KEVIN Maxwell, a young gay black police officer was hounded
out of the force “like an enemy of the state” for raising concerns, in private,
about racist, homophobic behaviour in the force.
Last week an industrial tribunal found in his favour on at
least 40 points.
In his first interview, former detective constable Kevin
Maxwell told the Guardian he was sacked after raising concerns about racist and
homophobic behaviour by some counter-terrorism officers.
They also picked on members of the public, subjecting them
to searches based on their skin colour or nationality, which amounted to racial
profiling, he said.
This week the Met lost an employment tribunal appeal against
an earlier ruling, which found in Maxwell's favour on at least 40 points.
The tribunal found that Maxwell, who is black and gay,
suffered multiple counts of degrading or humiliating treatment. One officer
talked of gay men "taking it up the arse", and the tribunal found
that one officer described a man in a photograph as being "as gay as a gay
in a gay tea shop", which police colleagues greeted with laughter.
Maxwell, 35, said he had dreamed of being a police officer
since the age of five, but has now been left financially ruined and suffering
from severe depression, which he says was triggered by the Met ignoring his
concerns and trying to punish him for raising them, even though he did so
privately.
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