While this former
police officer is speaking a lot of truth here, we'd like to ask him
why he waited until he'd retired until he decided to write this
article? To quote from his Daily Mail article, did he, along with some
of his colleagues, "indulge
in politicised manoeuvres designed to protect their own backs and
further their own careers"?
How political correctness is ruining
Britain's police
As corrupt cop Ali Dizaei is finally jailed,
an ex-colleague says the Met has been paralysed by fears of being
branded racist
Kevin Hurley, former Detective
Chief Superintendent: The Met has been paralysed by fears of being
branded racist
The Metropolitan Police
continues to stumble from one self-inflicted crisis to another,
weakening its ability to fight genuine crime.
It is a force that for
too long has been gripped by a dangerous cocktail of poor leadership,
politically correct dogma, warped priorities and tactical incompetence.
Those flaws have been
graphically illustrated by the appalling case of Ali Dizaei, the
notoriously corrupt Iranian-born officer who was this week sent back to
jail for a second time after his conviction for perverting the course
of justice.
Only an organisation
obsessed with the creed of diversity and lacking in moral integrity
would have allowed a swaggering, criminal bully like Dizaei to rise up
its hierarchy and gain a senior position.
He should have been
drummed out long ago, not constantly rewarded with promotion.
But Dizaei is a symbol
of the rot within the top ranks of the Met. Too many senior officers
seem to have forgotten that their central duty is to protect the
law-abiding British public.
Selfish
Instead of taking tough
decisions — like challenging Dizaei — they indulge in politicised
manoeuvres designed to protect their own backs and further their own
careers.
The high command of the
Met inhabits a culture where cowardice is dressed up as pragmatism,
where a talent for spouting jargon trumps determination to take on the
criminals.
The biggest losers from
this approach are not just ordinary decent British citizens, but also
the constables out on the streets, often doing a heroic, selfless job
only to be undermined by their selfish, careerist superiors.
It is no exaggeration to
say that the Met frontline are lions led by vacillating donkeys.
As a former detective
chief superintendent at the Met myself, I have been appalled by the
Dizaei saga.
I was actually the
borough commander in West London at the time when, in July 2008, he
tried to frame an innocent Iraqi businessman, Waad al-Baghdadi, with
whom he was engaged in a bitter feud over money. The incident
ultimately led to two criminal trials and Dizaei’s conviction this
week.
Rot within the top ranks: Like
Dizaei, too many senior officers have forgotten that their central duty
is to protect the law-abiding British public
But from the moment
Dizaei hauled Mr al-Baghdadi into Hammersmith police station on charges
of assault, I had the severest doubts about his tale.
This was not just
because of the unconvincing nature of his story that al-Baghdadi had
attacked him, which turned out to be a pack of lies, but also because
of Dizaei’s appalling record of dishonesty, corruption and abuse of
office.
Like almost everyone
else in the Met, I had always known that he was a wrong ’un.
On a superficial level,
he could be charming and personable, but his easy manner barely
disguised his dark side.
He was a figure of epic
venality, ambition and ruthlessness, his entire career geared towards
furthering his own interests, regardless of the legality or probity of
his methods.
When he joined the Met
as a superintendent in 1999, former colleagues in the Thames Valley
Police, where he was an officer for more than a decade, warned us to
beware, telling us of his enthusiasm for playing the race card to
achieve his ends.
But in a climate of
hysteria over accusations of ‘institutionalised racism’, the Met’s top
brass were desperate to recruit more ethnic minority senior officers.
The Mac cartoon in the Daily Mail
on 10/02/10 about Ali Dizaei's first stint in jail
The warnings from Thames
Valley Police were grimly fulfilled. Dizaei was a master at using fears
about racism to thwart any challenge to his increasingly aggressive,
self-serving conduct. The National Black Police Association, of which
Dizaei was president, was his chosen instrument with which to bully and
intimidate the Met’s hierarchy.
He became a law unto
himself. The Met’s terror of taking any action against him made him
feel even more invincible.
Even the Independent
Police Complaints Commission, normally all too keen on enforcing the
politically correct code, urged the Met to discipline Dizaei — but top
commanders were too pusillanimous to do so. Most had prospered by
avoiding tough decisions.
They were not going to
risk all by taking on a formidable adversary who loved to smear his
critics as racists.
Thanks to their lack of
courage, he got away with behaviour that would have led to the sacking
of any other Met employee.
Ruthless: Dizaei's ego was
legendary among the rank-and-file
Disloyalty
So he gained a PhD with
a thesis attacking the Met on racism, while in 2007 he wrote an
autobiographical book called Not One Of Us, which contained severe
criticism of the Met.
Yet instead of being
sacked for gross disloyalty, he was promoted. Can you imagine any
successful company that would behave in such a pathetic manner towards
a senior member of staff making money out of trashing the firm’s
reputation?
Fuelled by his
invulnerability, Dizaei’s ego was legendary among the rank-and-file.
On one occasion he
alleged that two constables had damaged his private car. On
investigation, it turned out that the damage was inflicted by one of
his many mistresses.
Any other officer
behaving in that way would have been disciplined or sacked, especially
because he had shown such a contemptible lack of respect towards the
two constables.
But nothing happened to
Dizaei, protected as he was by the shield of spurious anti-racism. On
another occasion, he drove into the station and parked so carelessly
that he blocked the exit of the emergency response vehicles.
Almost immediately, the
emergency vehicle was needed.
‘Can you move your car?’
called out the officers, needing to rush to the scene of the incident.
‘You move it,’ replied Dizaei, throwing them the keys and marching
brazenly inside.
Exploit
That was the arrogance
of the man. He had no sense of public service, not a shred of decency.
He was a brute in uniform, who once threatened to kill the mother of
one of his mistresses ‘like a dog’.
But Dizaei was clever
enough to exploit the political pressures on the Met for more than a
decade.
And, of course,
political correctness was to blame for the pusillanimous way the
rampaging gangs of looters and vandals — many from ethnic minorities —
were dealt with during the riots last summer.
Hope? Bernard Hogan-Howe, the new
Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, must stop the Met being
terrified of being accountable for controversial decisions over public
order
Paralysed by political
correctness and accusations of racism, terrified of being accountable
for controversial decisions over public order, the Met’s senior
officers allowed the mob to control the streets for five days before
launching a crackdown.
This is not the police
force that the public deserves.
The one great hope is
that the Met has a new Commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, who made his
name fighting crime on Liverpool’s tough streets.
Hogan-Howe’s virtues are
that he does not crave adulation from the politicians, always a sign of
good judgment, and that he has real experience of operational
requirements.
Far too many senior
officers in the Met have reached the top without such a background. In
fact, the avoidance of tough, frontline responsibilities is often the
hallmark of a modern successful career in the Met.
The arrival of
Hogan-Howe, combined with the welcome downfall of Ali Dizaei, may put
an end to this pattern.
And, finally, policing
will be governed by the needs of the public instead of politics.
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2101280/Ali-Dizaei-How-political-correctness-ruining-Britains-police.html#ixzz1mTIJBYVq