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A police officer in the UK has been fired after referring to Just Stop Oil as an “evil cult” and describing their protestors as behaving like “spoilt special needs kids”.
An accelerated gross misconduct hearing at Merseyside Police found Inspector Ross Meredith to have breached the standards of professional behaviour at “gross misconduct” as a result of his posts on social media platform X.
Mr Meredith was subsequently dismissed without notice.
Disciplinary action was brought last June after he failed to act on an order delivered in April to remove the posts from his X account.
Three of Mr Meredith’s tweets were noted as offensive, from July 2022, and May and July 2023.
A written decision from the hearing details how on July 7, 2023, Mr Meredith responded to a comment from Just Stop Oil: “each pathetic protest results in fewer people supporting their cause. This evil cult are so dim they simply don’t realise the futility of their tantrums. The government doesn’t’ care
about orange JSO retards hurting normal people”.
Two months earlier, on 13 May 2023, in response to a post from Just Stop Oil about arrests by the
Metropolitan Police, Mr Meredith wrote “you’ve lost the argument”.
“All you ever do is harass & disrupt normal people & hinder the important chapters in their lives. Those in power view you as northing more than dog dirt in the grooves of a shoe. Stop acting like spoilt special needs kids & stop wearing oil-based tabards”.
A year earlier, in July 2022, Mr Meredith commented in response to a Just Stop Oil protestor gluing themself to a painting: “other than suffering from a Mental Health Condition, there is no other rational explanation”.
In his written judgment, Assistant Chief Constable Alex Ross stated: “The language used by the officer was offensive, derogatory and unbecoming of a police officer”.
“The officer’s comments demonstrated a lack of respect and courtesy for those with disabilities, as well as a lack of impartiality in dealing with groups of people who have strong legitimate views around the important issue of climate control. The comments were discriminatory and had the potential to bring the police service into disrepute and undermine public confidence in both Merseyside Police and Policing nationally.”
The force found that with his posts Mr Meredith had engaged in “discreditable conduct” and demonstrated a “lack of respect and courtesy for those with disabilities”.
He was also found to have breached the equality and diversity policy, with the written judgement stating that in posting the responses, his “ability to act with fairness and impartiality can be questioned”.
Mr Meredith has the right to appeal the decision.
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