Death in Stockwell: the unanswered questions

[Briar]

Just as our supposedly liberal country is prepared to sell its soul for security by sending dissidents to be tortured, so it is prepared to kill innocent men and women who happen to be wrongly suspected. The Observer has returned to the case of Jean Charles de Menezes, executed to "protect our values" (as tens of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans have died for them too):

Death in Stockwell: the unanswered questions

He wasn't wearing a heavy jacket. He used his card to get into the station. He didn't vault the barrier. And now police say there are no CCTV pictures to reveal the truth. So why did plainclothes officers shoot young Jean Charles de Menezes seven times in the head, thinking he posed a terror threat? Special report by Tony Thompson, and Tom Phillips in Brazil.

Tony Thompson and Tom Phillips in Brazil
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1548808,00.html

... an Observer investigation has raised fresh questions about the death of de Menezes, whose killing is being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. The Observer has discovered that a key element of the investigation will be scrutiny of a delay in calling an armed team to arrest de Menezes, which meant he had already entered the station by the time the officers arrived.

That delay was crucial. If the police thought de Menezes was dangerous - perhaps a bomber - the fact that he was already in the station would have heightened tension and increased the chances of something going wrong.

Evidence of this hold-up should have been provided by CCTV footage from dozens of cameras covering the Stockwell ticket hall, escalators, platforms and train carriages.

However, police now say most of the cameras were not working. Yet pictures are available of a bombing suspect leaving another station nearby, and after the 7 July attacks tube boses could have been expected to make extra efforts to see that all their cameras were in action...

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1548808,00.html

[mrfrapp]

1. CCTV

"police say there are no CCTV pictures to reveal the truth"

If you believe that you'll believe anything.

[lockdown]

5. I Believe

I believe that life is happy and death is sad,
I believe my mom was married to my dad,
I believe that things that aren’t good tend to be bad,
I believe, yes, I believe.

I’m prepared to believe that Nixon wasn’t a crook,
And I even believe Love Story's a readable book
I believe that Lucille Ball's still under thirty
And I believe the Dirty Dozen weren't really dirty

Yes, I believe Gerald Ford is clever
That Bob Hope will live for ever
And that lever is pronounced levver
And the best film ever made was Saturday Night Fevver

I believe that Colonel Sanders can fry
and that pigs and even DC-10s can fly
I'm prepared to believe that things go better with Coke
And that the Ayatollah tells a darned good knock knock joke

I believe some folk can hear what Bugs Bunny's sayin’,
And that Salt Lake City's a real nice place to stay in.
I believe that JR really loves Sue Ellen
I believe that things sound better when you're yellin'
And I believe that the Devil is ready to repent
But I can't believe Ronald Reagan is President.

[non sociopath skin]

2. Like most of us, I'm waiting for the IPCC report ....

... it had better be a good 'un!

The Skin

[Mr Creosote]

3. Did you see the latest "Private Eye"?

It seems that it won't be. I'll tell you what mystifies me - if I were pursuing what I thought was a suicide bomber I wouldn't get close enough to trip him - I'd shoot him from further back. And if they're really going to claim that the CCTV wasn't working, well...........
And as for the eye-witnesses - how it has changed - we had an asian man, with a thick jacket on, with wires protruding, vaulting the barrier. Presumably he was a police officer?

[fedsron2us]

4. I am afraid this just stinks of a cover up being prepared.

Why do the Metropolitan Police never learn from their past mistakes ? Personally, I think Menezes killing is probably down to a botched intelligence operation and to trigger happy coppers who misread the situation. Unfortunately, suppressing the evidence to protect those responsible will just give the conspiracists a field day. This will probably fester for years undermining public confidence in the police just like in the cases of Blair Peach, Harry Stanley etc.