UK officer charged with racial offence

Alex MacFarlane was recorded making racial comments to 21-year-old black man, Mauro Demetrio, who was arrested days after England unrest last august.

“The problem with you is you will always be a nigger, yeah? That’s your problem, yeah,” Macfarlane told Demetrio, video recorded on black man’s mobile phone showed.

Demetrio, from Beckton in east London, stressed that he was made to feel like “an animal” by the officers. He also accused a police officer of kneeling on his chest and strangling him.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) initially decided not to charge MacFarlane or another police officer who strangled Demetrio in the back of a van, but right after Demetrio’s lawyer, Michael Oswald threatened to take legal action, it admitted that they would review the case again.

Chief crown prosecutor for CPS London, Alison Saunders, stressed that there was “sufficient evidence” to charge MacFarlane with a racially aggravated public order offence.

“It is regrettable that the original decision was wrong, but I hope the action taken and my decision today demonstrates the willingness of the CPS to review its decisions independently and swiftly and to take appropriate action where necessary,” Saunders said.

The CPS also reported that it was considering the second case, in which a British policeman kicking a 15-year-old black teenager, Terelle Ferguson, to the ground and forcing him to his knees in Forest Gate police station.

SAB/JR/HE

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