Drunken man’s “Ramadan rant” at police officer

Categories: Latest News
Thursday June 30 2016
The Burnley Express reports on the court appearance of a man who repeatedly abused a police officer and engaged in a drunken rant about Ramadan while being led away by police, offending local Pakistani residents in Burnley.
Ryan Gordon, 25, admitted racially aggravated harassment/ alarm/ distress on June 10. Burnley magistrates’ court heard Gordon had a previous conviction for a racial offence from 2012.
The court heard police officers attended to a reported disturbance at an address in Forrest Street, Burnley at around 10.45pm on 10 June after being flagged down by a member of the public.
When officers arrived at the address, Gordon was said to be “agitated” and officers tried to calm him down. A police bodycam was turned on to record Gordon’s drunken behaviour.
Another officer who assisted his colleague with trying to control Gordon and lead him to the police car was then verbally abused by Gordon who kicked off on a “rant about Ramadan”.
Prosecutor Alex Mann, said Gordon’s’“behaviour and language was directed mainly at the police officer.”
She said “Several people in the street were of Pakistani heritage. It’s Ramadan and it was around the time of breaking fast.”
Gordon then repeatedly abused the officer and several of the local people in the street were “clearly distressed and made complaints about it”, Mann said.
The officer, whose identity is not disclosed, had been with the force for nine years and said that while he had dealt with similar incidents in that time, “he had never had anybody continually call him such names”.
In mitigation for Gordon, Jasmine Basnyet said her client was drunk at the time and regretted his conduct. She told the court her client could not explain his behaviour on the day and put it down to “reduced tolerance” caused by his drinking.
Burnley magistrates’ court handed Gordon an 18 month conditional discharge and ordered him to pay £50 compensation and a £20 victim surcharge.