Indian court told Punjab Police Not ‘Every Black is a Drug Peddler’

A  court in India has strongly reprimanded the police of the northern state of Punjab for passing racist comments against an African national.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court lashed out at the Police for using a derogatory term for Africans and issued orders to erase the ‘N word’ from all its records and to ensure that such dehumanizing terms are never used by the Police force.

An African national, whose identity has not been revealed, was taken into custody for alleged possession of the narcotic substance.

The police while presenting him in the court had used the racist word which infuriated the judge.

Strong exception

Taking a very strong exception to this, Justice Rajiv Raina of the High court said in his order that he found the term in the police documents ‘appalling’ which is a ‘highly offensive’ word across the globe.

He admonished the police for assuming that ‘every black is a drug peddler’ and such an attitude was a ‘terrible thing’. While directing the Police chief to take strict action against the insensitive police personnel, the judge noted in his order that black people ‘deserve dignity in a foreign land’.

The judge condemned the Police force for their racist behavior and said they should be sensitized on such issues so that such racist comments don’t arise in the future.

“This aspect needs to be corrected by the sanction of the law by ordering strict action against the Policemen who indulged in this character assassination based on physical features” the court order read.

The post Indian court told Punjab Police Not ‘Every Black is a Drug Peddler’ first appeared on The African Gazette.