Democratic Policing and National Security/ Combatting Terror

Name
Instructor
Course
Date
The difficulty of balancing public safety and human rights in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom stands out as one of the least corrupt nations in the world but this does not imply that incidences of corruption are not experienced when promoting public safety and human rights. One incidence that evidences the challenges experienced while trying to promote public safety is the murder of Stephen Lawrence in the year 1993 (Long and Cullen 281). The victim was a black teenager murdered by white racists (Long and Cullen 281). Every individual residing in the UK has the right to life despite their age, race, colour, gender or social status but this was not the case for Stephen Lawrence. The Metropolitan Police did not look into the matter properly due to institutional racism. Therefore, Stephen Lawrence’s case indicates how racism poses a challenge when it comes to promoting public safety or human rights in the United Kingdom.
The second real-life example that indicates how challenging it is to promote public safety is the London bombing in 2005. The bombings were carried out by the terror network al-Quaeda and resulted in 52 deaths and 700 people were injured (Long and Cullen 297). The United Kingdom has established counterterrorism policies and strategies but this did not prevent the London bombing (Long and Cullen 297). Despite having the Antiterrorist Branch, the London bombing could not be prevented. Despite the state of infrastructure and personnel involved in promoting public safety, there are still some challenges in attaining the goals.

The United Kingdom’s foreign policies make it prone to attacks from Muslim extremists. Therefore, this example evidences how challenging it is to promote public safety and human rights since human life is lost through acts of terrorism originating from extremist groups considered minorities in the UK.

Work Cited
Long, Matt, and Stuart Cullen. “Democratic Policing-Global Change From a Comparative Perspective.” pp. 277-299.