Monday, July 31, 2006

Officers out of order...

Met Police careers pageWhat's that pretty logo I hear you ask...deafening silence...well, it's green, has a crescent moon ...and is that a UK "Bobbie's" helmet?...yes it is; it's the logo of the Association of Muslim Police. Yesterday's Times Online (Yard quizzes three Muslim officers in hunt for terrorist sleepers) told us: "SCOTLAND YARD has placed one of its Muslim officers on restricted duties while it investigates intelligence that he may have attended a terror camp linked to Al-Qaeda in Pakistan." That may seem all well and good: the Met police checking up and investigating anything suspicious...funny then that this is what the representative said: Tahir Butt, secretary of the AMP [The Association of Muslim Police], has raised the cases with senior management. He said that a policy which targeted Muslims and not other religions would be “wholly inappropriate”. This is where I'd put the "Doh!/ hand slapping forehead" smilie. I suppose as the representative he has to come out with that sort of ridiculous bunkum - he gets paid for it. Now, another well paid fool (IMHO!) is Trevor Phillips but I agree with him when last month he said "UK needs more Muslim police." Britain's police and security services should recruit more Muslims, according to the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE). However, even though I agree with the thought I find it difficult to come up with a solution; it should be remembered that he said what he did the week after this story about corruption and Muslim Police hit the headlines. "One Muslim officer with the Met said: "It is like saying black officers are more likely to be muggers. Today it is Muslim officers who are treated as the Uncle Toms. How can they say to the Muslim community 'trust us', when they don't even trust their own Muslim officers" and "Superintendent Dal Babu, chairman of the Association of Muslim Officers, said the report had racist undertones. "We are gravely concerned about its contents and the message it sends to recruits and potential recruits," he said."...all well and good and the sort of response you'd expect, especially when you consider that "The document was written as an attempt to investigate why complaints of misconduct and corruption against Asian officers are 10 times higher than against their white colleagues."...10...ten times!!?? So, they are more likely to be corrupt and should be investigated only if everyone else is...does that seem right, especially considering the dangerous times we find ourselves living in? Out of order isn't just about the Muslim/terrorist concerns. Follow the link through the AWP logo and you'll see all the associations in the righthand column: Black, Gay, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish, Chinese, Italian, Greek, Turkish (and Cypriot Turk), Christian, Catholic (aren't they Christian?), Women, Senior Women...(most have there own logo too...the gay rainbow one is nice, projects stern, law-enforcement images...NOT!) nobody it seems wants to be just A Police Officer; the funniest thing though, and I quote: Definition of 'black': The term 'black' does not refer to skin colour but is used to describe all people of African, African Caribbean or Asian origin. ...so those Chinese, Sikhs, Hindus etc are "black"? Really? Whatever. I believe that any police service should be checked and rechecked and checked again as much as any situation warrants; so if that means the Muslims in the UK are in the spotlight, they must learn to live with it. S.O.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Words fail me Span, what would they say if some people asked for an association of White Christian Police Officers.

Lucy said...

Its an awkward one isnt it Span.
All officers need to be regularly checked I agree.

Span Ows said...

curmy, that's an interesting point because there is a Christian Assc already but as several others overlap (Catholic...and those Hindus and Sikhs really being black...err...yeah right!)

Lucy, very awkward indeed but that's fine, everything isn't or shouldn't be easy but why the stupid comments from the associations...surely "we accept that under the current climate we should expect more checks"...now that to me would be sensible and correct.

Span Ows said...

P.S. ...on another tack but Muslim related: you'll all be pleased to hear that yesterday I received personal permission in a letter from The Iranian 'Foreign Office' for entry into Iran (for those that don't know I was refused permission in June despite previous vsits there)...and all day yesterday (7am to midnight) I was with our companies' Egyptian partners (and my friends)...I add this just in case anyone gets the idea I'm anti...you know who... :-/

Anonymous said...

Well good luck Span, just don't joke about nuclear weapons while you're there !

The Great Gildersleeve said...

Take care if you travel there(obvious I know)and I expect a flag from Iraq to appear on my blog ;-)

Seriously, I explain what happened about your comments and my post over on my blog.

Maybe you can solve for me what went wrong so it doesn't happen again.

Like your blog map...and the idea of seeing who in the immediate area has a blog but I don't understand how you go about setting one up all that about meta tabs...then again, I don't want to steal/copy your ideas...

You know the neo counter do you pay by Pay pal and allow payments to be taken via your credit card?

If I go ahead and say "Yes" my trial runs out on August 9th and I would like to carry on with it...

Cheers

G

Span Ows said...

Thanks Gildy (and curmy!) but i'm not going yet...it's just that I received the OK so I CAN go...from sept to Nov all travel is planned ahead so a trip to Iran would be an extra...I missed a series of seminars that I was supposed to give!

Gildy...did you miss the word "can't" from your reply?...and don't worry...EVERYTHING on my blog has been seen on other blogs first...or most of it anyway. Re Neocounter, I paid up as a member after only a few days because I wanted it, mind you that was 9 months ago now (!!) - no probs and I 'spoke' with Rob too, they are very quick to respond, which is what I like. Re payment it has to be your decision but I went from (quote) "I will NEVER buy anything online" to getting everything online (except food and 'complusory puchases' i.e. see it like it buy it...)

Span Ows said...

Gildy, forgot to mention...Gavin passed me the blogmap link (though I had spotted it before....honest Gav!) when I 'set it up' I think it was fairly easy so they must explain every step...seriously, I know you are the same as I was...I knew NOTHING and was always getting things wrong and could not understand the lingo...but...if I can do it ANYBODY can. :-)

The Great Gildersleeve said...

Well I guess that will be Paypal and credit card details as I cannot think of another way to do it(neocounter)and as you've had your's for nine months...

I looked over the site regarding the map but could not get my head around the technical stuff regarding the code needed though I understood the basic part of how to put the map on the blog. If the tags are sorted out...

A bit more on the pictures in my blog entry. I lost one and when I tried to put it back online, it uploaded but refused to show.

And even when I eventually did it all again the first two worked as before but then the picture showing the delapidated health centre would not appear(I still don't know why it did eventually)and the squirrel one just refused no matter how often I tried to repost it.

After ten hours I was a bit cheesed off...

I hope it all works next time...

Regarding your travels, I think that I said Iraq in my previous comment when I should've said Iran...

oops!

G

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