A senior Metropolitan Police officer could be sacked for alleged racism after telling colleagues they need to be “whiter than white” while carrying out inquiries.
The detective superintendent, who works in anti-corruption, has been suspended from some duties and faces the possibility of an internal police investigation for gross misconduct.
The commonly used English phrase means “very pure, honest, and moral” according to the Collins Dictionary, and does not refer to race.
However, after the officer used it when addressing colleagues, urging them to be faultless and above reproach in carrying out inquiries, a complaint was filed, sources told the Evening Standard.
Having received the accusation, the Met passed it to the police watchdog for further investigation and the officer was placed on restricted duties.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct is now investigating and the accused man has been told the inquiry may take up to 12 months to complete.
The officer, who is attached to the Met’s anti-corruption squad, the Directorate of Professional Standards, is reportedly “highly respected” within the force and strongly denies the phrase was used in a racist way.
David Kurten, UKIP’s education spokesman and a London Assembly Member, slammed the force for political correctness:
“While London is falling under spiralling violent crime, the Met Police decides to threaten a senior officer with the sack for saying ‘whiter than white’ — a centuries-old English idiom now considered ‘racist’ by the diversity fascists,” he commented.
Police insiders told the Standard the internal investigation demonstrates the extent to which the police misconduct process has become harmful.
“There was no bad intent in this comment… this is not what the misconduct process is for,” one said.
“This is not corruption, this is not serious wrongdoing. There should be informal ways of dealing with this, particularly at a time when we are so short of experienced officers.”
A spokesman for the Plain English Campaign responding to the officer’s ‘gross misconduct’ charge, saying:
“As the phrase means ‘morally beyond reproach’ and is used in that context with that intent, it seems fairly ludicrous that the officer in question is being investigated at all, let alone for ‘gross misconduct’.”
Until recently the phrase was completely non-controversial, and was even used by former prime minister Tony Blair.
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