Deputy Chief Constable Julie Cooke has claimed that British police “hate crime cars” with rainbows painted on them to encourage members of the public to report hate crimes have a “huge” and positive impact.
Deputy Chief Constable Cooke, who heads LGBT issues for the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), stated in a video on social media platform Instagram that the cars with rainbow designs were “part of our vehicle fleet,” and labelled them “hate crime cars”.
She said that the “cars are there in the communities on normal policing patrol just to show the community that we want you to come forward… It is there to try and give confidence to our LGBT+ community, but also to other under-represented groups.”
Cooke, her police uniform decked out in rainbow paraphernalia, boasted: “I wear this all the time, so I’m an ally,” even though she is “not part of the LGBT community” herself.
The woke officer added that she has other virtue-signalling adornments to her uniform that she does not wear all the time, such as “epaulettes that have the Trans flag on them”, claiming that such displays make “a big difference”.
The rainbow “hate crime” cars have been criticised by some, such as activist and former police officer Harry miller who heads the group Fair Cop.
He told the Telegraph, “We don’t see the Met with special cars for knife crime, even though the number of stabbings in London is appalling,” adding: “The problem is that the second that you see a rainbow car, you know that it is a police force that has made its mind up about some very contentious issues. You no longer see a police car or a police officer who is there to support everyone, from all political persuasions, without fear or favour.”
“They have moved from policing crime to policing thoughts and speech, because it is easier,” he accused.
LGBT-themed police cars have been deployed in many areas over the last several years, some of which have coincided with annual Pride parade celebrations while others have been used to encourage hate crime reporting, as was the case in Lancashire in 2017.
The United Kingdom is not the only country where police decorate their patrol cars with LGBT imagery. In Canada, for example, Montreal police placed pride flag stickers on their patrol cars earlier this month and police in Ottawa have decorated their cars in rainbow colours as early as 2015.