UK police looking into ‘hate crime’ claim about Sun column
LONDON — A complaint from Liverpool’s mayor has sparked police to investigate whether a column in The Sun newspaper constituted a hate crime.
Mayor Joe Anderson called for Kelvin MacKenzie to be fired after a column in which he compared a soccer player with African ancestry to a gorilla.
The mayor said MacKenzie “should not be employed by any news organization in this country” and accused him of having a “vindictive streak” toward Liverpool, a port city some 210 miles (340 kilometres) north of London known as the birthplace of the Beatles.
The Sun, a popular tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch, has apologized for the incident and suspended the columnist, a provocative former editor of the tabloid who has antagonized Liverpool fans in the past.