The Chase’s Shaun Wallace revealed he has been racially profiled by the police on the way out of court after working as a barrister
The Chase star Shaun Wallace, who is also a barrister, spoke to Lorraine Kelly on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday and discussed racism.
He opened up about the death of George Floyd and the protests surrounding police brutality, as well as his own experience of being racially profiled.
Shaun, 60, said: “On two occasions I was coming out of Kingston Crown Court with a solicitor who happened to be white, and I was approached by these plain clothed police officers.
“They said, ‘You fit the profile of a person who was just involved in a robbery’.
I was simply taken aback and startled, and they said to me, ‘Where were you?’ and I said, ‘I was at Kingston Crown Court’.
“They asked, ‘Well what were you doing there?’
“I said, ‘Well you can look inside my bag, you’ll see what.’
“And when he saw my robes he was totally astonished.
“And at another situation I was coming out of Liverpool Crown Court, I was getting off the train at Watford Junction, and I was approached by these two plain clothed police officers, and I was a bit startled, and they said the same thing to me.”
He added that the police were not even apologetic when they realised their mistake.
Shaun advised young black people not to react to “disrespectful” police officers who disregard their human rights.
He warned them not to give the police any reason to arrest them, and added, “If you’ve done nothing wrong, you’ve got nothing to fear”.
Lorraine asked him how he dealt with the situations so calmly and without anger, and Shaun replied that he was simply not giving the police an excuse to arrest him.
“The anger which is totally understandable in relation to the death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers, who simply disregarded not only his human dignity as a human being, but also his human rights and his legal rights,” he said.
“I am glad there has been a shift in emphasis from anger, to a dignified response, because it’s important the way we approach the important change which must take place, is not to use violent means in order to affect change, because we are on the losing argument otherwise.
“But it’s important to continue the legal campaign and ensure the change so far as racism is concerned, is totally eradicated.”
