Menezes officers 'not at fault'

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

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.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Cressida ####### said: "If you are asking me did we do anything wrong or unreasonable, then I don't think we did."

Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot after being mistaken for a terror suspect in 2005.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7654278.stm

[rocks 494]

horrible.

"ms #######" needs to get in line at the job centre

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I still think its shocking that they can defend this - the man was smeared almost from the getgo, despite the fact that he was the victim here.

I'm sorry but bowling onto a train and shooting someone 5 times in the head is f*cking nuts.

[rocks 494]

ya, it's totally insane. i respect that london wants to protect itself from terrorists etc, but shooting someone numerous times in the head is not the correct way to deal with this. is that how we dealt with the ira??

how can they say they can't rule out someone dying in the same way again? i have lost all faith in the uk, can't wait to get out of there

[maliciant 7]

Well... he did kinda look like a terrorist so I mean really, he should totally be excused... This is pretty horrible, the down side is if he had been the guy they thought he was and had a bomb on him... I'm pretty sure that was the reason they shot him 7 times. But the important lesson to remember here is do not look like a terrorist.

I understand the view point that the way they acted may have been correct, even though the outcome was horrible, with limitted time to act and think, mistakes happen, I don't know how he reacted to having guns drawn on him (or if he even had a chance to see that) but my guess is other than being perfectly still and preferably having your hands over your head and clearly visible before the police boarded the bus is your best bet for surviving mis-identification...

Call me american but I should hope his family recieves a ridiculous sum of money as a result of this, I assume some form of public apology has been issued despite them stating there was no wrong doing by the officers (other than you know, executing the wrong man).

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The police lied at the outset - back when the story first broke where it was claimed that the man was running on CCTV and that he tried to resist arrest, claims that were refuted by the eyewitness reports and by the CCTV footage.

The only thing that would have be worse is if the real target had actually planned and carried out another attack while the police were busy blowing Mr Menezes' head off on the underground. Indeed if that had happened - I rather suspect that a different conclusion would have reached in regard to police responsiblity.

This happened just after the 7/7 attacks in London and the police had soon after been given new guidelines that allowed them to shoot people in the head (rather than the chest - in-case it detonated an explosive vest) and to be.... rather laissez faire about issuing the standard "Stop Police!" challenge.

I'm also amazed that there's a police source in there saying that he can't guarantee that this sort of incident won't happen again. That really fills me with confidence...

Edited October 6, 2008 by Paul Daniels

[VisaJourneyLady 33]

As much as this whole incident makes me sick to my stomach, I remain glad that regular beat police in the UK don't have firearms. I hate seeing police with guns. It makes me think that a similar event here would get nowhere near the news coverage.