London Police Guilty of 'Catastophic' Failures
You probably remember the uproar a couple of years ago when British police officers shot and killed a young Brazilian immigrant in the subway after mistaking him for a suicide bomber. Well, on Thursday, a British Criminal Court jury found the London Metropolitan Police guilty of "catastrophic" failings in the series of events that led to Jean Charles de Menezes' death in 2005.
That's right, the whole force was found guilty. Prosecutors had said earlier that no individual officer could be tried for Menezes' death, so the force was tried under health and safety laws for failing to protect the public. Nineteen failures of police procedure were identified in the case. The judge has imposed a $350,000 fine.
Vikram Dodd, crime reporter for the Guardian, told me the verdict had nothing to do with Menezes' actual death. Since they did think he was a bomber, the police were guilty of failing to protect the public by allowing Menezes to move around so easily before the fatal confrontation on a train at the Stockwell underground station in South London. For instance, the jury said the police failed to put officers in postion to stop Menezes from getting on two buses and going into the Stockwell station. During the trial, the police contested all 19 of the accusations.
Vikram says it's hard to say if the verdict will lead to changes in the way the police operate. "Some people say there are lessons to be learned, some people say who knows what we learned."
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has said that the shooting was an isolated incident under extraordinary circumstances. The day before Menezes was killed, four British men had tried and failed to blow up suicide bombs on separate trains. That attempt came two weeks after four men had successfully denoted bombs on the London underground and on a bus, killing 52. Police were looking for one of the men suspected in the failed bombings, fearful that he would act again, but the operation went wrong almost from the start.
Vikram says the report that will come from London's Independent Police Complaints Commission next Thursday will deal more with the issue of "Why did you shoot the wrong guy?" It could be far more damaging to the force and to Blair, who is being condemned by both opponents and former supporters.
3:18 PM ET | 11- 2-2007 | permalink
