fire Barbi TODAY.

Social Justice Bermuda Statement on Barbi Bishop Ruling

From the beginning, Social Justice Bermuda maintained that the priority course of action was for PC Barbi Bishop to be fired. We were told that the Bermuda Police Force was awaiting the result of this trial to determine if PC Bishop was no longer fit to serve as an officer, and in the meantime, she would be ‘suspended WITH pay’.

Here are the facts. PC Bishop is a former US soldier with advanced weapons training. At the same time that a peaceful demonstration for social justice and support for the global BLM movement was underway in Bermuda, she was sharing a far-right meme advocating for the use of vehicles as a weapon of terror against these same demonstrators. Far-right and white supremacist groups in the USA were sharing this (and similar) memes, while also actively advocating the tactic of driving vehicles into BLM demonstrators. And, in fact, there were several incidents in the USA at this time.

We also feel the need to note that this meme and tactic was itself inspired by the murder of Heather Heyer - as well as the wounding of 19 others - by a neo-Nazi and white supremacist on August 12th, 2017 in Charlottesville.

Over the course of this sham trial, PC Bishop did not argue that she didn’t post the image, but rather that it was her RIGHT to do so, as part of ‘freedom of expression.’ Her lawyer even nonsensically pointed out that Social Justice Bermuda posted the same image (which of course we did to bring awareness to PC Bishop, not because we shared the same violent sentiment!).

The fact that the trial has been thrown out is frankly IRRELEVANT to whether or not PC Bishop should still be employed by the Bermuda Police Service. Not only should she be fired, but her entire case file should be reviewed as this woman clearly harbours anti-Black sentiments.

How could it have EVER been argued that the BPS had to wait for this trial to decide to remove this woman from the police force? The BPS should have taken immediate action to remove this officer from their ranks. This has little to do with this court case and everything to do with the employment of officers who can carry out the important duty of keeping our island and her inhabitants safe from harm.

FIRE BARBI TODAY.

Download Statement as a PDF