LETTER:Sir Paul Condon's damaging race statistics

From Cllr Tayo Oke and others

Sir: Sir Paul Condon's vituperative figures about the criminal travails of "young black males" around London ("Howard backs Yard chief in race row", 8 July) are ill-informed, and dangerously provocative. Far from helping to stem the tide of crime, such figures tend to play on people's prejudices, ultimately giving rise to one of the most heinous crimes of all: racism. Sir Paul's attempt at "waking up" black community leaders from "inertia" by lending credibility to peoples' racist fears defies logic.

He seemed to have taken a calculated gamble in his apparent effort at shaming the black community leadership into action on "black crime", but he has instead, lost whatever credibility he and his colleagues have left among the black community as a whole.

Sir Paul may be forgiven for being brave, but the foolishness of his decision will haunt him for a long time to come.

Yours faithfully,

Tayo Oke

Stewart Elliot

Angelina Simpson

London, SE6

9 July