British Transport Police (BTP) is set to launch a bursary for “British African students” in an attempt to fight “systemic racism” and “Afriphobia” in the force. The Mail has the story.
The move will see the BTP use the Proceeds of Crime Act to fund a law course for a young British African with the aim of ensuring that “British African communities are better represented within the U.K. judicial system”.
But the scheme has come under fire from a former officer who said that the bursary was “concerning” as it combatted discrimination with “more discrimination”.
Rory Geoghegan, who advised Boris Johnson on crime between 2020 and 2022 and set up the Public Safety Foundation, said that the use of the term “Afriphobia” was evidence that the police were continuing to use “contested language”.
The word, which is rarely used in the U.K., refers to racism towards those of African descent as well as bigotry towards people of African heritage and African things.
Mr. Geoghegan argued that the police risked losing the support of British people if it continued to follow such ideological paths, the Telegraph reports.
The former officer said: “If police chiefs are to retain the confidence of the majority of British people, they must wake up to the divisive political activism and ideology that some of them appear captured by.”
The roll-out of the new bursary comes after two men were posthumously acquitted for theft crimes dating back to 1977 after it was found that they had been framed by racist BTP detective Derek Ridgewell. …
Chief Constable Lucy D’Orsi said that the past could not be changed but that racism could be fought in the present day.
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