Police have banned bashment from being played at a Croydon nightspot.

A leaked email picked up by the Croydon Advertiser today shows police told Dice Bar owner Roy Seda to stop playing what “this borough finds unacceptable forms of music.”

This led Nero Ughwujabo, chief executive of Croydon Black and Ethnic Minority (BME) Forum, to accuse the police of racial profiling. 

“Singling out Caribbean and specifically Jamaican music as being associated with crime and disorder is profiling – which is unacceptable,” says Ughwujabo.

Seda claims that concerns about bashment were first raised with him at a meeting with one of the police’s licensing team, PC Darren Rhodes, last February.

“We had a flyer which said R&B, garage, house, bashment and hip hop and I was advised to remove the word bashment because chart and commercial music is considered safer,” explains Seda.

In June last year he received an email from Sgt Michael Emery, another licensing officer, who wrote: “You have been given a substantial amount of support from your security provider and PC Rhodes has given you an endless amount of support and advice in relation to promoters, particularly what this borough finds unacceptable forms of music.”

Seda says he has been accused of “racism,” and has had to make DJs sign contracts in which they promised not to play bashment, as well as putting up signs around the venue.