West Yorkshire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire, England. It is the fourth largest territorial police force in England and Wales by number of officers – Wikipedia.
A potential recruit trying to join the police in West Yorkshire has been told ‘we’re only hiring women and minorities’, according to a Kirklees councillor.
Cllr Mark Thompson, (Con, Birstall), revealed that the white male who applied for a job was unable to have his application progressed as he didn’t belong to a minority group. He was then told that his application would be held until Police recruitment is open for everyone.
Organisations like the police, can legally discriminate against the indigenous population by saying they are taking action because ethnic minorities and women are under-represented, or their participation is disproportionately low. By law, positive action is permissible, whereas positive discrimination is unlawful.
Cllr Thompson read out an email sent to the potential recruit which said: “West Yorkshire Police is currently under-represented by women and people from Ethnic Minority backgrounds. In accordance with the Equality Act 2010, we offer those from under-represented groups the opportunity to apply at any time.”
At Kirklees Council’s last full council meeting, West Yorkshire Mayor, ex-Coronation Street soap actress Tracy Brabin, who has responsibility for police matters, listened to the councillor’s concerns. Cllr Thompson asked whether the email was to do with the “racism that’s involved in recruiting new officers at this moment in time.”
In response to Cllr Thomson, Brabin defended the police recruitment process, saying: “I am hugely proud that the West Yorkshire Police (WYP) has again by Peel standards been designated as outstanding. When I became the Mayor of West Yorkshire, I committed one hundred percent to get our WYP to reflect the communities we serve and Alison Lowe has been an exceptional deputy mayor leading the way and as a woman of colour, she understands more than most that we have to build trust if we are to police by consent. That trust is built by representation.”
Brabin was a close friend of Jo Cox, Labour MP for Batley and Spen who was murdered in Birstall by a mentally ill loner. Cox, known for her slogan “We are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us”, was a campaigner against any form of discrimination, yet here we have her friend and closest political ally defending the discrimination against an ethnic group.
After failing thousands of young white female children who were being sexually abused and raped by men of predominately Pakistani origin, it appears that our wonderful police leadership is still more concerned with political correctness than fighting crime. We demand better.
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Top Image: CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Bottom Image: Bury St Edmunds Past and Present Society [1], Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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