To feel a bit bad for the met police on bbc panorama undercover

I’ll be honest, in the overall situation it’s not the racist misogynists in positions of power that I’m most worried about.

Yep! I have no problem with their names and faces being publicised.

So yes. YABU @Bloodyscarymary

Found it. It was a Panorama episode called The Secret Policeman. Filmed undercover by journalist Mark Daly and and broadcast in 2003. This is an extract from an interview about it.

In one scene to be shown in tonight's programme, a trainee is filmed wearing a Ku Klux Klan mask and threatening to beat up an Asian colleague. "He'll regret the day he was ever born a P**i," he says, before adding that his aim is "to eradicate the whole fucking country of people like him". Daly also recorded racist remarks made by other trainee officers. One recruit said murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence "deserved to die", that his killing was "a good memory" and that white racists "should be given diplomatic immunity".

These officers were recorded and their identies shown on telly at the time. So do you feel sorry for them too, OP?

They should be publicly shamed and fired at the very least! I have no problem with their identities and faces being shown!

Trouble is the head of the Met has appeased his officers (after the armed officers work to rule etc..) when he came into post and said the service had no institutional racism or sexism...it looked like change might happen with Sarah Everard and Mark Duggan but they just dug in and circled the wagons rejecting criticism and change.

Unfortunately, we have to rely on journalists to uncover these things. The met clearly werent able to deal with it. They said they had.

I’d want to know. If it was my neighbour, or friends husband, or god forbid, my child, I’d want to know.

I have met four people who work for the MET police. All of them are/were awful....think they attract a certain type?

no, they’re abhorrent

It's wrong to have these views full stop, it doesn't matter if you are on duty or off duty. Absolutely sickening, made worse by the fact a minority of people on here are excusing the behaviour!

When those views impact their ability to do their job, to treat people with respect and dignity, to apply the law without fear or favour? Or do you think they go on duty and suddenly shed that racist, misogynistic mindset?

Let's say you are white, your child marries a black man and have children. Your granddaughter is in a car accident with a white man, the man is aggresive and angry and threatens her, she calls her dad and it all gets a bit heated and the police are called.. and this police officer turns up. The aggressive man says its all your grandaughters fault and lies and says her dad threatened him.
How do you think this will play out for the innocent party, ie your granddaughter and her dad? The policemans bias could mean he sides with the man and skirts over the actual facts.
And this is why it is important to uncover racism in the police.
If someone holds very strong negative views about one sector of society, they can not do a job like policing. A racist plumber isnt going to ruin someones life, but a racist policeman could.
I don't like racists full stop but a a racist or mysogynist person in a position of authority is dangerous.

It’s worrying you think it’s ok to have these views when you’re ’off duty’.

Friends daughter married a met officer. They didn't see a lot of them so were blissfully ignorant. That is until they relocated to be near our friends. The mask soon slipped. Now they loathe him and wonder why he's so unpleasant to his wife and his in laws. They say nothing to keep the peace.

He's now in the local force and you have to hope he doesn't infest the officers there.

I think they are disgusting and deserve what they get. I don't believe people should have signed up to be in the police if they aren't able to resist peer pressure or have enough integrity to do what is right even when others are being horrific.

I don't think sacking a few people will change the prevalent culture though.

This and what is really scary is that the public are at the mercy of these attitudes and behaviour. More so the vulnerability of those caught up in the criminal justice system.
There is a long way to go before the public are assured that the police force are just and fair.
There has been little change since the racist attitudes exposed in the murder of Stephen Lawrence

So you think these ‘private’ views don’t impact on how they treat victims of crime? You think you can be a big old racist sexist idiot who thinks truly unpleasant things but a jolly good chap once you put your uniform on?
Did you see what the other custody officer said about the SGT letting that man go despite the fact that he kicked the pregnant woman in her stomach?

Why shouldn’t they be singled out? Shame isn’t always a bad thing.

I understand what you're getting at regards the issue being widespread and deep set.

But those who were exposed weren't innocent. It was their own choice to exhibit shitty behaviour and shitty language, for which there should be consequences.

They fully deserved to be made examples of. It’s a strong warning to others who might be attempted to behave similarly.

Off duty isn’t an excuse.

You don’t switch your moral compass on when you go to work and off when you clock out. This is who they are at their core, it’s their belief system, it is the real them, and they should be nowhere near vulnerable people needing help.

No I don’t feel bad. You can get me as drunk as a skunk and I wouldn’t say the things they said. I’ve been teaching for decades and I’ve dealt with some deeply problematic children who have even been violent to me and at no point have I felt the need to hurt them.
The searching of that woman where the custody sgt rushed down to ‘help’ was appalling. He spoke in an incredibly unpleasant way. The use of violence. The racism, sexism and hate they expressed should mean immediate dismissal.