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Sack the Met chief, end shoot-to-kill
Karen O’Toole Ian Blair should resign as head of the Metropolitan Police. That is the only conclusion to draw in the wake of the hand-delivered letter he sent to the Home Office, effectively ‘instructing’ that the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) should not be allowed access to Stockwell tube station after the assassination of Jean Charles de Menezes. Blair’s letter states: ‘I have given instructions that the shooting that has just occurred at Stockwell is not to be referred to the IPCC and that they will be given no access to the scene at the present time.’ Blair claims that when he wrote the letter on July 22, he still believed that Jean Charles de Menezes was a suicide bomber, and that Stockwell tube was a crime scene. This has been contradicted by almost anyone vaguely acquainted with the facts, including the rightwing Evening Standard, who maintain that the Commissioner knew ‘within hours’ that an innocent man had been shot dead. Witnesses at the station contradicted the claim by police that De Menezes was wearing a heavy overcoat, vaulted the barrier and was acting suspiciously. In fact, De Menezes was wearing a denim jacket, used his oyster card to enter the station, and picked up a free newspaper. There can be no confusion about this. Police claimed CCTV footage was not available due to problems with the system – but this was also untrue. Worse still, Blair demanded in the letter that ‘a chief officer of the police should be able to suspend section 17 of the Police Reform Act 2002, which requires us to supply all information that the IPCC may require.’ The Act of 2002 abolished the Police Complaints Authority [PCA] and established the IPCC: ‘The intention [of the IPCC] is that any conduct of a person serving with the police which has an adverse effect on a member of the public or is sufficiently serious to bring the police into disrepute…should be dealt with…in order that public confidence in the police can be maintained.’ The IPCC was set up as a body independent of the police, unlike the PCA, which was a police body. Effectively, Blair was demanding that the only independent body with a remit to investigate the police, should not be allowed to investigate the police at Stockwell. This is not the intention of someone trying to uphold a democratic mandate, but of a corrupt dictator. Shoot to kill The existence of a shoot to kill policy in London – Operation Kratos – was withheld from the organisation responsible for the overseeing of the police. The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) had no knowledge of Operation Kratos until July 22 2005 Operation Kratos does not just apply in London, but was rolled-out across the country in January 2003. It allows police to shoot ‘a suspected suicide bomber without issuing a warning.’ Jenny Jones, a Green Party member of the MPA who knew nothing of Operation Kratos said: "A shoot to kill policy is highly risky, as shown by the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes”. “Clearly there were massive weaknesses at both intelligence and operational levels. It is imperative that the shoot to kill policy guidelines are released immediately to the Metropolitan Police Authority and the public. Such a far reaching and potentially dangerous policy must not be shrouded in official secrecy". We need a massive campaign on the issue of civil liberties which demands the end of shoot to kill, the resignation of Ian Blair and justice for Jean Charles De Menezes. Anything less is a cover-up and a fraud.