The chairman of the Metropolitan Black Police Association may be sacked for sending racist and sexist messages on WhatsApp
During a misconduct hearing, it was revealed that he was part of a chat with a former officer, Carlo Francisco. The panel, led by Commander Jason Prins, found that his behavior was gross misconduct. They said it breached professional standards, especially regarding equality and diversity.
Commander Prins didn’t hold back, stating that Inspector Ehikioya’s messages were clearly inappropriate. He mentioned that the messages pretty much spoke for themselves.
Between 2017 and 2020, Inspector Ehikioya sent and received over 7,000 messages filled with jokes and videos that crossed the line. He claimed these messages were either made up or wrongly attributed to him because of his race or position.
One of the messages included a crude joke about Hugh Hefner and a comment about Muslims. There were also racist jokes about Chinese people and other offensive content, including mockery of serious issues.
Interestingly, in April 2019, he warned Francisco to stop sharing inappropriate content, saying it could get them into trouble. But the panel found his defense of the allegations to be quite far-fetched.
They concluded that his actions seriously damaged public trust in the police. The panel is now considering what punishment to hand down, which could include dismissal.
In a separate incident, Francisco was part of a group chat that made racist comments about Inspector Ehikioya. He was dismissed for unrelated misconduct last year.
Ehikioya’s lawyer argued that he’s not a racist and has spent his life fighting against racism. However, the prosecution dismissed the idea that the messages were fabricated, pointing out that there was no motive for such a claim.
In a previous incident, Inspector Ehikioya claimed he was racially harassed by two colleagues during a traffic stop, but the Met found no evidence of misconduct in that case.
