Sunday, February 25, 2007

Hmm - speaking out - against the BNP

  1. This blog is categorically an anti racist blog. I write this blog to help people understand the issues in race and diversity and I have recieved encouraging feedback from colleagues that I don't play lip service and I care.

  2. Having challenged the views of a BNP member on DC's blog I have been subjected to all forms of accusations, and abuse, one accusation suggests I am racist. Let's deal with that first. I am not.

  3. I am respected in the field of policing and have campaigned against racism all my career and before. So if anyone wants to look closely at me, please feel free, but I will take wild accusations very seriously. I have have positive contact with The Archbishop of York, and with Yasmin-Alibhai Brown and other respected national journalists as well as The First Post. So look at me closely.

  4. It has been suggested that I am trying to incite racial hatred. I would suggest the contributors that are making these wild accusations are either anonymous or give names like Michael and Roger, themselves have hatred in mind.

  5. None of the views contained in my writing in this blog are racist.

  6. I suppose to some I am dangerous, as it is being suggested. Of course it's dangerous to have an intelligent Black or Asian man wearing the queen's uniform who stands up against any form of racism. It's dangerous for racists.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is quite clear that your blog is here to help build better communications and understanding about race relations and accepting people as they are. I respect that and would not be inclined to worry about people who knee-jerk react to your thoughtful views with crazy broad range accusations of 'racism'. Lets continue to work together in respect and understanding. cheers

cookie monster said...

the problem with discussing race is that its an emotive subject and people tend to react without really thinking.

i dont really percieve anything youve written on here as racist even though i disagree with some of it. i view your blog as well writtten and thoughtful and can pose some intresting moral conundrums.

ExtraSpecialCopper said...

I cant see any racist comments. You have a good blod and bring up things others wouldnt, and say them well. Stick to it mate

PCFrankyFact said...

Oooh you big name dropper you. I bet your dads dead big as well and knows karate.

Anonymous said...

Virtually everybody posting on the police blogs are making a comment on how idiot politicians who have no experience of policing whatsoever are destroying Britain's once great police forces.

It has never crossed my mind and it is not obvious to any reader who you bloggers are and from what part of the planet you originate, you could be of any racial origin. All except for one person that is who never seems to ever post on anything without stating he must be of a darker skin colour than the rest of us as he originates from the Indian continent.

Having race and diversity rammed down my throat by him on every blog I visit really gets me angry. I have many great friends from all over the world of all colours that I have worked with for many years. But you Twinning are beginning to make me sick. Play another record or take a chain saw too those half tree trunks you have on each shoulder.

Twining says: said...

Last anon, thank you so much for your feedback. When we raise concerns we do so not to be attacked verbally by anonymous people. I am sorry you get angry. I am not ramming anything down your throat. What about Nick Griffin and Abu Hamnza, don't they ram things the wrong way? Obviously you have no idea of being racially assaulted or suffering. So I will put the ffedback where it deserves to go. For your info my views do help.

Anonymous said...

blackinblue:

Just as you say in your blog:

"I have been subjected to all forms of accusations, and abuse, one accusation suggests I am racist. Let's deal with that first. I am not."

No, I am not.

[Works for you...will you judge me by the same standards as you judge yourself?]

Let us start again; you said:

"We will always have a lower order in society, that is the way of life."

I wish to dispute that.

We are not a lower order.
It is not "the way of life".

I promise you that I am not racist.

Roger

Annette said...

anonymous:
Why oh why, do you read this then?
I think black in blue is great, I'm sorry that you don't.
So I'll ask you again:
why do you read this blog?

There are some blogs I've read because I thought they would be interesting but on reading them I have been dissappointed with them. I have read them again to give them a fair chance but then decided it wasn't my sort of blog.
So I just haven't been back to read them. (not police blogs)
It is not because of the blogger (you don't always know who they are) it is the what they are writing about.
Pick and choose anonmymous, just pick and choose which ones you want to read.
Everyone has their own favourite kind of blog they want to read.

Anonymous said...

Right hopefully am coherent after not enough sleep after stupid busy night shift.

Yes this blog focuses mostly on one issue but so what? I on mine tend to focus media inaccuracy and government impotence.

I have to admit I tend not to think too much about matters race day in day out: as far as I and my colleagues go on I am glad to say colour of skin simply is not an issue in our day to day work and interaction with public and co-workers. To clarify- I mean racism within my team is something I have never encountered. Unfortunately racially aggravated calls / incidents from the public as a whole remain frequent.

My point is the service needs people like twining. There simply have to be officers with a drive for particular issues else things would be left to fester and rot. My thing is for police driver training, I have certain projects and things on the go. There have to be people like Twining to keep people up to scratch and up to standard with regard, in this case, to race, arguably one the top priorities for the police.

Finally, I think it speaks volumes that Twining still has to post under a pseudonym. Now why is that I ask you.

PCFrankyFact said...

Twining me old china.
Replied 2 yor email.
Unsure wot its about.
I take all this with a pinch of the white stuff thats deemed bad 4 u but not illegal hence my sumtimes glib replies.
Any1 who's racist has 2 b a complete tool.
I just can't stand scuz.
Colour don't come in2 it.
I'm on a 5 day course at mo which has removed me from 12 hr shifts onto the luxury of 0830-1530 4 5 days.
I'll check this & my emails 2moro.
Chins up.

Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera said...

I have known Brother Twinning for many years now, we both have and continue to work within the field of Race and Diversity and have seen covert bigotry grow out of proportion to the previous overt bigotry that used to exist within the Service. Brother Twinning and myself may be fellow travellers on the road, but this does not mean that we agree on all things, but we still have respect for each other.

Unfortunately the bigots of today have been skilled up actually by people such as Twining and myself to a position where they are supremely slick in their language and can ‘fool most people most of the time’ to believe that they are actually terribly liberal and thoroughly tolerant. Many of these people have with used these extra skills to aid them climb the greasy pole of promotion where they have the ability to actually far more easily enact their true bigotry for then they are questioned by few.

If this were not the case, then how is it that the Police Service of the twenty first century is still rampantly homophobic, sexist and yes even racist? Like the BNP in order to fool the masses we as a Service now talk about Islamists, East European migrants, Anti-Social behaviour and criminality in the same sentence whenever possible but whilst using such languages all those people who have been historically victimised still live in their very same reality, little has really changed.

Now, my Bother Twinning, often says that I am being too hard on the Service at this point, strange that, because I then see the ‘establishment’ turn on him for saying a lot less than me. In truth what we think of ourselves within the Service is not as important as what the communities which we serve think of us. All those people who think that the Race Awareness and Diversity Training has made any positive difference go out and meet the real public, for they actually have a very low opinion of us.

The sad fact is that the quarter of a century of such training since the Brixton riots of the early eighties has failed. It has made many external consultants wealthy though, so in one respect it was not bad for everyone. When I listen to the ‘establishment’ and the media discussing the politics of today and hear the overt Islamophobia, Homophobia and for that matter the wealth of other Phobia’s it breaks my heart that nobody from such illustrious groups such as ACPO, the Superintendents Association, The Police Federations and organisations such as the British Association of Women Police and the National Black Police Association actually stands up and calls a halt to such bigotry. Unfortunately it does not take a genius to destroy the ethical credibility of any of these organisations. The only organisation that has constantly challenged though has been the Gay Police Association who have relentlessly fought on with the absolute minimum amount of assistance from their employers as well as the Home Office, but what they do have is tremendous moral support from outside of the Service.

We need to hear from Twining and all his associates who feel passionately enough about these issues to put their necks on the line everyday. I am about to retire from the Service, but still believe that things can change, but it will not change if left only to those people who are representatives of the suffering groups. I do not wish to imply that people who have no experience of ‘The Issues’ have not championed on, for they have, but these people are in the minority. What we need is a critical mass of these people who form the power base within society to completely caste off their shackles and choose a path that is inclusive of ALL.

I could end with a wonderful quote from the likes of Martin Luther King Jnr or perhaps Nelson Mandela or for that matter Ghandi as many of ‘Those Other’ organisations do, but I fear that ‘They’ have already sullied them, so how about using the words of Nike sport instead ‘Just Do It’.

Namaste

Serendib

Twining says: said...

Roger, of course you are entitled to your views. And you can dispute things. We police, and whether you like it or not the types of crime we are talking about, gun crime, prostiution do not occur in the Aristocratic domain.

I am afraid there is an order. It is not my fault that order exists. I am merely trying to help an understanding. I can look in the mirror and say I am not a racist.

It is for you to do the same. Yes, I will afford you every right. Are May I ask you , are you a member of the BNP?

Twining says: said...

Serendib, short and sweet as usual! An essay is what I always get.

And Sergeant says.... Your views inspire me to know that not everyone in our service is a racist. I have always maintained that. I have sat with White colleagues that have been bullied for supporting a Black collegues. How absurd? And the NBPA are not even remotely interested unless it get their career up and running.

And you are right. This is my passion, my skill. I have had to pull my finger out to help hate crime officers, who the organisation have put in post, but whom don't have a clue. And some of these are just a token individual used by the organisation.

It's out there on the streets that we, YOU, make a difference and helping people is what we do.

Anonymous said...

black in blue

You ask me "are you a member of the BNP?"

I most certainly am not!
(Nor am I a National Socialist, Ku Klux Klanner, Fascist or any other such rubbish.)

Please do not automatically assume that because someone disagrees with you he/she is a BNP member.

Roger

Twining says: said...

I did not assume. I asked a question. Your ball! Twining.

Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera said...

Dear Black in Blue, given the stance that most males in society will be sexist due to their socialisation and formal education, homophobic again for the same reasons as well as listening to the misinterpretation of certain faiths towards such issues, why are you surprised that someone who has been socialised and educated within a Western European society will also be racist, and for that matter what is the issue?

I would be surprised if not thoroughly astounded if someone who had been brought up in such a society which is based on an unwarranted and discriminatory hierarchy could be anything but racist, but this does not mean that they need once aware act in such a biased manner.

Perhaps the problem that exists when discussing racism is that we ‘Diversity Trainer’ types have criminalised the word and treated differently to equally abhorrent bigotries as sexism, homophobia and religious hatred?

The other questions around ‘Diversity’ are far more easily to work on in a theoretical sense as people are more willing to acknowledge their own lack of knowledge and ignorance whereas only ‘Horrible’ people are ‘Others’ could be racist.

I ask myself constantly ‘Am I racist’, well I do have a tendency if unchecked to be sexist at times, I also was involved in ‘Cottaging’ operations and arrests many years ago and did not complain or even see at the time that it was wrong as I used the excuse ‘I am only doing my job and these people are breaking the law’, and I have also been involved in situations where people have been harassed and arrested on grounds of their ethnicity (members of the Roma/Gypsy community). So the answer in short terms must be yes.

Am I good person though? Yes I am really but clearly without self or external checking I can and have acted in bigoted manner.

With few exceptions most people unfortunately carry around these imposed and nurtured bigotries all their lives and usually these are never challenged or wittingly acted upon, but history has shown us in countries such as Nazis Germany, Ruwanda and Kosova to name but a few that we are far to easily led into using such bigotries to justify the most heinous of deeds, whilst others use similar bigotries to stopped themselves from blocking such action.

Getting back to the Police Service there is an excellent book called ‘Ordinary Men’ by Christopher R. Browning which seeks to unravel why perfectly ‘Normal’ men were involved in the Police Battalions of the Nazis regime and assisted in the murder of millions of innocent men, women and children purely because they were Jewish. This book is worrying for its normality and I have seen in my own career how people have without question been willing to be involved in actions which at least breaches others human rights and at worst goes some of the way down the path towards wholesale victimisation of an ethnic or ideological group.

I pray that we all remember the words of Edmund Burke “All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men to do nothing”. Browning’s book goes to show that sometimes the ‘good men’ are actually party to the evil.