'Every decent person, everyone in the constabulary, needs to do something about racism,’ says the chief constable.

An internal blog to officers about racism by chief constable Gary Roberts has been made public.

It comes after recent deaths in America have led to global protests.

Chief constable Roberts said: 'For what seems like an age, my blogs have been about Covid-19 and our response to it.

'Today, I am writing about something no less challenging and something that will define the times we live in every bit as much as the virus: racism.’

In the post he discusses the death of black American man, George Floyd, who died on May 25.

Footage circulated showing the 46-year-old, who was arrested for allegedly using a forged $20 note in Minneapolis, repeatedly saying ’I can’t breathe’ while a policeman restrained him by kneeling on his neck.

'Reading the transcript that has been made of the things that George Floyd said as he lay dying is every bit as horrific as watching the video,’ Mr Roberts said.

He poses the question of whether the death of a black man 3,000 miles away has got anything to do with the Isle of Man.

He answers it by saying he was 'shocked and ashamed’ to read how Manx sports star Catherine Reid had been affected by racism in the island.

Catherine has written a social media post about her experiences of growing up in the island as a mixed-race woman.

He said: 'Every day she faced some form of racism in a welcoming and tolerant community.

'It has taken her an age to come to reach the point where she can be confident and proud of who she is and where she has come from.’

He added: 'Not being racist is no longer enough. Every decent person, everyone in the constabulary, needs to do something about racism.’

This, he said, included confronting and tackling it as well as addressing 'our own prejudices, our own tendency to make snap judgements, our own assumptions about things built on the fact that we haven’t been exposed to the sort of racism that Catherine Reid and her family have lived with’.

The police are working with a Black Lives Matter protest which will be held on Regent Street, Douglas on Tuesday from noon.

They are working to make the event 'a safe one’ which complies with social distancing and gathering rules.

The chief constable added: 'As police officers or police employees we cannot have political views, but it is not political to say that prejudice, intolerance and racism have to end.

'We have our part to play, not just by being close to the community, by policing with consent, or by demonstrating our shared values; we have to show that enough is enough.’