The 'Guardian' Always Knows Who Is Most Affected

Police are being forced to disclose the ethnicity of suspects in response to a rise in far-right speculation on social media, a former senior officer in the Metropolitan police force has warned.

And it is, of course, the usual suspects. 

Dal Babu, a former chief superintendent (Ed:and inveterate race-baiter) in the UK’s biggest force, said police having to disclose the race of suspects in incidents involving people of colour was an “unintended consequence”. “When the new guidance was issued, I warned that there was a danger that there will be an expectation for police to release information on every single occasion,” he said. “I have sympathy for my former colleagues in the police. They are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. They are under pressure because there is such intense speculation from the far right on social media after every major incident about the background of suspects.

I think the intense speculation comes from everyone, not just the tiny amount of genuinely right wing accounts! 

“You will not find pressure on social media to name the ethnicity of suspects when black players are being racially abused on social media, for example. We are in a position in our country where race is being amplified by far-right racist groups and the police are being forced to respond. It is a worry.”

Strange to put a train rampage by a knife wielding maniac injuring 11 people, some critically, on the same level of public interest as someone making monkey chants at a football game, but you do you, Dal… 

Even after police revealed that the two arrested suspects were British nationals, attempts were made to suggest that information was being withheld.

Gosh, I wonder why people just don’t trust police statements any more? 

Habib compared the statement on Sunday morning by a senior police officer, who had described both suspects as British, to official statements identifying the Southport murderer as a Welshman. It was “possible” that the suspects were British but, he said, adding that the police had not released their names, “I will remain extremely suspicious until we get chapter and verse.”

Oh, right. I remember why, now!