense of
justice. So the figure that you refer to I saw in the window as he was leaving
the window, was a young boy a lot older than me. I was 8 years old, he was
probably 17/18 and he was climbing out of the window. And he'd broken into the
children's home, stole some money and valuables and it was very shocking.
Called the police, it was the local beat bobby who I knew who came round. I
remarked about the fact our dog didn't bark and I was very disappointed. The
following morning when I took the dog for a walk I saw somebody and certainly
the back of the head of a figure that looked very familiar and I I thought
that must be him. Anyway, excitedly I ran to the local bobby's house. It was
about a mile, mile and a half away which for me, you know, who enjoyed running
was no big deal. And the Bobby came back and he was very
quick to get ready, we went back to the park and the police officer spoke to
this boy who has it as it happened he had our valuables on him and the
money and the cash that he'd stolen and admitted that he had burgled our place the
night before. And I saw him and he was quite a sad figure and not how I'd
imagined. I mean you do fantasize as to what a burglar is like, but when I
actually saw this figure it was far less frightening and there wasn't the
anonymity that there would normally be. I knew who'd broken into our house and
more important was that great feeling of satisfaction I got, of getting our
property now, getting the money back and the fact that this individual
hadn't got away with it. And maybe he would have been helped; he obviously had
some problems or was homeless temporarily. But either way it was a just outcome.
Anybody who makes their first arrest at the age of 8 is obviously
destined for greatness. I mean the book is filled with, not only amazing
achievements that you've had in your life, but also very moving details and I
think Margaret is the kind of emotional anchor of that book, she's clearly an
extraordinary woman, had such a positive outcome on your life, so it
seems very fitting that the book is dedicated to her. But Michael it's just
brilliant to talk to you about this memoir, thank you so much.
Great, pleasure.