Rowley’s right
IT was always in the gift of police leaders to end the insane pursuits of innocent people over so-called non-crime hate incidents.
Following the decision to drop the case against comedy writer Graham Linehan for tweets, Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has rightly pledged to bin such investigations.
Sending officers mob-handed to arrest suspects for hurty words on social media was a massive waste of time and money.
Sir Mark should be congratulated for focusing precious resources on real crimes and protecting the public.
We urge other forces to follow suit.
Today, Sir Mark also speaks out against the “inhuman” treatment meted out to armed cops involved in fatal shootings.
For too long, it has been easier for police watchdogs to bow to pressure groups and left-wing MPs than support officers in the line of fire.
Brave cops like Sgt Martyn Blake — who stood trial for murder after the shooting of dangerous criminal Chris Kaba and cleared within three hours by a jury — are now routinely put through the wringer simply for doing their job.
The relentless witch hunts suffered by armed officers merely for carrying out their duties must end.
Failing victims
THE inquiry into grooming gangs — one of the worst scandals of modern times — is at risk of collapsing before it even starts.
Labour fought the idea of holding a national inquiry at every turn.
And the Government is now giving the impression of doing everything it can to sabotage its own “national audit”.
Yesterday’s resignations of two campaigners, Fiona Goddard and Ellie-Ann Reynolds, from the victims and survivors liaison panel are a major blow to its credibility.
They say those abused already feel silenced by a toxic culture of secrecy and have concerns about attempts to downplay the ethnic and religious background of so many of the abusers.
If survivors of this appalling abuse don’t trust the process, how can the public?
What faith?
LABOUR’S unnecessary plans for a new definition of Islamophobia will create exactly the kind of two-tier society the Government is desperate to avoid.
Don’t take our word for it.
Listen to Labour’s longest-serving Muslim MP Khalid Mahmood.
He says a “dangerous” definition risks creating new protections for Muslims that don’t apply to other faiths.
The Government is sleepwalking into an unwanted new law likely to be exploited by Islamists bent on doing us harm.
