UK: Racist insult PC reinstated
01 January 2001
A Metropolitan police officer who was sacked for making a racist remark was reinstated in December. PC Steve Hutt was suspended and then sacked by a disciplinary tribunal after calling a 14-year old black youth a "black bastard" when he was detained in west London in 1999. Home Secretary, Jack Straw, reinstated the officer after 16,000 police officers signed a petition in his support. Hutt, who admitted making the remark in "a moment of madness" said that Straw's decision was a "victory for common sense". However it was condemned by the Black Police Association who said that it was "a license to be racist".
Guardian 23.12.00.