Are the police racist?

Issues of race are never far from the headlines and sometimes they are top of the political agenda for bizarre reasons. Readers may remember when complaints about alleged racism by contestants in Celebrity Big Brother forced Gordon Brown into defending the level of fairness and tolerance in the UK. Brown’s comments took place against a backdrop of protests and violence in India, the home nation of the contestant, Shilpa Shetty, who was said to have been abused. On the whole, Britain probably is the fair and tolerant country that Brown would like it to be seen as, but this does not mean that race relations in the UK are perfectly harmonious. On a par with what happened in a previous BB series in the bizarre stakes are reports that Britain’s most senior Asian police officer was under surveillance by his employers.

No Macpherson Effect?
Nearly a decade after the inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence, allegations of racism within the police force remain.

In March 2007 Chief Superintendent Ali Dizaei, who was born in India, was turned down for promotion to rank of Commander. The National Black Police Association claim prejudice was behind the decision. The NPBA’s president, Keith Jarett, cited the fact that no black or Asian officers had been promoted in the past five years. (The Times, 8 March 2007) In defence of the decision, a Times editorial argued that the record of the Metropolitan police force has been subjected to serious criticism, but the evidence in the Dizaei case was insufficiently robust to suggest racism was at play.

Today the Times report that Tarique Ghaffur, Britain’s most senior Asian police officer, has pressed the nuclear button in his race bias case against the Metropolitan Police Chief, Sir Ian Blair.

‘Within the next few days lawyers acting for Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur will lodge papers that claim he was subjected to a catalogue of victimisation, bullying and harassment. Some of the allegations are said to refer directly to the actions of the commissioner.

A large part of the claim – up to 30 per cent – will be about allegations that Mr Ghaffur was illegally bugged and put under surveillance. The papers allege that he had hundreds of his telephone calls tapped and that Mr Ghaffur – codenamed Vivaldi – was “the subject of direct surveillance . . . This was a direct attack on his honesty and integrity.”

Although the primary target of the operation was another officer – Chief Superintendent Ali Dizaei, who was codenamed Mozart – Mr Ghaffur is claiming that he was also targeted and not just caught up in that operation.

The papers allege that Mr Ghaffur was photographed at more than 30 meetings with another officer at restaurants and cafés in London. The operation was codenamed Helios. Ian Blair, then deputy commissioner, was nominally in charge. It collapsed after four years, leaving taxpayers with a bill of £4 million. Mr

Dizaei was cleared of perverting the course of justice and fiddling his expenses.

A source close to Mr Ghaffur said that the attachment of a codename to the assistant commissioner was enough to suggest that he was specifically targeted.

“It is a massive claim with around 70 allegations involving a whole host of issues,” he said.’