Is there no one in the Met with moral fibre?

In reply to Sir Ian Blair's special pleading whinging about the decision to bring a Health & Safety prosecution against the Met for the events leading to the public execution of Jean Charles de Menezes, Richard Barnes, a Tory MP and Deputy Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority had this to say:

"Is there no one within the Met with the moral fibre and sense of personal obligation to recognise that Jean Charles's fate was sealed by systemic failure? The power to exercise ultimate force carries with it the responsibility to ensure all other possible alternatives are exhausted, even in such a fast-moving, fluid situation. Those obligations were not fulfilled at Stockwell, and Jean Charles paid the ultimate price for that failure.

I find it repugnant, and an affront to common decency, that the establishment can get it so wrong and then close ranks to protect its members from accepting and exercising the obligations of office. It is simply not enough to accept the glittering prizes, whilst ignoring the failures. Where is the man of personal stature and integrity amongst them?"

The shooting was followed by various leaks that intended to besmirch Mr Menezes' character. The source of this information is questionable, but it most probably came from those in authority. An innocent man was shot dead, and it was thought appropriate to traduce his character."

That's a pretty fair summary of a totally disgraceful shambles for which no one - and least of all the man in charge - is prespared to accept any responsibility.

Full report in The Guardian

On one level the Met Commissioner ought to be pleased about the prosecution since the matter becomes sub-judice thus delaying publication of the IPCC reports until after the trial. He will therefore be spared full public scrutiny of the gross incompetence that culminated in the shooting for another couple of years. With any luck he'll be gone by then and WE will be spared more of his puke inducing media appearances.

The Kafkaesque world of 'punishment' for public sector wrongdoing

"Met faces unlimited fine over Tube shooting" - Times Online

It's reported today that no individual police officer is to be prosecuted over the Charles De Menezes shooting but that the Metroploitan police WILL face prosecution under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974. If found guilty the Force faces an 'unlimited fine'.

WOW - sounds impressive doesn't it? But hold on a minute! Who will pay the fine?

No matter which headings record the resulting government ledger credit/debit transaction, fact is it won't be Sir Ian Blair and his trigger-happy band of incompetents who will be footing the bill; It will be the poor bloody taxpayer as usual.

Some 'punishment' eh?

Tags: Jean charles de menezes, UK Police

Sleep-walking to Police State Britain

Remember these scenes in Parliament Square on 15th September 2004 during the 3rd reading of the Hunting Act? I do too. I was present throughout and the experience turned my view of the police on it's head. From traditional friendly defenders and protectors of the public, they became the armed, bone-headed enforcers of an oppressive State.

Simplistic sounding I know. All I can say is that, when you have been on the receiving end of that kind of 'enforcement', then listened to the 'official' version of what is SUPPOSED to have happened (all very plausible to the public who always want to give the police the benefit of any doubt), your view of the police and the State can never be quite the same again.

I have been forcefully reminded of all this a number of times over the past 12 months, from the Charles de Menenez and Forest Gate shootings at one end of the scale to the detention and prosecution on 18th June of Steven Jago under the "Serious Organised Crime & Police Act" for - get this; it is taken from an article in today's Independant and 100% accurate:

...carrying a placard in Whitehall bearing the George Orwell quote: "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." In his possession, he had several copies of an article in the American magazine Vanity Fair headlined "Blair's Big Brother Legacy". The police told Mr Jago this was 'politically motivated' material, and suggested it was evidence of his desire to break the law.

Please read that article. It is real eye-opener. It provides alarming insight into just how, on the back of whipped up outrage and fear, through the 'Respect agenda', 'fighting crime', increasing 'security' and the 'war on terror' the State is undermining what little there is left of our so called 'free society'

More on the Menenez and Forest Gate shootings

More on the Forest Gate and Stockwell Tube police shootings from The Observer and News of the World which has published leaked extracts from the Stockwell report - originally scheduled for publication back in April.

On the Stockwell tube shooting:

The leaked report details a catalogue of police blunders, including failing to pass on alerts from the undercover team that they were tailing an innocent man. It also suggests that there was a delay of five hours in deploying a specialist firearms unit that could have taken de Menezes alive.

And the Lawyer for the Forest Gate family said:

"..the officers failed to give a warning during the raid and did not identify themselves as police. The family thought they were armed robbers wearing helmets with their visors pulled down. Nobody identified themselves as police as they stormed in wearing terrifying black hoods and started bashing them over the head."

One of the Blairs will lose his job over this -trouble is it will arguably be the wrong one. Such bungling is a direct and predictable result of the politicisation of most public services in response to New Labour spin and the climate of fear/cover-your-own-back-first, that it has produced.

A licence to do 'whatever is necessary' - but necessary for what???

Last night John Reid, the Home Secretary, said:

“The police are acting in the best interests of the whole community in order to protect the whole community and therefore deserve the support of the whole community in doing what is often a very dangerous job often involving difficult decisions.”

Well, that does rather depend on how you define 'the whole community' doesn't it?

Unless there are consequences for the police for the type of gross over-reactions to dodgy 'intelligence' illustrated by the shooting of the Brazilian electrician and this latest fiasco, then we can expect more of the same. 'The war on terror' has been hyped to such an extent that the police, it seems, can get away with pretty much anything to 'protect the whole community'

How many more innocent people can the police shoot and subject to gross intrusions into their personal lives and destruction of property in 'the interests of the whole community' before they are made accountable for their actions?

And we are STILL waiting for the report into the Stockwell Tube shooting that was scheduled for publication in April. There is clearly some fancy footwork going on behind the scenes on that one.

Some solid background on the latest police anti-terror overkill here in the Guardian