Calls grow for Sir Ian Blair to quit
So much has happened in the four days that I have been away.
The most obvious is the final release by police of the two men that they held for a week since their raid on a house in Forest Gate in London's East End.
Neither man has been charged and the police have offered only a half assed apology "to the public" rather than an apology to the two men who have been deprived of their liberty for a week and one of whom has been shot.
The two men return now to a house that has been stripped to it's floorboards as the police haven't even taken the time to return things to they way they were before they raided.
London's Muslim community are up in arms and there are widespread calls for Sir Ian Blair's resignation.
I have long thought that Sir Ian Blair has been over promoted and is unsuitable for the job he holds, especially at this sensitive time.
The shooting of Charles de Menezes on the London Underground - followed by what appeared to be a police campaign of misinformation - left a sour taste in the mouth that was always going to be hard to erase.
The handling of events in Forest Gate have followed a similarly dismal path.
The police have never explained why it was necessary to send 250 officers to search a two bedroom house for chemical weapons. Who did they expect to greet them, an entire battalion of al Quada?
Nor did they even initially admit that it was they who shot Mohammed Abdul Kahar during the raid.
Indeed, even once it was obvious that there was nothing in the house, they seemed more concerned with covering their own backs by issuing statements saying that they "had no choice" other than to investigate, rather than admitting a mistake and moving on.
Indeed, Assistant Met Commissioner Andy Hayman issued some extraordinary statements promising that we could expect more of the same as the war on terror proceeds, all whilst two men remained in custody for no better reason than current anti-terror legislation allows police to hold them.
As public relations exercises go, this has been an unmitigated disaster.
And all because the Met, under Blair, seem unwilling to admit error.
The two men arrested issued a statement saying that they understood that the police have an obligation to check out all allegations.
In doing so they displayed an attitude that the police would do well to emulate.
We all understand the pressure the police must be under in the wake of 7-7. However, their task will be considerably harder if they alienate large swathes of the public as they go about their duties.
Learning to say sorry quickly when things go wrong and releasing those wrongly held would do much to strengthen public support for their position.
This is now the second time that the police, under Sir Ian Blair's leadership, have sought to cover their backs rather than to simply come clean.
It won't do.
This habit must be broken or, if Sir Ian finds this impossible to do, then he must be replaced.
No comments:
Post a Comment