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'Disgrace': Champion sprinter films 'disgusting' encounter with police

A 50-50 split image shows Bianca Williams on the left, and a picture depicting the scene after she was wrongly pulled over and searched by Metropolitan Police.
British athletics star Bianca Williams has detailed a horrific encounter with Metropolitan Police, in which she and her training partner were pulled over, erroneously accused of having weapons in the car, and police separated Williams from her three-month-old child. Pictures: biancaawills/Instagram

British sprinter Bianca Williams and her partner have accused London police of racial profiling after officers stopped and searched the couple's car, with their three-month-old son inside.

Williams and Ricardo dos Santos, a Portuguese sprinter, are both black and were stopped in their Mercedes on Saturday afternoon.

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The 26-year-old Williams said Metropolitan Police “put out a fabricated report” about driving on the wrong side of the road.

“Time for change and for actions to have consequences,” Williams wrote Sunday on her Instagram account. “Still incredibly hurt and shaken by my ordeal yesterday.”

“They say the uk isn’t racist,” Williams wrote in a Twitter post that linked to her response in The Times newspaper.

Williams, a sprint relay gold medallist at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and 2018 European Championship, told the newspaper “it's always the same thing” and dos Santos has been pulled over many times.

“The way they spoke to Ricardo, like he was scum, dirt on their shoe, was shocking. It was awful to watch,” Williams said.

Video of the incident has circulated on social media.

Williams can be heard saying “he didn't do anything” as Dos Santos exits the car.

She is then pulled from the back seat. A female officer is heard saying they plan to search the car for weapons.

Williams told The Times they were considering legal action against the police.

The video was posted by British Olympic gold medalist Linford Christie, who is training Williams and the 25-year-old Dos Santos for next year's Tokyo Olympics.

“Racist police aren't just in America," Christie wrote on Twitter.

Bianca Williams, pictured here in a frightening altercation with police.
Bianca Williams filmed her frightening encounter with police. Image: Instagram

In a separate post, he added: “Was it the car that was suspicious or the black family in it.”

Williams also posted the video to her Instagram account, later saying the officers’ behaviour was “disgusting” in an interview with Sky News.

Television host Piers Morgan weighed in on the issue on Twitter, arguing it was incidents like Williams’ that were what prompted ongoing protests against police conduct.

“This video is a disgrace & EXACTLY the kind of racial injustice that people have been protesting about,” Morgan wrote.

Police say no ‘misconduct issues’ found

Metropolitan Police issued a statement on Monday that said the stop was made because the car “was being driven in a manner that raised suspicion, heavily braking and accelerating which included driving on the wrong side of the road. They indicated for it to stop but it failed to do so and accelerated off.”

The police said the driver initially refused to get out of the car, then both adult occupants were handcuffed while the car was searched.

Nothing illegal was found and no arrests were made.

Bianca Williams, pictured here at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia.
Bianca Williams (centre) at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. (Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images)

The Directorate of Professional Standards reviewed footage from social media and the officers' body cameras.

“We are satisfied that there are no misconduct issues,” Commander Helen Harper said.

“The officers were deployed to a high violence area of London and (because of) the manner of the driving raised suspicion, it is only right that they act on it.

Harper added they were trying to contact the couple, and invited the pair to call the police.

She said the Independent Office for Police Contact is also reviewing the officers' actions.

With Yahoo Sports staff