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Britain’s first youth police commissioner comes under fire for offensive tweets

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By Jennifer Faull, Deputy Editor

April 7, 2013 | 3 min read

Paris Brown, Britain’s first youth police commissioner, has come under fire for a number of tweets on drinking, drugs and sex and some that use derogatory terms such as 'fag' and 'pikey'.

The 17 year-old was selected out of 164 applicants for the £15,000-a-year role, which sees her liaise between the police and young people.

Some of the Tweets, which were first published by The Mail and have since been taken down, read: "I really wanna make a batch of hash brownies".

According to The Mail’s reports, elsewhere on her Twitter account she referred to immigrants as 'illegals', gays as 'fags' and travellers as 'pikeys'.

Describing herself in a Tweet she said: “I’m either really fun, friendly and inclusive when im drunk or im an anti social, racist, sexist, embarrassing a****** often its the latter."

Anne Barnes, the police commissioner for Kent who selected Brown for the position, said that she will remain in her post despite the Twitter messages. Barnes has said she believes the tweets are youthful boasting and exaggeration.

"I suspect that many young people go through a phase during which they make silly, often offensive comments and show off on Facebook and Twitter,” she said.

"I think that if everyone's future was determined by what they wrote on social networking sites between the ages of 14 and 16 we'd live in a very odd world. I also suspect that thousands of parents would be at best surprised and at worst deeply shocked and ashamed if they looked into the social networking of their children.”

Brown has since apologised and said any references to drugs were jokes and that she only drank alcohol at home. She said: "I deeply apologise for any offence caused by my use of inappropriate language and for any inference of inappropriate views. I am not homophobic, racist or violent, and am against the taking of drugs. If I'm guilty of anything it's showing off and wildly exaggerating on Twitter and I am very ashamed of myself, but I can't imagine that I'm the only teenager to have done this."

She explained: "Just as one example, the line about 'Hash Brownies' is a reference to a Scooby Doo film."

However, Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee has called for her dismissal: "Public money should never be given to anyone who refers to violence, sex, drunkenness and other antisocial behaviour in this offensive manner."

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