(Credit: Mark Norman Francis/Flickr Commons)
Elham Asaad Buaras
The Metropolitan Police have issued an apology to the Turkish and Turkish-Cypriot communities over their use of Islamophobic and Turkophobic training case study at four London universities.
Police also invited members of the British Turkis community to test-drive future training and university classes to reassure them of its training provision and recruit learning.
The offensive case study, used at Brunel, Anglia Ruskin, the University of West London, and the University of East London, centred on a ‘racist, drug-dealing Turkish gangster, murderer, and rapist’, with graphic details of the crimes he was committing.
These abhorrent crimes included murdering a Chinese man using a knife, raping his Hindu girlfriend in front of their child, and forcing the woman to eat beef despite knowing it was against her faith while seeking to justify his criminal behaviour under Sharia [Islamic] law.
The same Turkish man also racially abuses his Greek Cypriot neighbours and tips their disabled son from his wheelchair “for a laugh.”
In a statement issued on July 26, the Met said, “We would like to apologise to all communities and directly to the Turkish and Turkish Cypriot communities affected. We are deeply sorry that this has caused so much upset, and we understand why.”
However, there was no explanation as to why the Met used an extremely absurd caricature of a Turk for a case study that was outsourced to a private company, Babcock International.
In a joint statement, Haringey, and Enfield Council Leaders Peray Ahmet and Nesil Çalışkan, both of Turkish-Cypriot ethnicity, described the case study as “negative racial stereotyping of people of Turkish heritage.”
The Turkish Police Association, Baroness Meral Hussein-Ece, and the British Turkish Cypriot
Association were among the British Turkish community groups and leaders to also write to the Met to criticise their use of Turkophobic and Islamophobic material as part of their training for new detectives. Many ordinary British Turks also complained directly to the Met or via social media.
The disturbing case study’s inappropriate use of ethnic and religious references also led to criticism from other communities and police associations, such as the Black Police Association, the Muslim Police Association, and the Chinese and Southeast Asian Police Association.
The outcry from such diverse communities resulted in the Met withdrawing the offensive material from its course for new detectives, which had been developed externally by Babcock International and taught at four London universities.
The furore over the course has also led to the Metropolitan Police’s Learning and Development division reappraising how it uses ethnic and religious references in future training material.
A suggestion by the British Turkish Cypriot Association (BTCA) urging the Met to use community experts, such as the Turkish Police Association , to ensure “fair and authentic representations” of Turks seems to have been heeded.
Turkish Police Association head, Eren Emin, said his association had met with senior officials from the Metropolitan Police’s Learning and Development team to discuss ways to not only remedy the situation but build in effective safeguards by involving the community to prevent a similar incident from occurring again.
The Turkish Police Association said it “welcomes the apology” and called on its “community to get involved and experience the new training first hand.
The Metropolitan Police will be forming a new “Staff Support Association Reference Group” so police officers can “contribute to the design and delivery of all training materials, both within and beyond the recruiting environment.”
The Metropolitan Police has also invited “community members” to become an “integral part of the design and delivery of training” via the Community Reference Group.
