Britain's top Muslim policeman accused the controversial head of London's police of racial discrimination Thursday, triggering a sharp rebuke that he should "shut up." Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur said it was with "deep regret" that he was taking Ian Blair of the Metropolitan Police to an employment tribunal and denied the move was linked to unhappiness at not being promoted.
"My current case is essentially to do with my treatment at the highest levels of the Met, in particular the discrimination I have been subjected to over a long period by the present Commissioner Sir Ian Blair," Ghaffur said. He added it also covered treatment he had faced in his current role as security co-ordinator for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Just over an hour after he made his comments at a London press conference, Blair's deputy Paul Stephenson made an extraordinary televised address denying there was discrimination in the force. "I think it's long past time that we all shut up, stop making public statements about private disputes and get on with the job that we're all paid to do," he added.
At the press conference earlier, Ghaffur's lawyer Shahrokh Mireskandari suggested that his case might not be an isolated one. Asked whether he thought Blair or the Metropolitan Police was racist, Mireskandari told reporters: "When there's so (many) discrimination cases coming out by ethnic minorities, that speaks for itself...
"I think that there are even further allegations against Sir Ian at the moment which are probably just as serious, I think it's an accumulation of many allegations against him."
Alfred John, the chairman of the Metropolitan Black Police Association, who was also at the press conference, added that Ghaffur's claims were "not an isolated incident." He said that racism on both an institutional and individual level continued in the Metropolitan Police, also known as the Met.
In June, Blair described Ghaffur as "an esteemed colleague" and denied any suggestion that he was racist. "I believe I have a long, honourable and occasionally bloodstained record of the championing of diversity, not perfect but always principled and consistent," Blair said at the time.
Ghaffur is one of four assistant commissioners, the third highest rank of officer in the force after the commissioner and deputy commissioner. He is claiming a reported 1.2 million pounds (1.5 million euros, 2.2 million dollars) for alleged discrimination on grounds of race and religion.
Blair is one of two people named in his claim, which is expected to be ruled on by the tribunal in the next month. The other is Richard Bryan, who works under Ghaffur on organising security for the next Olympic Games. Blair faced heavy criticism over his handling of the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent Brazilian shot dead by Met officers who mistook him for a suicide bomber two weeks after attacks in London that killed 52 people in 2005.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission watchdog said last year Blair had tried to block its probe into the case, while the Menezes family and Britain's two main opposition political parties said he should quit. The Met was fined 175,000 pounds for health and safety breaches over the killing.
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