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Comment by hugh3 | Hacker News Reader

The one with most direct consequences I can see was that a police officer got sacked because he was a member of the British National Party.

How the hell can that be legal? Are police officers banned from joining all political parties or just the BNP?

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Perhaps because the police are supposed to be impartial and serve all equally. The BNP is overtly racist and advocates explicit discrimination against and persecution of minorities. A member of the BNP is by definition not a proper person to be a policeman.

Membership of BNP is incompatible with being a police officer because it's incompatible with the police force's equal opportunities policy. Police officers are contractually obliged to follow the policy. Rightly or wrongly (rightly imo) that's the justification for sacking him.

Membership of, say, the Green Party, does not conflict with the officer's obligations.

How does someone's party affiliation keep the police force from following its equal opportunities policy?

The BNP is an overtly racist party. If you join them, it is assumed you follow their policies and general belief structure. Those policies and beliefs are incompatible with what the police are ordered to do as part of their jobs.

It's better than a policy of ignoring the beliefs of your officers, isn't it?

it's policy, it's the same as someone wearing their Army uniform to a KKK rally. Agencies like that can't be seen endorsing extremists.

It's not the same as the uniform-at-KKK-rally example, since his membership was a secret.

I'd agree that policemen shouldn't wear their uniforms to a meeting of any political party. This is very different though.

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