2 London Cops Fired After Racist Post About Meghan Markle
Two London Metropolitan police officers have been sacked for “abhorrent and discriminatory” behavior after posting offensive messages in a group chat, including a racist slur against Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, a tribunal ruled Friday.
The actions of Police Constables Sukhdev Jeer and PC Paul Hefford, who worked in east London, amounted to “gross misconduct,” according to the tribunal, meaning they must be dismissed from the force, British media reported.
The messages, posted on WhatsApp in 2018 over an “extended period of time,” were “discriminatory and serious in nature.” One compared the Duchess of Sussex to a degrading British doll caricature of a Black person.
The messages were also “overtly ... ableist and sexist,” said Maurice Cohen, chair of the tribunal.
“The postings ... caused serious reputational damage to the Metropolitan police as a whole … They were mocking and discriminatory to many [of the same] sections of society the Metropolitan police force was meant to be policing,” Cohen said at an earlier hearing.
“Dismissal is the only appropriate action,” he stated Friday.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
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