In an attempt to give you something to shake your heads about that’s not to do with Afghanistan and not happening in the US, here is a news item from the UK.
I’ve mentioned on here the two young Moslem female police officers in London who are being investigated about grievous breaches of police standards. Well, here is a story about a police sergeant from the lovely county of Devon in the West Country.
47-year-old Geraint Jones, who has been in the police for 23 years, has narrowly kept his job, but now has a final warning on his record that will last 5 years.
What did he do? I warn you, this may chill your blood.
He shared a meme. A meme on a work WhatsApp group. A meme about George Floyd but replacing him with Wardy Joubert III. A deeply tasteless meme certainly, but not one that said anything about Floyd or expressed any view on the matter. He didn’t use (whisper it) the N word, he didn’t say Floyd was a nasty petty criminal and author of his own demise. He didn’t even generate the meme. He merely shared a meme that took the mickey. He was foolish and crass. He has apologised and deleted the meme. He was taken to Magistrates Court in Plymouth over his offence, where he was acquitted of sending grossly offensive images. A police disciplinary panel decided to hand him the final written warning rather than sack him.
In this Independent article you can see senior figures falling over themselves to condemn his terrible crime. I think the court artist’s image is a nice touch, as if he were a serial killer in the dock.
Given the draconian reaction to a single tasteless meme sent in a private group by a time served sergeant, I can’t wait to see what they will do about the two lasses in London. One posted genuinely racist tweets about Jews and non-Moslems generally, the other actually embraced protestors and shouted “Free! Free Palestine!” at a demo she was supposed to be policing impartially. Summary dismissal surely?
Don’t hold your breath.