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Anorak News | Officers Not Gentlemen

Officers Not Gentlemen

by | 2nd, December 2005

‘“SEXISM and homophobia still ‘endemic’ in all police forces,” says the Times’s headline. Well, at least the institutionalised racism isn’t making news anymore.

Is that a truncheon in your hand or are you just having a laugh with the lads?

The paper has seen a Home Office report that says sexism and homophobia are “rampant” in the police service.

Racist language is, happily, not as prevalent as it once was, with officers aware that such behaviour will lead to disciplinary action.

But the heterosexual boys in blue can still look down on people who aren’t just like them.

The report says: “Women, minority ethnic and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender officers continued in large numbers to feel excluded, uncomfortable and discriminated against.”

While it can be argued that the police service only reflects the prejudices of the greater civilian community, the worry must be that female and gay victims and suspects are viewed differently to straight males. Far from being blind, justice has eyes bulging with indignant rage.

Tim Newburn, one of the report’s authors, says: “Sexism is endemic, that is to say everywhere. Not just in every force surveyed, but in every part of every force.”

From the bottom of the white, heterosexual male copper’s brandished truncheon all the way to the tip of his nipple-shaped hat…’



Posted: 2nd, December 2005 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink