I am utterly perplexed as to why the issue of the redeployment of PC Alexander Omar Basha away from security duties at the Israeli Embassy in London has caused such a fuss – see this article from The Guardian that explains the matter.
The official reason is that the Met was not sure of his own security – fair enough – but what if (as The Sun alleges) the decision was as a result of his own personal misgivings about Israel’s military intervention in Lebanon and family of his in Lebanon? Is this wrong? The media (and indeed politicians) seem to look at the police, or other organs of the state as precisely that – organs, organisations. These organisations are however made up of responsible, thinking people with their own ethical views, and that is completely right. Can PC Omar Basha have known what Israel would have done when he joined the police force? Probably not. Can he still be a committed member of the UK police? Of course.
There is a serious dynamic here – and it applies right across the public sector. Where is the limit between personal ethics, and the value of the organisation that you work for?
This is not something that is ever really looked at. If you’re in the private sector, you just up and leave to go and work for another firm if you have a problem, but you can’t go and be a police officer somewhere else.
Quite agree, silly story, they have to fill the tabloid newspapers and their broadcast equivalent (the Today programme) with something.