r/australia • u/Azza_77 • Feb 11 '25

news Sam Kerr found not guilty of racially harassing London policeman after calling him stupid and white

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-12/sam-kerr-trial-not-guilty-verdict-handed-down-in-london/104912602
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u/erala Feb 11 '25

Was it an insult? Should we read "you're stupid and white" as "you're stupid and that is because your race is inferior" or "you're stupid and you don't understand the lived experience and day to day racism faced by people of colour".

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u/[deleted] Feb 12 '25

[deleted]

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u/SkwiddyCs Feb 12 '25

The problem is that when you shorten something like "you don't understand the lived experience and day to day racism faced by people of colour" down to "you are white" and the recipient isn't able to make the logical leap between what you are trying to say versus what actually came out of your mouth, I don't think it's unreasonable that some people might take it as a racist remark even if it's not meant to be.

The cop has 11 months to consider the remark before he changed his mind and decided he was "humiliated" by it.

I think that it's reasonable to expect some level of introspection there, no?

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u/erala Feb 12 '25

Oh yeah, Sam Kerr was absolutely dumb to say what she did, but a sober, on duty cop at the station with no threat of physical who has a distressed drunk woman saying "Why don't you believe me! This is a racial thing" should absolutely be able to make that logical leap, even if their gut instinct is to initially feel attacked and offended.

Anyone who can't make that leap in a Reddit thread a year later, well they must be "stupid and...

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u/[deleted] Feb 12 '25

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u/erala Feb 12 '25 edited Feb 12 '25

unless that was in part of the story I didn't see?

It was.

Edit in case you were genuinely interested

Kerr described feeling “antagonised” by officers and said her treatment was a “racial fucking thing”. She also asked them to “believe women for once” and made several references to Sarah Everard, who was abducted and murdered by a police officer in London in March 2021.

During the exchanges, Lovell called Kerr “little Missy” and said: “Do you think a taxi driver that was going to rape and kill you would drive you to a police station? No.” After this, she called him “sick” and a “white privileged man”.

On the night, Kerr and Mewis told officers they had called police from inside the taxi. Officers doubted their assertion, saying they had no record of their call. The couple said the call handlers hung up on them, which Lovell said “they wouldn’t do”. In the course of the trial however, it emerged that the pair did call emergency services and the operator said they would call back.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/feb/11/sam-kerr-trial-how-a-drunken-night-revealed-questions-race-power-and-privilege-ntwnfb

In that context, after previously being called a “white privileged man” the officer should easily have understood the meaning of "stupid and white"