The police did nothing wrong in the run-up to the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, the senior officer in charge on the day has told an inquest.And yet, an innocent man was mistaken for a suicide bomber and gunned down. Hard to reconcile…
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick said: "If you are asking me did we do anything wrong or unreasonable, then I don't think we did."
Ms Dick, named as the "decision maker", said his behaviour had contributed to her assessment of him as a bomber.Really? What behaviour?
At the time, there was a lot of talk of his ‘suspicious’ behaviour, most of which turned out to be outright lies or fairly normal behaviour for anyone running for a train.
The designated officer for Operation Kratos - the Metropolitan Police's codename for special tactics to deal with a suicide bomber - was asked by Nicholas Hilliard, QC for the coroner: "What went wrong?"He lived in the same block? So what, so did a lot of other men. Didn’t you issue a mugshot of the person you were looking for, as is standard practice?
Ms Dick replied: "One thing that clearly went wrong was that we didn't manage as a nation to prevent those attacks.
"Mr de Menezes was a victim of terrible and extraordinary circumstances that day and afterwards.
"He was extremely unfortunate to live in the same block as Hussain Osman, desperately unfortunate to look very like Hussain Osman, and the things he did in all innocence, the way he behaved getting on and off the bus, contributed to our assessment - my assessment - of him as a bomber.
He looked ‘very like Hussain Osman’? Really?
And his ‘behaviour getting on and off the bus’ is pretty easy to explain under the circumstance of the travel problems that day.
This is it? This is the defence put forward by this supposed ‘high flyer’ at the Met for the bungled gunning down of an innocent citizen? ‘Oh, well, he looked like the target and was acting shifty, and we had a lot on our plates, and it could happen to anyone really…’
That this arse-covering, weaselling creature holds a high position in the Met tells you everything you need to know about the dangers of overpromoting people beyond their competence simply to score a tick in the 'diversity' box...
6 comments:
A very odd statement.."If you are asking me did we do anything wrong or unreasonable, then I don't think we did."
I have a lot of sympathy for the Met on this.. Its a very very difficult position to be in, but clearly something went wrong or the wrong man wouldn't have been gunned down.
Have you seen that chief constable found on mount Snowdon after his wife found out he was having an affair is not suicide.
HE DIED OF EXPOSURE??
So, there is no suicide?
Robert Maxwell just drowned...
David Kelly died of blood loss and a headache
The kid who jumped off the shopping centre died of broken bones
The mother who stood on the spot where her daughter was killed by a train died of sudden locomotive impact..
If its not suicide his police insurance pays out i guess..
She obviously doesn't have it in her to get to the top if she didn't realise how *that* was going to play in the headlines...
"He looked ‘very like Hussain Osman’? "
I often mistake white Brazilians for Ethiopians.
Cressida Dick's previous role in the Met was heading up the Diversity Directorate, the unit in charge of all the anti-racism seminars and hate crime nonsense. She no doubt felt that it was critically important not to stereotype Ethiopians as being "black".
Dick by name, dick by nature.
"If its not suicide his police insurance pays out i guess.."
I think you may be on to something there. Coroners have always avoided the suggestion of suicide to 'spare the family' if they possibly could; now, of course, there's a financial advantage, not just shame.
"She obviously doesn't have it in her to get to the top if she didn't realise how *that* was going to play in the headlines..."
Indeed. And yet, like Ian Blair, she must have received some very expensive media training...
"I often mistake white Brazilians for Ethiopians."
You only need to look at the photos side by side to see how that's going to play. What possessed them to think that people can't see it?
An even greater indictment of this useless copper's abilities is that if she was so sure he *was* a bomber, why did they ever let him down in the Tube and on to a train?
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