Police dress up in burkhas 'to improve community relations'

[Uthman]

Three women police officers spent a day in full Muslim dress as part of a scheme to improve community understanding.

Two sergeants and a community support officer dressed in head-to-foot burkhas and other traditional clothing and went out shopping.

Meanwhile a group of Muslim women were invited into police cells, a CCTV control room and shown other daily duties of a police officer.

The move was part of a police initiative dubbed "In Your Shoes" taking place in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

But it has attracted strong criticism from onlookers.

Matthew Elliott, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "This is an absurd diversion from real policing.

"People want the police out catching criminals, not indulging in politically correct gimmicks.

"The police are overstretched as it is without officers being paid to do other things than their real job."

Douglas Murray, director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: "This has nothing to do with crime.

"Like most people who have been a victim of crime, I am amazed and flabbergasted that they have solved all the crimes so they can spend a day playing dressing-up games.

"I did not know it was the job of police to see how people feel. I thought it was their job to solve crimes.

"This is a fantastic demonstration that for the last 10 years the British police have been having an institutional nervous breakdown. They do not know what their job or their role is."

The clothes-swapping day took place earlier this year in Sheffield town centre and followed a similar event in Barnsley.

The officers wore brightly-coloured traditional Muslim outfits and a full-length black jilbab plus a niqab, which covers the face leaving slits for eyes.

Sergeant Deb Leonard, who wore some of the clothing, described her experience in a South Yorkshire Police in-house magazine.

She said: "I have gained an appreciation and understanding of what Muslim females experience when they walk out in public in clothing appropriate to their beliefs.

"We are keen to gain a better understanding of issues which our communities face."

No one from South Yorkshire Police was available to comment.

But the in-house magazine added: "The exercise is just one of many activities South Yorkshire Police has planned with communities and ethnic minority leaders to secure strong relationships, celebrate diversity and encourage integration, working towards a safer, closer society."

Source

 

[Uthman]

Comment by Justin Gest:

Policing under the veil in Yorkshire

Having police officers wear Islamic dress might be gimmicky, but the 'In Your Shoes' exercise shouldn't be dismissed.

Two South Yorkshire police officers and a police community support officer spent a day in Islamic dress, hijab headscarves and niqab veils, as part of an effort to improve officers' cultural sensitivity and relations with local Muslims.

Taken around a neighbourhood by a set of local Muslim women, two were completely covered in loose black fabric with only narrow slits over their eyes, while another wore an ornate gown and a colourful headscarf.

Ever since, the officers have been harassed more than the women they sought to understand. According to the Daily Mail, critics have "lined up" to denounce the scheme as a waste of police officers' paid time and unnecessary. I don't know what kind of crime spree took place through Sheffield while these three officers were learning about community members' lives, but it hasn't produced the press that this (admittedly gimmicky) effort did. In any case, the manufactured outrage is largely baseless.

If you ask a set of Muslim youths to identify the most common sources of discrimination, the typical response is to point to third-party social rejection and interactions with police officers.

Police officers represent the point where government policy and discourse impact affected parties – where the rubber hits the road. In this way, they are collective ambassadors of the British legal system and public sphere. Officers have the power to determine individuals' perceptions of how just, equal and well-intentioned public policy is.

Their sensitivity to, comfort within, and understanding of their local community is therefore crucial.

While this "In Your Shoes" scheme produced a nice photo opportunity (as well as some adverse publicity) I expect that it also had a major effect on the perceptions of the participating officers.

According to the Daily Mail, a police spokesman said the officers "believed they were being monitored by security staff when they went into a shop and were stared at in the street. But she admitted that they were unsure whether this was down to their clothing or being overly conscious of their appearance."

Welcome to the life of a niqabi British Muslim. They're unsure too.

And it is this regular uncertainty about social judgment that complicates daily existences. Muslim males report similar insecurity about fellow Britons' impressions when they board public transport in a prayer gown or carry a backpack.

An awareness of British Muslims counter-paranoia to the British government's paranoia about terrorism should not stop the government's preventative policies, but it should inform their creation and implementation. And I believe it will in South Yorkshire.

Besides, each article citing the outrage over the dress-up scheme has quoted one concerned person in particular. The suddenly-prolific Douglas Murray, director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: "You just couldn't make it up. … This is a complete waste of police time and taxpayers' money. It's not the duty of police to empathise with particular sections of the community."

Right. Who wants their local police officers to have a humane side anyway? Of course, this is the same director of the Centre for Social Cohesion who wrote that the post-7/7 "war on terror" should entail "winding up the groups and mosques that have made Britain the central Islamist-terror meeting point in the west. For too long we have afforded rights, which we have fought for generations to achieve, to people who do not believe in such rights and only use them to abuse us and our society." Social cohesion, indeed.

For real social cohesion in a diverse and dynamic Great Britain, police officers and all of us would do well to try to understand our neighbours as much as we expect them to understand us.

Source

Justin Gest is co-director of the Migration Studies Unit and Ralph Miliband Scholar in Political Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research examines socio-political alienation among Muslim minorities in western democracies.

 

[Uthman]

:bump1:

 

[GuestFellow]

It just appears they want to gain the Muslim community trust. Nice to see they are putting the effort.

 

[celina]

I don't get it.......

 

[GuestFellow]

I don't get it.......

What don't you get? =/

 

[The_Prince]

this is just embarassing. sheesh. they dont have to go thaaaattttt far to try and please some people.

 

[Uthman]

"I did not know it was the job of police to see how people feel. I thought it was their job to solve crimes."

Is he right? Is solving crimes the only job of the police?

 

[Muezzin]

To take the position of the Insane Internet Commentator:

I wonder who felt more oppressed (if anyone did indeed feel oppressed) - the female police officers trying out the burkha, or the Muslim females being shown the inside of a police cell.

 

[Uthman]

To take the position of the Insane Internet Commentator:

I wonder who felt more oppressed (if anyone did indeed feel oppressed) - the female police officers trying out the burkha, or the Muslim females being shown the inside of a police cell.

;D

What about my earlier question, though?

 

[aadil77]

I think this should just be a temporary thing if they want a view of being 'in their shoes'

 

[Uthman]

I think this should just be a temporary thing if they want a view of being 'in their shoes'

I don't think they were planning on wearing the Burkhas permanently.

 

[Muezzin]

Is he right? Is solving crimes the only job of the police?

Well, given the continuing image problems, I don't blame them for community relations* things. It's not like the entire police force was 'playing dress up'.

*this also includes events like giving talks to schoolchildren etc.

 

[- IqRa -]

I think it's good.

 

[Uthman]

Even if improving community relations isn't the primary role of the police, are they really so overstretched that they can't do something like this?

Douglas Murray's argument would be much more credible, were it not for the fact that he seems to take issue with everything that Muslims would perceive as being positive. It's no wonder that he has authored a book called Neoconservatism:Why we need it. I do wonder how well-placed that makes him to run a think-tank named the Centre for Social Cohesion. Frankly, I think both him and his "think-tank" (if indeed we can dignify it by calling it that) present a barrier to social cohesion by doing more to prevent it than they do to improve it.

 

[Uthman]

I found an interesting piece about this from a site called Muslimah Media Watch. You can read the piece here.

To be honest, I'm surprised at their attitude. If you read it, you'll see what I mean.

 

[Muezzin]

Even if improving community relations isn't the primary role of the police, are they really so overstretched that they can't do something like this?

No. There's time allotted for each police force to do community relations stuff, as there is time allotted for the fire service to take part in similar events. The precise way in which they choose to use such time to relate to the community is at their discretion, taking into account the needs and wishes of the community they serve.

Douglas Murray's argument would be much more credible, were it not for the fact that he seems to take issue with everything that Muslims would perceive as being positive. It's no wonder that he has authored a book called Neoconservatism:Why we need it. I do wonder how well-placed that makes him to run a think-tank named the Centre for Social Cohesion. Frankly, I think both him and his "think-tank" (if indeed we can dignify it by calling it that) present a barrier to social cohesion by doing more to prevent it than they do to improve it.

Life is a series of ironies.

 

[Blackpool]

Have they got nowt better to do than play dressing up? They should be put on the streets to prevent vandalism, muggings and rape.

 

[Muezzin]

Have they got nowt better to do than play dressing up? They should be put on the streets to prevent vandalism, muggings and rape.

There's time allotted for each police force to do community relations stuff, as there is time allotted for the fire service to take part in similar events. The precise way in which they choose to use such time to relate to the community is at their discretion, taking into account the needs and wishes of the community they serve.

I don't make the rules.

 

[GuestFellow]

Have they got nowt better to do than play dressing up? They should be put on the streets to prevent vandalism, muggings and rape.

The police are already in a mess. They have to spend more time doing paperwork then preventing crime. The paperwork is used for statistics.