September 11, 2007

Police investigate racist videos

Police are investigating a complaint a man has been posting racist home videos on the internet.

West Kent Police received a report a man from Swanley posted two offensive and racist video files on the YouTube website under the username norman044.

The first clip is alleged to contain images of a small plastic doll, named Abdul, being hanged from the chimney of a doll house. In the second clip, the same doll is shown being set on fire with a blowtorch. The commentary on the clip allegedly states the character is on death row for stealing from a corner shop.

A West Kent Police spokesman said: "We received a complaint and this is being looked into by officers. An investigation into the clip on YouTube is taking place."

Dev Sharma is the director of North West Kent Racial Equality Council, which promotes racial equality and has offices in Dartford and Gravesend.

He said: "This is totally unacceptable. Our organisation is working very hard to dispel this type of propaganda and it is shocking to see it is being allowed to appear. Some action should be taken to stop it."

He added: "So much has been achieved in the past few years and so we are very disappointed. There is so much going on the internet, it is not a surprise someone like this is taking advantage. YouTube should be more responsible than it is."

The film, which was online for nearly six months, was removed on August 15 after being flagged as inappropriate by YouTube users.

Mr Sharma did point out this clip does not reflect the general attitude towards race relations in north west Kent.

He added: "We have good race relations in the area and there is a very good community cohesion."

A YouTube spokesman said: "YouTube has clear policies which prohibit inappropriate content on the site. Our community understands the rules and polices the site has for inappropriate material. Unfortunately there is a small minority of people who break these rules."

He added: "When users feel content is inappropriate, they can flag it and our staff then review it as quickly as possible to see if it violates our terms of use. If users repeatedly break these rules, we disable their accounts."

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1 comment:

bernie the bolt said...

It's a shame the police can't put their time to better use than that!
For fucks sake, a plastic bloody doll!!!!
Wassamatter, did Barbie complain that Action Man tried it on with her? Oh dear, Oh dear!
Dibble ought to be out catching the real criminals (thieves / muggers etc) than hounding a plastic spastic.
What a waste of time and resources!!!!