Brutuskend
Lifer
London Mayor Suspended Over Nazi Remark
By Associated Press
Fri Feb 24, 5:09 AM
LONDON - Mayor Ken Livingstone was suspended from office for four weeks on Friday for bringing his office into disrepute by comparing a Jewish reporter to a Nazi concentration camp guard.
"His treatment of the journalist was unnecessarily insensitive and offensive," said David Laverick, chairman of the Adjudication Panel for England, the disciplinary panel that ruled on the case. The suspension is effective March 1. Livingstone has the right to appeal the ruling.
Laverick said the panel objected to the fact that Livingstone refused to apologize.
"The mayor does seem to have failed, from the outset of this case, to have appreciated that his conduct was unacceptable," Laverick said.
Livingstone did not attend Friday's session to hear the ruling. The panel made no recommendation whether his pay should be suspended.
The mayor had told the panel that he had not meant to offend the Jewish community when he asked Evening Standard reporter Oliver Finegold whether he had been a "German war criminal."
Finegold, who had approached the mayor for comment after a reception for the gay and lesbian community in February, replied that he was Jewish.
Livingstone told the reporter he was "just like a concentration camp guard. You're just doing it because you're paid to, aren't you?"
By Associated Press
Fri Feb 24, 5:09 AM
LONDON - Mayor Ken Livingstone was suspended from office for four weeks on Friday for bringing his office into disrepute by comparing a Jewish reporter to a Nazi concentration camp guard.
"His treatment of the journalist was unnecessarily insensitive and offensive," said David Laverick, chairman of the Adjudication Panel for England, the disciplinary panel that ruled on the case. The suspension is effective March 1. Livingstone has the right to appeal the ruling.
Laverick said the panel objected to the fact that Livingstone refused to apologize.
"The mayor does seem to have failed, from the outset of this case, to have appreciated that his conduct was unacceptable," Laverick said.
Livingstone did not attend Friday's session to hear the ruling. The panel made no recommendation whether his pay should be suspended.
The mayor had told the panel that he had not meant to offend the Jewish community when he asked Evening Standard reporter Oliver Finegold whether he had been a "German war criminal."
Finegold, who had approached the mayor for comment after a reception for the gay and lesbian community in February, replied that he was Jewish.
Livingstone told the reporter he was "just like a concentration camp guard. You're just doing it because you're paid to, aren't you?"
