Sir Ian Blair has ordered an 'urgent inquiry' after a Muslim police officer was excused from guarding London's Israeli Embassy after he objected to the duty on 'moral grounds'.
Sir Ian said: "Having learned of this issue I have asked for an urgent review of the situation and a full report into the circumstances."
PC Alexander Omar Basha - a member of the Metropolitan Police's Diplomatic Protection Group - refused to be posted there because he objected to Israeli bombings in Lebanon and the resulting civilian casualties of fellow Muslims.
[...]
The officer, who carries a gun, is now thought to be guarding another embassy.
Critics accused Met chiefs of bowing to political correctness, saying the decision set a dangerous precedent.
A senior source in the Metropolitan Police Federation said: 'We are expected to serve people without fear or favour. You treat them according to their needs whether you agree with their political or religious views or not.
"Officers should not be allowed to pick and choose where they work in this way."
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article...assy/article.do
Should serve and protect without bias.
The other choice could easily be used in US by cops who are pro-neo-Nazi to avoid investigating crimes in predominantly nonwhite areas.
The other choice could easily be used in US by cops who are pro-neo-Nazi to avoid investigating crimes in predominantly nonwhite areas.
No. Protecting and serving means sometimes protecting and serving those with whom you disagree.
Do the job you signed up to do. I am sure there was no where in contract that stated
"to protect except where I don't like the other guy"
course.. this'll break down to religion sooner or later.
"to protect except where I don't like the other guy"
course.. this'll break down to religion sooner or later.
QUOTE(Mirorgate @ Oct 5 2006, 11:20 AM) 
Do the job you signed up to do.
I agree. And if you feel your personal biases don't allow you to do it, then resign.
The guy should have been reported for discipline for failing to obey a lawful order. However it would be a very brave supervisor who did that to an officer from a minority background. If he had been white his feet wouldn't have touched
Asking a Muslim to defend the Embassy of Israel from terrorists is like appointing
9/11 hijackers to be in charge of the FAA's airport security division.
I'd feel safer with a non-Muslim guarding the Embassy, thanks very much. LOL.
9/11 hijackers to be in charge of the FAA's airport security division.
I'd feel safer with a non-Muslim guarding the Embassy, thanks very much. LOL.
QUOTE(mawilson @ Oct 5 2006, 12:34 PM)
Asking a Muslim to defend the Embassy of Israel from terrorists is like appointing
9/11 hijackers to be in charge of the FAA's airport security division.
I'd feel safer with a non-Muslim guarding the Embassy, thanks very much. LOL.
The Israeli Embassies in Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Turkey ... are probably guarded by a number of Muslim cops. Probably true for the Israeli embassy in India, too.
Muslims leaders ... expressed their concerns at the decision with The Muslim Council of Britain emphasizing it was the officer's duty to uphold the law.
Council spokesman Inayat Bunglawala said: "Any person joining the police force, no matter what their religious background, has a duty to help in upholding the law and should be carrying out their duty as any other police officer.
"In this case, and despite objections to Israel's bombing of Lebanon and concerns over his family's safety, it is important that the law is upheld.
"There is a danger in picking and choosing which embassies to guard - police officers have a responsibility to discharge their duties.
"Being asked to guard an embassy does not mean endorsing or accepting the activities of any particular Government and I would have though that fact would have been clear to this officer."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...in_page_id=1770
Council spokesman Inayat Bunglawala said: "Any person joining the police force, no matter what their religious background, has a duty to help in upholding the law and should be carrying out their duty as any other police officer.
"In this case, and despite objections to Israel's bombing of Lebanon and concerns over his family's safety, it is important that the law is upheld.
"There is a danger in picking and choosing which embassies to guard - police officers have a responsibility to discharge their duties.
"Being asked to guard an embassy does not mean endorsing or accepting the activities of any particular Government and I would have though that fact would have been clear to this officer."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...in_page_id=1770
I watched an interview on TV today about this matter. The ex-commander of the Flying Squad (of which the diplomatic protection squad are part of) was being interviewed. Apparently an officer applies to be part of the Flying Squad, knowing FULL WELL what the job entails and knowing WHO he might have to protect.
What was basically said in the interview is that this fellow should have been transferred out of the squad when he could no longer carry out his duties. He would then return to normal Met Police duties instead.
The Flying Squad is a highly sought after job, this fellow HAD A CHOICE when he asked to become part of it. If he wasn't happy at certain aspects then he shouldn't have applied.
What was basically said in the interview is that this fellow should have been transferred out of the squad when he could no longer carry out his duties. He would then return to normal Met Police duties instead.
The Flying Squad is a highly sought after job, this fellow HAD A CHOICE when he asked to become part of it. If he wasn't happy at certain aspects then he shouldn't have applied.
QUOTE(mags @ Oct 5 2006, 05:15 PM)
I watched an interview on TV today about this matter. The ex-commander of the Flying Squad (of which the diplomatic protection squad are part of) was being interviewed. Apparently an officer applies to be part of the Flying Squad, knowing FULL WELL what the job entails and knowing WHO he might have to protect.
What was basically said in the interview is that this fellow should have been transferred out of the squad when he could no longer carry out his duties. He would then return to normal Met Police duties instead.
The Flying Squad is a highly sought after job, this fellow HAD A CHOICE when he asked to become part of it. If he wasn't happy at certain aspects then he shouldn't have applied.
I agree completely. I don't buy his excuses for one second. He chose to become a police officer and he chose to become part of the diplomatic protection squad. He must have known there was a chance he would be asked to guard the embassy of a country whose foreign policies he didn't like. Maybe he should just be a traffic warden.
QUOTE(homesick_american @ Oct 5 2006, 06:21 PM)
Maybe he should just be a traffic warden.
What if a Jewish man were to be involved in an accident? I am sure he would be morally opposed to helping him. Helping him, bombing Lebanon.. same thing y'know.
QUOTE(Gupt @ Oct 5 2006, 05:29 PM)
QUOTE(homesick_american @ Oct 5 2006, 06:21 PM)
Maybe he should just be a traffic warden.
What if a Jewish man were to be involved in an accident? I am sure he would be morally opposed to helping him. Helping him, bombing Lebanon.. same thing y'know.
Nah, all traffic wardens are good for is writing parking tickets.
Police HELPING people? I'll believe it when I see it. I remember when our house was burgled, the cops basically stood there and admitted they wouldn't do anything to catch the person who broke into our house or recover our property. B*stards. I found a bunch of used needles in a women's toilet in York, told a nearby cop, who said "What do you want me to do, clean them up?" 
LOL. Someone remind me, why do we need cops again?
QUOTE(Gupt @ Oct 5 2006, 05:34 PM)
LOL. Someone remind me, why do we need cops again?
I dunno. A friend of ours was beaten last week...so badly he spent a week in the hospital and needs surgery to fix his broken cheekbone...and the cops basically told him they didn't expect to find the guy and weren't going to look too hard.
He got beaten up for making eye contact with a chav. The chav got in his face and asked him what he was looking at. He said 'nothing'. The chav said 'WHO ARE YOU CALLING NUFFINK' and started beating him, stomping on his head after he'd fallen down. The guy working at the pizza place (where the beating took place) called 999 straight off but apparently it took the cops a while to get there.
Does make you wonder what we're paying our taxes for.
Our friend will be scarred for life and the cops don't seem to care.
This is a little different from not stopping a crime because you object to the person being robbed or assaulted. Now bottom line it's the guy's job and he should follow orders, but the higher ups could take his position into consideration and give him another assignment if someone agreed to switch with him.
It seems this guy was given leave from his job for his own protection since he was lebanese
QUOTE(mags @ Oct 5 2006, 11:15 PM)
I watched an interview on TV today about this matter. The ex-commander of the Flying Squad (of which the diplomatic protection squad are part of) was being interviewed. Apparently an officer applies to be part of the Flying Squad, knowing FULL WELL what the job entails and knowing WHO he might have to protect.
The Flying Squad does not exist anymore and hasn't for several years. Diplomatic Protection Group was never part of the Flying Squad at any time. It was originally a unit on its own and subsequently a few months back amalgamated with the Royalty Protection Unit, and Special Branch A Squad (who protect the Prime Minster and others who need a personal protection officer, I can't recall what the new unit is called.
It is all part of a major shake up of Met Police Specialist Operations of which the Flying Squad was SO8 and when it was disbanded it became part of I think SCD7 (Serious Crime Directorate).
QUOTE(Lansbury @ Oct 6 2006, 09:37 AM)
QUOTE(mags @ Oct 5 2006, 11:15 PM)
I watched an interview on TV today about this matter. The ex-commander of the Flying Squad (of which the diplomatic protection squad are part of) was being interviewed. Apparently an officer applies to be part of the Flying Squad, knowing FULL WELL what the job entails and knowing WHO he might have to protect.
The Flying Squad does not exist anymore and hasn't for several years. Diplomatic Protection Group was never part of the Flying Squad at any time. It was originally a unit on its own and subsequently a few months back amalgamated with the Royalty Protection Unit, and Special Branch A Squad (who protect the Prime Minster and others who need a personal protection officer, I can't recall what the new unit is called.
It is all part of a major shake up of Met Police Specialist Operations of which the Flying Squad was SO8 and when it was disbanded it became part of I think SCD7 (Serious Crime Directorate).
As I mentioned, the bloke who was being interviewed was the OLD commander-in-chief. How the police force dynamics have changed isn't known to me; I was simply just quoting what he was saying. He said they were intertwined and so I quoted him.
Regardless on who goes what with who and where, the same principles apply. The officer would have had to apply to that squad and would have known what his duties could entail. If he knew there was a risk he would end up protecting that embassy, and it conflicted with his views, he shouldn't have applied.
Aren't all these police units totally confusing?
QUOTE(mags @ Oct 6 2006, 10:57 PM)
Regardless on who goes what with who and where, the same principles apply. The officer would have had to apply to that squad and would have known what his duties could entail. If he knew there was a risk he would end up protecting that embassy, and it conflicted with his views, he shouldn't have applied.
He knew what he was expected to do when he applied for D.P.G. I think it is totally insane that he gets to pick and choose. Wonder what would happen if I decided I wasn't going to do anything that could be against the interest of the USA as half my family live there and I am heading that way. No I don't wonder I know, feet wouldn't touch, then I'm white.
You accept the wages you do the job.
QUOTE(mdyoung @ Oct 5 2006, 06:51 PM)
This is a little different from not stopping a crime because you object to the person being robbed or assaulted. Now bottom line it's the guy's job and he should follow orders, but the higher ups could take his position into consideration and give him another assignment if someone agreed to switch with him.
An analogy to this is a man who wants to work as a locomotive mechanic, but says he needs alternative (to hard-hat) headgear due to religion (not figurative--a real case like this in Canada in 1980's, where the plaintiff was Sikh wanting to use turban and defendant was CN rail).
If the cop in question wants higher-ups to take his position into consideration, then HE should think twice before applying for the job in the first place.
(in the case of Bhinder vs CN Rail, court decided in Bhinder's favour--meaning they bought Trudeau's divide-and-continue-misruling "multiculturalism" policy hook-line-and-stinker
)
QUOTE
A Muslim police officer who asked to be excused from guarding the Israeli embassy was married by the radical cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, The Daily Telegraph has learned.
Pc Alexander Omar-Basha's father-in-law is related to Bakri, who performed an Islamic ceremony at the family home in north London.
The cleric, who founded the now disbanded Al-Muhajiroun group of radical Muslims, is living in Lebanon after being barred from the UK.
Bakri caused consternation when he said he would never warn the police if he learned of an impending suicide bomber attack by fellow Muslims. He also called the July 7 London suicide bombers "the fantastic four".
[...]
Bakri said yesterday he was not aware that Pc Omar-Basha was a policeman until he was involved in the arrest of some of his followers in Wood Green, north London.
Bakri said he had told Pc Omar-Basha to leave the police. Speaking from the Lebanon, Bakri said: "After a while I learned he was in the police force because brothers were arrested in Wood Green for distributing leaflets outside the library which, they said, offended homosexuals.
"I was told he was involved in stopping the stall."
Pc Alexander Omar-Basha's father-in-law is related to Bakri, who performed an Islamic ceremony at the family home in north London.
The cleric, who founded the now disbanded Al-Muhajiroun group of radical Muslims, is living in Lebanon after being barred from the UK.
Bakri caused consternation when he said he would never warn the police if he learned of an impending suicide bomber attack by fellow Muslims. He also called the July 7 London suicide bombers "the fantastic four".
[...]
Bakri said yesterday he was not aware that Pc Omar-Basha was a policeman until he was involved in the arrest of some of his followers in Wood Green, north London.
Bakri said he had told Pc Omar-Basha to leave the police. Speaking from the Lebanon, Bakri said: "After a while I learned he was in the police force because brothers were arrested in Wood Green for distributing leaflets outside the library which, they said, offended homosexuals.
"I was told he was involved in stopping the stall."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...10/06/npc06.xml
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