Kinda throw something on the newswire and leave it empty or care to actually add something of substance to your post? Like what the fuck's the background. Where's this come from. What else is going on. Any substantiating evidence etc.

 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4882320.ece

See  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4882320.ece
October 5, 2008: Armed racist Ellis Hammond's police links ‘kept from court’

Also:

He lives (or lived) in Plymstock Road, Welling:

 http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/localheadlines/display.var.2109729.0.racist_cop_kicked_out.php

Racist cop kicked out
By Claire Burke
Comment | Read Comments (159)

POLICE who raided a PCSO's home found illegal weapons and evidence to show he was a member of the British National Party (BNP).

Ellis Hammond, aged 23, who was a PCSO for the Coldharbour and New Eltham Safer Neighbourhoods Team, appeared at Bexley Magistrates' Court and admitted possessing illegal weapons He was given a one-year conditional discharge.

Police launched an investigation last December after a stun gun being delivered to Hammond was intercepted.

Officers raided his home in Plymstock Road, Welling, and found a stun gun, CS spray, racist literature and membership to the BNP.

He was arrested and bailed on Christmas Eve. In January he offered to resign as a PCSO and this was accepted.

Hammond was charged with two counts of possessing a prohibited weapon.
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On March 4, he pleaded guilty to possessing a stun gun and CS spray.

Hammond was in the police for a year and 10 months. He was briefly employed as a PCSO in the Eltham South team until posted to the Coldharbour team.

Superintendent Martin Mitchell, from Greenwich police, said: "Individuals such as Hammond have no place within the Metropolitan Police Service.

"Where we identify those who are involved in criminality, or who have opinions which conflict with our intention to provide the best quality service to all communities, we will act quickly."

A ban was introduced in 2004 on police officers and PCSOs from being a member of the BNP or the National Front. If they are found to be members, they are dismissed.

Ken Gibson, the organiser for Greenwich BNP and acting organiser for Bexley BNP, said if Hammond is still a member of the BNP it is likely he would be thrown out of the party because of the offences.

He said: "As far as we know he hadn't renewed his membership.

"We're checking his current status and membership.

"If it's been renewed he would face expulsion."

However, he says the ban on police officers and PCSOs being members of the BNP is "outrageous".

 http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.com/2008/10/armed-racist-ellis-hammonds-police.html

so then...
1, he wasnt a copper, he was a PCSO (civilian)
2, he was trying to arm himself with stuff, not issued with stuff.
3, he was breaking the rules of the police and when they found out they sacked him (sacked for being a member of a political party.....)
4, the police suspended him, sacked him and then arrested him, hardly a cover up. and if I understand their system, if they break the law they get maximum sentence every time.


So your headline was really accurate.

appart from that the one line of text was highly accurate and well worth the title of "news"

Am I the only person uncomfortable with the idea that police officers are not allowed to join the BNP ?

I'm mean they are obviously scum and only a little up the evolutionary ladder from manure but the BNP is a legal political organisation and it worries me that any civil servant is banned from joining any legal political grouping.

I think the reason that cops aren't allowed to join the BNP is that they have to be impartial so that everyone gets equal opportunities under the law (yes, joke I know, the law is to protect the rich, but...).

If they are racist then they can't be impartial and a non-white person arrested by them has more chance of successfully suing them for false arrest, leaving the police more liable for damages.

So I would guess that the ban on joining the BNP is an indirect consequence of their equal opportunities policy.