A former police constable has been sentenced to 20 weeks in prison for sharing racist WhatsApp memes, including images mocking the death of George Floyd. James Watts, 31, was serving with West Mercia Police in 2020 when he posted the 'grossly offensive' material in a group chat that included former colleagues at a Warwickshire prison.
Watts pleaded guilty to 10 counts of sending a grossly offensive or menacing message by a public communication network. The memes, sent in May and June 2020, included one featuring a white dog in Ku Klux Klan clothing and another showing a kneeling mat with Floyd's face. Other images made jokes about Floyd's death using characters from George of the Jungle and the children's game Guess Who.
Sentencing Watts at Birmingham Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram said his actions had 'undermined the confidence the public has in the police.' He added: 'At the time of these offences, you were a police officer – a person to whom the public looks up to to uphold the law – but you did the opposite.'
The magistrate rejected arguments that the posts were mere 'stupidity or foolishness,' stating they went 'far beyond that.' He imposed an immediate custodial sentence, saying: 'A message must go out and that message can only go out through an immediate sentence of imprisonment.'
George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis on 25 May 2020 by police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on his neck. Watts, from Castle Bromwich, Birmingham, admitted in police interviews that the messages were racist. A co-defendant, West Mercia Police Constable Joann Jinks, 41, is due to stand trial in August on similar charges.
