De Menezes shooting: Police guilty of 'catastrophic errors'

The Metropolitan Police have been found guilty of a series of "catastrophic errors" which led to the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell tube station.

The picture to the left shows the appalling attitude that The Sun newspaper displayed the day after de Menezes was shot in cold blood.

It's an attitude that Sir Ian Blair was never far away from when one listened to his pugilistic and unapologetic response to the verdict. "Sometimes, that's what happens," he said when asked why no individual had been found to be responsible for the shooting in cold blood of an innocent civilian in London.

It's a remark I feel he will wish he had never made.

It's bad enough that during the trial the police insisted that they had done nothing wrong at any point during the events which led to the death of de Menezes, it was even worse that they sought to blacken his name and claimed that he acted "like a suicide bomber" when officers boarded the train and grabbed him around his midriff. Apparently, people who try to get away from strangers who leap on to trains and manhandle them are exhibiting all the signs of a "suicide bomber".

Nor did they stop there in attempting to drag the dead man's name through the mud:

The family of Mr de Menezes expressed fury at the conduct of the Yard and its lawyers during the trial, accusing the police of a "sickening" attempt to smear the Brazilian by suggesting his behaviour and personal life could have contributed to his death. The jury was told a post-mortem examination showed Mr de Menezes had taken cocaine – although it was highly unlikely the drug could have still been affecting him on the day of his death – and had a forged immigration stamp in his passport.

The police didn't appear to have any real defence so they chose to attack the victim. This was tasteless enough; however, for Blair to say, "sometimes, that's what happens", implies that Sir Ian has no regrets at all about the shooting of this innocent man. It reminded me of nothing so much as Andy Hayman's remarks after the shooting of Mohammed Abdul Kahar at Forrest Gate, when Deputy Commissioner Hayman stated:

"The public may have to get used to this sort of incident, with the police having to be safe rather than sorry."

Blair is exhibiting the same mindset as Hayman displayed. "Sometimes, that's what happens" is just another version of, "The public may have to get used to this sort of incident".

It's hard, listening to Blair talking, to believe that his force have been found guilty of anything at all.

Mr Justice Henriques called on the force to learn lessons. He said: "Every single failure here has been disputed. Some of these failings have been simply beyond explanation. There has been no single admission to any one of the alleged 19 failings."

Blair has refused to even consider resigning:

After the verdict Sir Ian refused to consider resigning, saying the failings were not systemic: "The difficulties shown in this trial were those of an organisation struggling, on a single day, to get to grips with a simply extraordinary situation."

It matters not a jot whether or not the failings were "systemic", what matters is whether or not Sir Ian accepts that there were failings, and there is no indication that he has done so. His bullish response appears to be "business as usual" which is ignoring the fact that his force have been found guilty of a series of "catastrophic errors".

Other senior officers are admitting what Sir Ian would not - and predicting that these events will stain his record:

One of Britain's most senior officers told the Guardian: "The Met should have pleaded guilty. The stuff that comes out is embarrassing for the Met even if it's found not guilty." He added: "Stockwell will damage him in the end. It's his millstone and will be with him to the end."

The Tories and the Lib Dems are leading the calls for Sir Ian to step down:

"It was a horrific series of mistakes and he is the person responsible," said shadow attorney-general Dominic Grieve.

He added that the whole incident was "rather shameful in terms of the competence of the police, that an innocent person should be shot in that fashion, when in fact there was a series of accidents that led up to it, which shouldn't have occurred".

Sir Ian's position would be slightly more tenable if, at any point, he or the Metropolitan police had conceded that a series of mistakes had led to the death of de Menezes rather than any action by de Menezes himself.

They have steadfastly refused to do so.

It's hard to see Sir Ian as the man to address the "catastrophic errors" which led to this incident when he appears not to accept that the Met have made any errors at all.

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Tags: Jean Charles de Menezes, Sir Ian Blair, Stockwell tube shooting, 7-7, 21-7, Metropolitan police