Monday 18 October 2021

Apart From The Axe, You Mean..?

...and his refusal to drop it and surrender after four Taser shots had no effect?

She said: “It has been incredibly difficult for us to hear and see all the evidence. There was nothing to suggest that Lewis was aggressive or dangerous on that day,” she said.

What the hell were the police supposed to do when summoned by 999 calls about a man with an axe in the street? 

Humberside police said it was “disappointed” with the jury’s conclusion and described the incident as a “split-second decision to protect the public”.

And I commend them for it. Some jury decisions are just perverse. If even the rabid IOPC couldn't find that the officers had acted unlawfully, how could they have reached this conclusion? 

"In light of the IOPC's full and independent investigation, which came to very different conclusions to those of the jury, in that, they found that no police officers had either committed a criminal offence or behaved in a manner which would justify disciplinary proceedings, we now await further directions from the IOPC."

It's a baffling verdict. God forbid it makes the next armed officer facing a danger to the public hesitate. 

But if it does, I really hope the danger in question is headed straight for a relative of one of the jury members...

4 comments:

Umbongo said...

A coroner's jury only determines cause of death - there is no indictment. Accordingly, although the verdict appears perverse (if we are being told all the facts) it is indeed disappointing for the police. However, if the facts are as reported, the only person responsible for the guy's death is the guy himself who was walking along a street in Hull carrying an axe ignoring the police.

MTG said...

Your response illustrates a surprising ignorance of (well documented) plod 'evidence filtering' and similar farce bullshit. What seems more likely, in the long aftermath of yet another unlawful killing, is that an astute jury can be assembled that will have none of it.

Anonymous said...

Shirley the Police could have skilfully shot the axe out of the lunatic's, sorry, man's, hand without harming him, and then calmed him down by playing recorded speeches by John Prescott, the ex MP for Hull?
If a jury can claim that the death was unlawful, it just shows the results of the massive interbreeding in that part of the country. I wonder if the footage from the Police bodycams was played at the inquest.
Penseivat

JuliaM said...

"A coroner's jury only determines cause of death - there is no indictment."

No, but I suspect it'll put pressure on the spineless IOPC to 'rethink' their decision...

"Your response illustrates a surprising ignorance of (well documented) plod 'evidence filtering' and similar farce bullshit."

There's no question of that here, though. It's as open and shut as it gets. Sad for the nutter, who should have been safely locked away, but better him than an innocent member of the public. Or two or three.

"If a jury can claim that the death was unlawful, it just shows the results of the massive interbreeding in that part of the country."

It's Norfolk with (slightly) worse weather!