Some London firefighters are being accused of racism, and their department sued, after a case of mistaken identity. According to Yahoo news:
A black firefighter has said he was assaulted, shot with a stun gun and arrested as he tried to help police while he was off-duty, in the latest racism allegation against Scotland Yard.
Edric Kennedy-Macfoy, 28, made a formal complaint after the incident in the early hours of September 4, in which he says he approached police who were dealing with a disturbance to give them a description of a youth he had seen throw a rock at a police van.
The group of six officers, who were dispersing partygoers — some of whom had turned violent — in Harrow, north London, assaulted and insulted Kennedy-Macfoy, according to his account, before deploying the electric shock weapon and detaining him without good cause.
Kennedy-Macfoy was charged with obstructing police, but found not guilty at Brent Magistrates’ Court in February.
The Guardian, which is campaigning on the issue of police racism, quoted Inspector David Bergum as saying in court: “I couldn’t say he was anything to do with the party. The party was all black. He was black. He had driven through the cordon. I had to do a quick risk assessment.”
Race is an important identifier. It goes hand in hand with gender, age, height and clothing. If a group, composed of blacks, is attacking a group of whites, can we really blame the officers for their quick decision to treat the approaching black man as a possible threat? Considering the sad state of affairs in U.K. today, it is almost inevitable that Inspector Bergum will be forced to apologize and Macfoy will win a large sum of money as compensation for the “racial discrimination” he suffered.
This is a built-in flaw of racial diversity. It’s human nature to notice race – yet the very creed of “diversity”, which puts race above all else, also demands that we often ignore it. There can be little doubt that had Bergum ignored race, and ended up dead as a result, we would not be reading about it on Yahoo news.
If you drive through a cordon, during riots, you better make very sure to identify yourself and to expect being confused with criminals.
Common sense, even if you are not black and don’t look like the other rioters.
I wasn’t aware that being a firefighter entitled one to drive through a police cordon and interfere with officers in the performance of their duties. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was another violent party goer who just happened to be a firefighter.