It was 24 hours before I knew we had killed the wrong man!
The head of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Ian
Blair, was not told for 24 hours that the young Brazilian shot and killed by his
men on a London tube train was innocent and had no connection with bombings in
the city.
The head of the Metropolitan Police , Sir Ian Blair, was not told for 24 hours that the young Brazilian shot and killed by his men on a London tube train was innocent and had no connection with bombings in the city, he said last night.
The astonishing claim suggests that Sir Ian was kept in the dark about the bungled shooting by senior officers inside the Met, or that the elite surveillance teams which tracked Jean Charles de Menezes took more than a day to discover the identity of the man they had killed by shooting him seven times in the head and once in the neck.
Either option leaves confidence in both Sir Ian and his force at a critically low level.
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Jenny Jones, the deputy mayor of London and a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority which oversees the conduct of the Met, said she had been told “categorically” by the police that the man killed at Stockwell tube station was a suicide bomber.
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That limited explanation may not be enough to satisfy two officials from Brazil who are scheduled to meet members of the IPCC, the Met and officials from the Foreign office tomorrow morning.
Wagner Goncalves, the federal deputy attorney general and inspector general of the federal prosecutors office, along with Marcio Pereira García, assistant director of the department of international judicial co-operation in the Brazilian Ministry of Justice, are to discuss their demands for a full public inquiry into the death of de Menezes.
At the street level, cops are the same in Britain as elsewhere. The Brotherhood of the Badge is stronger than requirements and rules set forth by their superior officers -- or any public oversight.
Cops make mistakes just like other human beings. The result of those mistakes can be tragic. Acting like politicians and trying to cover up — never works, never helps.
Posted: Sun - August 21, 2005 at 04:21 PM