British police have painted gay pride rainbows on the side of their squad cars in an effort to tackle alleged online “hate crime.”
Deputy chief constable Julie Cooke, who is spearheading the move and has pronouns in her Twitter bio, said that the cars were there “to give confidence to the LGBT+ community” and encourage people to report hate crimes.
“Cars are there in the communities on normal policing patrol just to show the community that we want you to come forward,” she said.
“It is there to try and give confidence to our LGBT+ community, but also to other under-represented groups.”
However, some were unimpressed by the development.
Harry Miller – a former police officer and founder of the activist group Fair Cop – told the Telegraph he felt that police resources should be focused elsewhere.
“We don’t see the Met with special cars for knife crime, even though the number of stabbings in London is appalling,” he said.
“The problem is that the second that you see a rainbow car, you know that it is a police force that has made its mind up about some very contentious issues.
“You no longer see a police car or a police officer who is there to support everyone, from all political persuasions, without fear or favour.
“They have literally tied their colours to the mast and painted their cars with their political leanings.”
Additionally, UK political commentator Darren Grimes dubbed the UK police a “clown force” during an interview with Sky Australia host Rita Panahi.
“Put yourself in the position of a hardened criminal, a real menace and thug,”he said.
“Imagine one of these rainbow so-called ‘hate crime cars’ turns up with an officer that gets out of the car wearing a rainbow polo shirt. He isn’t exactly going to instill the fear of God into you is he?”
Ireland’s own An Garda Síochana have also emblazoned their police cruisers with gay pride rainbows for similar reasons around pride month every year.
New garda cars given LGBTQ+ rainbow design ahead of Dublin Pride festival https://t.co/S1AauxiKFR
— Irish Daily Mirror (@IrishMirror) June 10, 2019