Like so many around the world, I felt deep pain and anger watching the killing of George Floyd. These feelings remain.…
Earlier this week, Jeremy Joseph, owner of the legendary LGBT nightclub G-A-Y, posted a comment on Facebook which surprised me…
Eight years ago, Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States. Today, Americans will choose their next President – a…
Until recently, I didn’t even realise I was a Black Gay Man. Gay – yes, but Black – no. Ridiculous,…
Ever since I was a boy, it was my dream to become a policeman. Growing up in Toxteth, Liverpool, amid the riots of the 1980s, it must have seemed crazy: black gay scousers from working-class estates didn’t go into the police. I joined Greater Manchester police three months after 9/11. From training, through to my…
I sit here pondering on the life I had. For 11 years I served as a police officer in Britain, firstly in Manchester and then in London. After my experiences of racism and homophobia in the force, and falling ill with depression because of them, I was forced out of my job as a detective. My life fell apart.…
Ever since I was a young black boy in Liverpool, I dreamt of becoming blue. Years later, I would fulfil my childhood dream and become a police officer in Britain. But as a black cop who served in both the north and south of England, the challenges I faced because of my colour were unpleasant…
Like so many around the world, I felt deep pain and anger watching the killing of George Floyd. These feelings remain. Watching George calling out for his mother, telling Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin who had his knee on his neck, ‘I can’t breathe’ before his eyes closed was a truly horrific experience. It was a…
Three months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, on a cold December morning, I reported for duty at GMP’s training school in Bury, a looming brick structure with long iron gates. At twenty-three years old, with my recently issued uniform in bags, I was about to cross the threshold of the Sedgley Park…
I was born in Liverpool in 1978, two months before my mum’s 42nd birthday. I was her 11th and last child – she had her own football team. Like all of my siblings, I was mixed race. My mother was white, with long brown hair and piercing blue eyes flecked with green. I was a…