December 26-2014
Four British police officers have been charged with crimes for failing to save an Iranian immigrant who was beaten and burned to death last year.
Bijan Ebrahimi, 44, took pictures of youths vandalizing his flower baskets. A court heard he planned to give the images to police as evidence. But a neighbor saw him with the camera and reported him as a pedophile
The police arrested Ebra-himi, but let him go when they realized the mistake. However, two days after his release, he was attacked by vigilante neighbors who believed the pedophile story.
Lee James, 24, the father of some of the youths photographed, pleaded guilty to murder after beating Ebrahimi unconscious, stamping repeatedly on his head, dragging him into the street and setting him on fire. He has been sentenced to life in prison.
His friend, Stephen Norley, also 24, acknowledged helping James drag Ebrahimi into the street, soak him in gasoline and set him alight. He has been sentenced to four years in prison.
Last week, the Crown Prosecution Service announced it was charging three police constables and a police community support officer with misconduct—the three constables, two women and a man, for not responding to calls for help from Ebrahimi and the support officer for falsely telling an emergency operator that he was outside Ebrahimi’s home when he was nowhere near there.
Police had taken Ebrahimi away for questioning as an angry mob chanted “pedo, pedo,” British slang for pedophile. But he was freed when officers found he had done nothing wrong.
One resident of the Bristol neighborhood told the Mirror, “When the police took him away, everyone was cheering. Then he was released back into that.”
Another added: “Whoever started those rumors now has to live with that. He wasn’t a pedophile and now he’s dead. That’s a hell of a thing to have on your conscience.”
Ebrahimi had learning difficulties and lived alone in public housing. He was registered as disabled and unable to work.
He ran into problems with his neighbors July 12, 2013, as he took the photos of the vandals.
According to witnesses, a mob believing the pedophile rumors surrounded his apartment before police took him away. But on his release, the rumors reached fever pitch.
A police spokesman confirmed the victim was an innocent man: “We can categorically state he had not taken any indecent images and nothing of concern was found on his computer.”
Relatives described Ebra-himi as a “loving and caring man” who lived for his garden. They said in a statement: “Bijan was a quiet, disabled man whose only joys in life came from his horticultural interests and his cat. He was an excellent uncle and a warm, supportive brother.”
Nick Gargan, the chief constable (police chief) of the community, told the BBC that rumors and speculation about crime are rife in Bristol, a city of 430,000 people on the Severn River in southwest England.
Gargan asked, “Why wasn’t that poor man better served by us…. We failed that man.”
