The facts about the execution of Jean Charles de Menezes continue to get even worse for the London police. Today, it turns out that the surveillance team had concluded that de Menezes was not a threat – that
he was not about to detonate a bomb, was not armed and was not acting suspiciously.
Despite this, the gunbunnies in the armed response unit shot him anyway. Those same gunbunnies have refused to give any account of their actions to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, and both the actual executioners have been packed off on holiday – one at the insistence of Sir Ian Blair himself. This stinks of an attempt to subvert the inquiry, and the Met needs to answer some serious questions about its lack of cooperation.
Idiot/Savant
No Right Turn – New Zealand’s liberal blog
Any idea what the legal standards are for police accountability in England? I’m quite familiar with the U.S. standards, but those have a very different history that is mostly post-revolutionary.
Can the killers be sued individually? Can the government be held liable? Is a grand jury investigation likely? Or is some other kind of inquiry used? What standards would apply?
Sued? They can be prosecuted – and are likely to be. The question is whether it will succeed. There’s a defence of honest belief that the victim posed a threat, but I think that the information from the surveillance team will make it very difficult to claim that.
Idiot/Savant
No Right Turn – New Zealand’s liberal blog