WILL JONES
Rick Prior, the head of the Metropolitan Police Federation, who represented 30,000 officers in the capital, has been sacked after warning last year that members were concerned about being labelled racist. The Telegraph has the story.
The head of the Metropolitan Police Federation has been sacked after speaking to the Telegraph.
Rick Prior, who represented 30,000 officers in the capital, was suspended last year after warning that members were concerned about being labelled racist.
He challenged his suspension in the courts but after giving an interview to the Telegraph to raise awareness and crowdfund for his case, he has now been formally dismissed and banned from ever standing for election again.
The officer, who has more than 30 years of service with the Metropolitan Police, including working in royalty protection, claimed he would have received fairer treatment from the regime in North Korea.
The case began last October when Mr Prior, who was democratically elected to represent rank and file officers in London, gave a television interview warning that his members were becoming increasingly nervous about challenging people from ethnic minority communities.
In the interview, with GB News, Mr Prior said: “There’s a striking crisis of confidence at the moment within policing in general and certainly within the Metropolitan Police, whereby officers are withdrawing from any kind of proactive policing for fear of falling foul of the IOPC [Independent Office of Police Conduct], or a vexatious or malicious complaint.”
His comments reflected what he said was a growing unease among officers to use force and came in the wake of a string of high-profile incidents including the conviction of one constable who challenged a woman for refusing to show a valid bus ticket.
A Metropolitan Police officer was fined £1,500 for assault after wrongly arresting a woman for bus fare evasion in Croydon. His conviction was then quashed on appeal.
Mr Prior warned that such incidents were eroding the confidence of his members.
He explained: “There seems to be an assumption of racism right from the off, particularly when it’s a white officer and a member of the public from a minority ethnic community and it almost seems as if the onus is then on the police officer to prove that the interaction wasn’t racist.”
But the day after Mr Prior’s interview was broadcast he was suspended by the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) for allegedly making comments that were “discriminatory in nature”.
The Metropolitan Police’s own Department of Professional Standards assessed the comments and swiftly concluded they did not amount to misconduct.
Mr Prior vowed to fight his suspension insisting it was a fundamental free speech issue.
But because it was his own staff association that was taking action against him, they would not fund any legal advice or action in support of his defence.
Last month he gave an interview to the Telegraph to raise awareness of his case and appeal for financial assistance to continue his fight.
But on Thursday after a hastily convened panel at Police Federation headquarters he was dismissed from his elected post and banned from ever standing again.
Toby, speaking as General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, told the Telegraph:
It’s becoming increasingly clear that the process Rick has been put through, from suspension to expulsion, has been designed to stop him from running in the forthcoming Police Federation elections. It’s the kind of chicanery you’d expect in student politics, not the representative body for police officers.
Worth reading in full.
Featured image: thethaiger.com, x.com
••••
The Liberty Beacon Project is now expanding at a near exponential rate, and for this we are grateful and excited! But we must also be practical. For 7 years we have not asked for any donations, and have built this project with our own funds as we grew. We are now experiencing ever increasing growing pains due to the large number of websites and projects we represent. So we have just installed donation buttons on our websites and ask that you consider this when you visit them. Nothing is too small. We thank you for all your support and your considerations … (TLB)
••••
Comment Policy: As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats of violence, racism, or personal/abusive attacks on other users. This also applies to trolling, the use of more than one alias, or just intentional mischief. Enforcement of this policy is at the discretion of this websites administrators. Repeat offenders may be blocked or permanently banned without prior warning.
••••
Disclaimer: TLB websites contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, health, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.
••••
Disclaimer: The information and opinions shared are for informational purposes only including, but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material are not intended as medical advice or instruction. Nothing mentioned is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Liberty Beacon Project.
So, ‘we get the police force that we deserve’ is also no longer true in Keir Stalin’s Britain