As corrupt cop Ali Dizaei is finally jailed, an ex-colleague says the Met has been paralysed by fears of being branded racist
he Metropolitan Police continues to
stumble from one self-inflicted crisis to another, weakening its ability
to fight genuine crime.
It
is a force that for too long has been gripped by a dangerous cocktail
of poor leadership, politically correct dogma, warped priorities and
tactical incompetence.
Those
flaws have been graphically illustrated by the appalling case of Ali
Dizaei, the notoriously corrupt Iranian-born officer who was this week
sent back to jail for a second time after his conviction for perverting
the course of justice.
Only
an organisation obsessed with the creed of diversity and lacking in
moral integrity would have allowed a swaggering, criminal bully like
Dizaei to rise up its hierarchy and gain a senior position.
He should have been drummed out long ago, not constantly rewarded with promotion.


But
Dizaei is a symbol of the rot within the top ranks of the Met. Too many
senior officers seem to have forgotten that their central duty is to
protect the law-abiding British public.
Selfish
Instead
of taking tough decisions — like challenging Dizaei — they indulge in
politicised manoeuvres designed to protect their own backs and further
their own careers.
The
high command of the Met inhabits a culture where cowardice is dressed
up as pragmatism, where a talent for spouting jargon trumps
determination to take on the criminals.The biggest losers from this approach
are not just ordinary decent British citizens, but also the constables
out on the streets, often doing a heroic, selfless job only to be
undermined by their selfish, careerist superiors.
It is no exaggeration to say that the Met frontline are lions led by vacillating donkeys.


As a former detective chief superintendent at the Met myself, I have been appalled by the Dizaei saga.


I
was actually the borough commander in West London at the time when, in
July 2008, he tried to frame an innocent Iraqi businessman, Waad
al-Baghdadi, with whom he was engaged in a bitter feud over money. The
incident ultimately led to two criminal trials and Dizaei’s conviction
this week.
But from the moment Dizaei hauled Mr
al-Baghdadi into Hammersmith police station on charges of assault, I
had the severest doubts about his tale.
This
was not just because of the unconvincing nature of his story that
al-Baghdadi had attacked him, which turned out to be a pack of lies, but
also because of Dizaei’s appalling record of dishonesty, corruption and
abuse of office.

Like almost everyone else in the Met, I had always known that he was a wrong ’un.


On a superficial level, he could be charming and personable, but his easy manner barely disguised his dark side.


He
was a figure of epic venality, ambition and ruthlessness, his entire
career geared towards furthering his own interests, regardless of the
legality or probity of his methods.

When he joined the Met as a
superintendent in 1999, former colleagues in the Thames Valley Police,
where he was an officer for more than a decade, warned us to beware,
telling us of his enthusiasm for playing the race card to achieve his
ends.

But
in a climate of hysteria over accusations of ‘institutionalised
racism’, the Met’s top brass were desperate to recruit more ethnic
minority senior officers.
The warnings from Thames Valley
Police were grimly fulfilled. Dizaei was a master at using fears about
racism to thwart any challenge to his increasingly aggressive,
self-serving conduct. The National Black Police Association, of which
Dizaei was president, was his chosen instrument with which to bully and
intimidate the Met’s hierarchy.
He became a law unto himself. The Met’s terror of taking any action against him made him feel even more invincible.


Even the Independent Police Complaints
Commission, normally all too keen on enforcing the politically correct
code, urged the Met to discipline Dizaei — but top commanders were too
pusillanimous to do so. Most had prospered by avoiding tough decisions.
They were not going to risk all by taking on a formidable adversary who loved to smear his critics as racists.


Thanks to their lack of courage, he got away with behaviour that would have led to the sacking of any other Met employee


Disloyalty
So
he gained a PhD with a thesis attacking the Met on racism, while in
2007 he wrote an autobiographical book called Not One Of Us, which
contained severe criticism of the Met.
Yet
instead of being sacked for gross disloyalty, he was promoted. Can you
imagine any successful company that would behave in such a pathetic
manner towards a senior member of staff making money out of trashing the
firm’s reputation?

Fuelled by his invulnerability, Dizaei’s ego was legendary among the rank-and-file.


On
one occasion he alleged that two constables had damaged his private
car. On investigation, it turned out that the damage was inflicted by
one of his many mistresses.

Any other officer behaving in that
way would have been disciplined or sacked, especially because he had
shown such a contemptible lack of respect towards the two constables.
But
nothing happened to Dizaei, protected as he was by the shield of
spurious anti-racism. On another occasion, he drove into the station and
parked so carelessly that he blocked the exit of the emergency response
vehicles.
Almost immediately, the emergency vehicle was needed.


‘Can
you move your car?’ called out the officers, needing to rush to the
scene of the incident. ‘You move it,’ replied Dizaei, throwing them the
keys and marching brazenly inside.
Exploit
That
was the arrogance of the man. He had no sense of public service, not a
shred of decency. He was a brute in uniform, who once threatened to kill
the mother of one of his mistresses ‘like a dog’.
But Dizaei was clever enough to exploit the political pressures on the Met for more than a decade.


And,
of course, political correctness was to blame for the pusillanimous way
the rampaging gangs of looters and vandals — many from ethnic
minorities — were dealt with during the riots last summer.
Paralysed by political correctness
and accusations of racism, terrified of being accountable for
controversial decisions over public order, the Met’s senior officers
allowed the mob to control the streets for five days before launching a
crackdown.
This is not the police force that the public deserves.


The
one great hope is that the Met has a new Commissioner, Bernard
Hogan-Howe, who made his name fighting crime on Liverpool’s tough
streets.
Hogan-Howe’s
virtues are that he does not crave adulation from the politicians,
always a sign of good judgment, and that he has real experience of
operational requirements.
Far
too many senior officers in the Met have reached the top without such a
background. In fact, the avoidance of tough, frontline responsibilities
is often the hallmark of a modern successful career in the Met.
The arrival of Hogan-Howe, combined with the welcome downfall of Ali Dizaei, may put an end to this pattern.


And, finally, policing will be governed by the needs of the public instead of politics.


Source : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2101280/Ali-Dizaei-How-political-correctness-ruining-Britains-police.html