Last word on De Menezes (probably)

[chickenfeet]

On July 17th last year I wrote a piece on the cynical nature of the H&S prosecution in the De Menezes killing.

Among other things I prognosticated as follows:

I foresee the usual official reaction when the Met is convicted two years from now. "Procedures have been changed to prevent a recurrence of this unfortunate event and no useful purpose would be served by disciplinary action at this late stage."

Today I see the following on the BBC website, following the guilty verdict:

Len Duval, the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority, said much work had been done to improve the force's procedures since the killing.

Nobody has resigned. Nobody has been disciplined. I strongly suspect nothing has changed. Want to commit murder and get away with it? Join the bastards in blue.

Comments

[cassandre.livejournal.com]

You are depressingly accurate as a prophet. This whole story makes me sick.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I agree with your anger, and your cynicism, but I don't agree that the killing was murder. No mens rea, no wicked recklesness. But definitely unlawful killing, and the verdicty should have recognised it.

[sabotabby]

I'm not surprised. It's rare to see a cop go down for killing a brown person.