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Police - Repression Attack-Terrorism UK
Sir Ian tried to stop shooting inquiry
by Brian Richards
LONDON, ENGLAND — (OfficialWire) — 08/19/05 — On July 22-the same day that UK police shot and killed Jean Charles de Menezes, the 27-year-old Brazilian electrician-Scotland Yard’s commissioner, Sir Ian Blair (shown here), attempted to stop an independent external investigation into the shooting of the young Brazilian man mistaken for a suicide bomber.
According to a report in the UK’s Guardian newspaper, Sir Ian wrote to John Gieve, the permanent secretary at the Home Office and argued for an internal inquiry into the shooting on the grounds that their ongoing anti-terrorist investigation took precedence over any independent oversight into de Menezes’ death.
Sir Ian replied on the typical excused used in all such matters: that an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) might effect UK national security or intelligence matters.
However, he was also understood to be worried that an outside investigation would damage the morale of CO19, a so-called ’elite firearms section of the Metropolitan Police.’
Morale. Oh deary, deary me...we wouldn’t want the men to get down in the dumps now would we?
Later that same day, after an exchange of opinions between Sir Ian, the Home Office and the IPCC, the commissioner was overruled.
However, despite the agreement to allow an independent investigation, the IPCC was refused access to Stockwell tube in south London, the scene of the shooting, for three days. Normally, the IPCC would expect to be at the scene within hours.
Immediately after the shooting, Sir Ian said the man was "directly linked to the ongoing and expanding antiterrorist operation." The police issued images from closed-circuit cameras of four suspects in the failed attacks. They said the man they shot may not have been one of the four, but he was still being sought in their inquiry. Of course, that statement was a lie.
The next day, a police statement was issued saying: "He was not connected to incidents in central London on 21st July, 2005, in which four explosive devices were partly detonated."
Subsequent statements by police said that the man’s "clothing and his behavior at the station added to their suspicions," referring to false reports that de Menezes was wearing a bulky jacket on a summer day.
A recent news report on Britain’s ITV (television) showed that the inquiry led by the IPCC contradicted a number of the police statements.
What really happened was that de Menezes, an innocent man, was merely minding his own business when he was shot as many as eight times; seven bullets to the head and one to the shoulder. The problem was that the color of his skin was a tint or two too dark and he was ‘mistakenly’ pursued by a trigger-happy team of assassins, masquerading as police.
Sir Ian lied and he attempted to pervert the course of justice. He must resign or be sacked without further delay.