The Story of Mourad
A Humberside Police officer has spoken of his disgust after being the victim of 21 hate crimes and racially aggravated assaults in the past three years.
PC Mourad Karaouani was at one point the number one victim of hate crime in the entire East Riding area.
He is speaking out now to support Humberside Police Federation’s campaign, Protect The Protectors: Stop Racism Against Police.
Mourad, who joined the force after working as a firefighter for five years, is based in Bridlington, an area of low racial diversity.
He said: “As soon as I started going to jobs, there were hate incidents every week. Even in the jobs that I wasn’t directly involved in, if I’d been called as backup, people would turn their hate towards me. Sometimes the suspect would say: ‘I have no issue being arrested. I've admitted what I've done is wrong. However, I don't want him to touch me.’
“As a new officer, I was thinking, is it something I do that makes people hate me? Is it the way I speak to people? I’d go back to my station, put my body-worn video on and watch the way I interacted with people. It made me doubt myself.
“It was happening so often that it was reviewed by supervisors, and it was established that there was definitely nothing that I was saying that was instigating that kind of hate, it was just because of my skin colour.
“After a couple of months, I was surprised when a colleague from the neighbourhood team said: ‘Today in the briefing, we were told you are number one in East Riding for being a victim of hate crime’. I said: ‘Really?’, and he said: ‘Yeah, we literally had your picture in our briefing.’ He then reassured me that his team would attend as quickly as possible if they heard of any disturbances.”
Mourad was asked if he would like to change stations and go to a more multicultural city, such as Hull.
But Mourad decided not to move. He explained: “I like my team here, and if I go somewhere else just because it's easier for me, what about other officers? What about other people that come to Bridlington to live, and who are from different minorities or have a different skin colour? Why do I have to move somewhere else to avoid those kinds of incidents? In fact, those people need to change their mindset.”
But in May 2024, there was a particularly troubling incident. Mourad was on night shift when he tried to break up a fight between two men outside a Bridlington nightclub. He recalled: “One of them just launched at me, grabbed my body-worn video, and tried to take off my hi vis, saying, ‘Do not record me’, and then started giving me a lot of abuse, shouting and swearing.
“I got him down to the floor, arrested him, and while I was on my knees handcuffing the man, I got assaulted. Somebody came from behind, hit me in the face and smashed my glasses. It was his partner. She was shouting and screaming in my face, calling me all the words you can imagine, the P-word, the C-word, the N-word, all of it.”
Backup officers arrived at the scene and, shockingly, Mourad’s body-worn video shows the woman telling them she wouldn’t attack them because they were white.
Thankfully, Mourad says these kinds of assaults have become rarer. He said: “I still experience those incidents; there was one at the beginning of December. But it is nowhere near as bad as it used to be. I believe that is because I had a lot of support from my teammates and my supervisor and we got robust about it.
“Whenever there is any kind of situation like that, we'll deal with it positively, and we arrest for it, if there is grounds. Bridlington is a small town, so people see that there are consequences for their actions.”
Mourad appreciates the fact that his colleagues look out for him. He said: “It’s little things like when the control room calls me and says: ‘Can you attend this emergency? It's a fight in progress now’, my colleagues will shout to say, ‘We're attending as well, to assess’. Those colleagues have their own workloads, but they leave all that and go to that live job, which is potentially going to give them more work to do.
“Sergeants will also leave the station and come to assist when they hear there’s been a hate incident towards me. You don't want to be a victim, you don't want to be weak, you don't want to feel like you're getting some advantage over other colleagues. But I like to think we are all similar, we are all trying to look after each other.”
As part of its anti-racism campaign, Humberside Police Federation carried out a survey and found that over 50% of minority ethnic officers and staff had experienced racial abuse while on duty. However, some had not reported it as they didn’t want to be seen as difficult, or they didn’t believe it would be taken seriously.
Mourad agreed there have been times when he hasn’t reported every instance of verbal abuse. But he still thinks it’s important to report hate crimes, saying: “If I'm a police officer in uniform, having to go through this, what would it be like for a member of the public? It could be a refugee, it could be a person who doesn't speak the language. So to me, it is my duty to actually stay here and report it.”
Mourad hopes the Federation’s anti-racism campaign will raise awareness of what is happening to many minority ethnic police officers.
He said: “People need to know that these kinds of incidents are real, they do happen, and there are some people who still have that kind of mentality. Just because you lost your temper or you had an issue, it doesn't give you the right to start insulting people and giving them abuse.”
Humberside Police Federation Chair Lee Sims described Mourad’s experience as ‘disgusting’ and said the officer had the full backing of the Federation.
Lee said: “What Mourad has had to endure in such a short space of time is absolutely disgusting – no police officer should ever be subject to racist abuse while they are carrying out their duty to protect the public.
“Mourad has the full support of Humberside Police Federation, and his experience illustrates exactly why we have started the Protect The Protectors: Stop Racism Against Police campaign.
“One incident is one too many, there is no room for this in society and our colleagues do not come to work to suffer any hate crime. There is simply no excuse for this abuse, and it must stop.
“There is no place for Racism – and this kind of abuse against our colleagues needs the toughest of punishments and deterrents. We all need to stand together.
“Mourad (and any other officer who is a victim of any crime) has the full support of Humberside Police Federation. His experience illustrates exactly why we have started the Protect The Protectors: Stop Racism Against Police campaign.”
PC Mourad Karaouani was at one point the number one victim of hate crime in the entire East Riding area.
He is speaking out now to support Humberside Police Federation’s campaign, Protect The Protectors: Stop Racism Against Police.
Mourad, who joined the force after working as a firefighter for five years, is based in Bridlington, an area of low racial diversity.
He said: “As soon as I started going to jobs, there were hate incidents every week. Even in the jobs that I wasn’t directly involved in, if I’d been called as backup, people would turn their hate towards me. Sometimes the suspect would say: ‘I have no issue being arrested. I've admitted what I've done is wrong. However, I don't want him to touch me.’
“As a new officer, I was thinking, is it something I do that makes people hate me? Is it the way I speak to people? I’d go back to my station, put my body-worn video on and watch the way I interacted with people. It made me doubt myself.
“It was happening so often that it was reviewed by supervisors, and it was established that there was definitely nothing that I was saying that was instigating that kind of hate, it was just because of my skin colour.
“After a couple of months, I was surprised when a colleague from the neighbourhood team said: ‘Today in the briefing, we were told you are number one in East Riding for being a victim of hate crime’. I said: ‘Really?’, and he said: ‘Yeah, we literally had your picture in our briefing.’ He then reassured me that his team would attend as quickly as possible if they heard of any disturbances.”
Mourad was asked if he would like to change stations and go to a more multicultural city, such as Hull.
But Mourad decided not to move. He explained: “I like my team here, and if I go somewhere else just because it's easier for me, what about other officers? What about other people that come to Bridlington to live, and who are from different minorities or have a different skin colour? Why do I have to move somewhere else to avoid those kinds of incidents? In fact, those people need to change their mindset.”
But in May 2024, there was a particularly troubling incident. Mourad was on night shift when he tried to break up a fight between two men outside a Bridlington nightclub. He recalled: “One of them just launched at me, grabbed my body-worn video, and tried to take off my hi vis, saying, ‘Do not record me’, and then started giving me a lot of abuse, shouting and swearing.
“I got him down to the floor, arrested him, and while I was on my knees handcuffing the man, I got assaulted. Somebody came from behind, hit me in the face and smashed my glasses. It was his partner. She was shouting and screaming in my face, calling me all the words you can imagine, the P-word, the C-word, the N-word, all of it.”
Backup officers arrived at the scene and, shockingly, Mourad’s body-worn video shows the woman telling them she wouldn’t attack them because they were white.
Thankfully, Mourad says these kinds of assaults have become rarer. He said: “I still experience those incidents; there was one at the beginning of December. But it is nowhere near as bad as it used to be. I believe that is because I had a lot of support from my teammates and my supervisor and we got robust about it.
“Whenever there is any kind of situation like that, we'll deal with it positively, and we arrest for it, if there is grounds. Bridlington is a small town, so people see that there are consequences for their actions.”
Mourad appreciates the fact that his colleagues look out for him. He said: “It’s little things like when the control room calls me and says: ‘Can you attend this emergency? It's a fight in progress now’, my colleagues will shout to say, ‘We're attending as well, to assess’. Those colleagues have their own workloads, but they leave all that and go to that live job, which is potentially going to give them more work to do.
“Sergeants will also leave the station and come to assist when they hear there’s been a hate incident towards me. You don't want to be a victim, you don't want to be weak, you don't want to feel like you're getting some advantage over other colleagues. But I like to think we are all similar, we are all trying to look after each other.”
As part of its anti-racism campaign, Humberside Police Federation carried out a survey and found that over 50% of minority ethnic officers and staff had experienced racial abuse while on duty. However, some had not reported it as they didn’t want to be seen as difficult, or they didn’t believe it would be taken seriously.
Mourad agreed there have been times when he hasn’t reported every instance of verbal abuse. But he still thinks it’s important to report hate crimes, saying: “If I'm a police officer in uniform, having to go through this, what would it be like for a member of the public? It could be a refugee, it could be a person who doesn't speak the language. So to me, it is my duty to actually stay here and report it.”
Mourad hopes the Federation’s anti-racism campaign will raise awareness of what is happening to many minority ethnic police officers.
He said: “People need to know that these kinds of incidents are real, they do happen, and there are some people who still have that kind of mentality. Just because you lost your temper or you had an issue, it doesn't give you the right to start insulting people and giving them abuse.”
Humberside Police Federation Chair Lee Sims described Mourad’s experience as ‘disgusting’ and said the officer had the full backing of the Federation.
Lee said: “What Mourad has had to endure in such a short space of time is absolutely disgusting – no police officer should ever be subject to racist abuse while they are carrying out their duty to protect the public.
“Mourad has the full support of Humberside Police Federation, and his experience illustrates exactly why we have started the Protect The Protectors: Stop Racism Against Police campaign.
“One incident is one too many, there is no room for this in society and our colleagues do not come to work to suffer any hate crime. There is simply no excuse for this abuse, and it must stop.
“There is no place for Racism – and this kind of abuse against our colleagues needs the toughest of punishments and deterrents. We all need to stand together.
“Mourad (and any other officer who is a victim of any crime) has the full support of Humberside Police Federation. His experience illustrates exactly why we have started the Protect The Protectors: Stop Racism Against Police campaign.”
