Anyone looking at this case for the first time would be dumbfounded. Were the Metropolitan Police Force in breach of health and safety laws when they shot an innocent man seven times in the head?
Health and safety laws? Isn't that like prosecuting Genghis Khan for illegal immigration?
Terminology aside, the Met were yesterday found guilty of endangering the public when, on 22 July 2005, they misidentified Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes as a would-be suicide bomber. The jury heard how a ‘string of errors’ led to the shooting, but no individual officer was found culpable.
After the verdict, uberplod Sir Ian Blair insisted he would not resign. Again. His position is unlikely to be strengthened in a few days when the Independent Police Complaints Commission publishes a report on the case. Even if, in other respects, he was the best damn commissioner this town ever had, this steady drip-drip of revelation over the Menezes shooting may soon force him out.
