Scotland Yard chief Sir Mark Rowley has issued a thinly-veiled rebuke of politicians including Sadiq Khan over the Chris Kaba case.
Sir Mark said some people with “huge influence” risked undermining the British justice system and that rebuilding trust needed to be a “shared endeavour”.
He also revealed Kaba’s Brixton Hill-based 67 gang was behind 11 shootings in the past year, has 95 core members and is involved in the exploitation of children in south London.
The Metropolitan Police Commissioner said an “honest conversation” needed to be had over criminals like Kaba - shot dead by a police marksman in 2022 - who terrorise their own black community.
Sir Mark is clearly frustrated by Labour figures who have fuelled online debates about Kaba’s race when his ethnicity was never part of the case heard by an Old Bailey jury which cleared Sergeant Martyn Blake in three hours.
Two years ago, Mr Khan described Kaba as a “young life cut short” saying he understood “the grave concerns and impact of Chris’s death on black Londoners across our city and the anger, pain and fear it has caused – as well as the desire for justice and change”.
After last month’s verdict, he sent his “heartfelt sympathies” to his family and friends.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Labour’s MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill, supported Kaba’s parents, while Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott called for “justice” amid protests in London.
Speaking at the Crimestoppers Annual Dinner in Westminster, Sir Mark said trust “requires all of us, particularly those in positions of authority, to pull in the same direction”.
He added: “Unfortunately, I think too often this is just not the case. I think some people need to be aware of the weight of their words and how their attitudes and actions can embolden those who work against the public.
“Take the recent trial of Sergeant Martyn Blake for the shooting of Chris Kaba.
“From the outset over the last two years, the majority of the conversation online focused entirely on Chris Kaba’s ethnicity.
“Rumour and innuendo fuelled a quite dangerous narrative about supposed facts that were detached from the evidence presented to court and the verdict delivered by 12 Londoners recently.
“I go as far as to say that some people with huge influence risk undermining the British justice system, and those people should know better.
“And that’s not to say that there isn’t a national conversation to be had about disproportionately in the justice system and some of the challenges faced by communities.”
Young black men in London are 13 times more likely to be murdered than their white counterparts.
But Sir Mark wonders why there “isn’t a national outcry” in the same way as during Covid when death rates were higher among black and Asian people.
He said there needed to be more honesty about young black men being drawn into crime by gangs like the 67 collective, one London’s 10 most active.
Sir Mark said the notorious cohort uses drill music to make money and videos published online have lyrics that “incite violence and goad rivals”.
“A high number of the gang are involved in the exploitation of children,” he added.
“We’re into double figures of cases in the last year, also cuckooing of vulnerable residents and the distribution of drugs and indiscriminate use of firearms.”
Sir Mark also warned that the legal burdens faced by officers was making them nervous about enforcing the law.
He said police are handing in Tasers and refusing to become involved in car pursuits because of the risks they face from the Independent Office for Police Conduct and Crown Prosecution Service.
Father-to-be Kaba was shot through the windscreen of an Audi Q8 by Mr Blake, 40, as he tried to ram his way past police cars in Lambeth on September 5, 2022.
The two-tonne vehicle was directly linked to three shootings in five months and Kaba would have stood trial for the attempted murder of a rival at Hackney’s Oval Space nightclub had he survived.
Mr Blake is said to be living in hiding, fearing for his life and his family, after a £10,000 bounty was offered in revenge for Kaba’s death to anyone prepared to kill him.
Kaba’s family vowed to continue their campaign in his name.
