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Asian officer to sue Scotland Yard for racism

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: Britain’s most senior Asian police officer is to sue Scotland Yard for alleged racial discrimination, claiming that racism in the police force is more widespread than is normally believed and that senior Asian and black officers have to work in a “hostile” and “poisonous” atmosphere.

Tarique Ghaffur, Assistant Commissioner of Police, is reported to have prepared a dossier which, according to his lawyers, makes an “exceptionally powerful case” of racial discrimination.

Mr. Ghaffur (53), who has been involved in a long-running dispute with his employers, has accused the Metropolitan Police chief Ian Blair of being surrounded by a “golden circle” of white officers and said that he has been “humiliated” and “undermined” despite his good work, which earned him the Queen’s Police Medal.

While the police is routinely accused of racism and was held “institutionally racist” by an official inquiry in 1998, this is the first time that an officer of Mr. Ghaffur’s seniority has decided to take legal action. The case is likely to put further pressure on Sir Ian who is already struggling to save his career after a series of damaging incidents under his watch.

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