PC brother of siblings who battled officers at Manchester Airport faces sack for ‘racist comment’ comparing black female colleague’s hair to ‘mop’
A Greater Manchester Police officer, PC Mohammed Abid, faces dismissal after a disciplinary panel ruled he made a "racist comment" by comparing a black female colleague's braided hair to a mop. Abid is the brother of Mohammed Fahir Amaaz and Muhammad Amaad, the siblings whose violent clash with officers at Manchester Airport in 2024 went viral and sparked accusations of police racism and "two-tier justice." He is one of eight current or former officers at Bury police station accused of mocking the colleague, known as PC Y, over her appearance or accent, with several others also facing possible dismissal.
The panel found Abid's remark about PC Y's hair, which she said was culturally significant to her as a black woman, amounted to gross misconduct, breaching standards on equality, diversity, authority and respect, despite his denial. Separately, PC Y's own team were accused of mimicking her African accent and laugh for months until she formally complained in November 2023, which the panel rejected as mere "banter" after hearing corroborating evidence from other officers. PC Y was granted anonymity, while five serving officers, one former officer and another referred to only as "A" also face allegations in the case.
- PC Abid faces sack for calling colleague's braids "a mop"
- He is brother of siblings in viral Manchester Airport arrest case
- Other officers accused of mimicking colleague's African accent
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Officers Mohammed Fahir Amaaz and Muhammad Amaad became widely known in 2024 after footage of their confrontation with police at Manchester Airport went viral, prompting debate about how officers had used force and claims of unequal treatment. Their brother, PC Mohammed Abid, serves as a police officer with Greater Manchester Police and is now separately facing a misconduct case of his own, unconnected to the airport incident itself but linked through family and public interest in the family's dealings with the force.
The case against Abid centres on a workplace disciplinary process, where colleagues at a police station in Bury are accused of mocking a black female officer, referred to as PC Y, over her appearance and accent. Such hearings are run by police standards panels, which assess whether behaviour breaches professional codes on issues like equality and respect, and can result in officers being dismissed if found guilty of serious misconduct.
This matters because it touches on wider, ongoing questions about how Greater Manchester Police handles allegations of racism and unequal treatment within its own ranks, questions that gained fresh public attention following the airport case. The outcome for Abid and his colleagues will be seen as a test of how the force deals with complaints from its own staff, at a time when its record on race and conduct is already under scrutiny.