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London police ruled guilty in killing of blast suspect
Julia Werdigier, New York Times
Friday, November 2, 2007
(11-02) 04:00 PDT London - --
In a surprise verdict, London's police force was found guilty of
putting the public at risk during a flawed anti-terrorism operation
that ended in the killing of a Brazilian electrician in 2005.
The Metropolitan Police force was fined $364,000 and will also have to
pay $800,000 in legal costs.
On July 22, 2005, in an operation prosecutors described as chaotic,
police officers wrongly identified the Brazilian as one of the four
men who had tried to detonate bombs on London's transport system the
day before, an attempt that came just two weeks after four bombers
killed themselves and 52 others on the transit system.
The officers followed the man, 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes,
into a subway train at Stockwell, in South London, and shot him in
front of horrified passengers.
De Menezes' family pressed for the resignations of officers in charge
of the operation, but the London jury cleared individual officers and
instead ruled Thursday that the organization as a whole was to take
some responsibility. Police Chief Ian Blair, who has come under
pressure from some politicians to resign, said Thursday he would stay
on because the case had not uncovered any evidence of "systemic
failure."
The jury, at London's Old Bailey Central Criminal Court, heard from
prosecutors Thursday that the police had made a "shocking and
catastrophic error" and had endangered the public, first by allowing
someone they suspected to be a suicide bomber on a subway train and
then by shooting him seven times in the head at close range.
"It was the result of fundamental failures to carry out a planned
operation in a safe and reasonable way," the prosecutor for the trial,
Clare Montgomery, said.
The police force had argued that de Menezes was shot because he
behaved suspiciously, in line with what behavior officers are trained
to recognize as that of a possible suicide bomber.
After two of the bombing suspects were identified as living in the
same south London apartment building as de Menezes, police developed a
plan to watch the building and stop and question anyone who came out.
Firearms officers charged with making such stops did not arrive at the
scene until several hours later, when de Menezes had already left.
Two teams of surveillance officers tailed de Menezes as he left his
apartment and boarded two public buses before entering the subway
system.
The prosecution said there was no good reason for the police to fail
to stop a possible attacker from entering London's subway network,
just two weeks after suicide bombers had killed 52 people.
"If he (de Menezes) had been a suicide bomber emerging with a backpack
and a murderous intent, no one had any established plan that could
have dealt with him because the firearms officers had not arrived,"
Montgomery said.
Surveillance officers never positively identified de Menezes as a
suspect or completely ruled him out, prosecutors said. Firearms
officers, who arrived on the scene after de Menezes had entered the
subway, believed he was a bomber and shot him dead.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/11/02/MNJRT4OF0.DTL
O'ROURKE: I mean, this is lots of fun attacking George Bush, who is an
idiot and obviously screwed up on this completely
BEHAR: Thank you!
MAHER: Oh, thank you!
PJ O'Rourke on Bill Maher show 9/16/2005
Julia Werdigier, New York Times
Friday, November 2, 2007
(11-02) 04:00 PDT London - --
In a surprise verdict, London's police force was found guilty of
putting the public at risk during a flawed anti-terrorism operation
that ended in the killing of a Brazilian electrician in 2005.
The Metropolitan Police force was fined $364,000 and will also have to
pay $800,000 in legal costs.
On July 22, 2005, in an operation prosecutors described as chaotic,
police officers wrongly identified the Brazilian as one of the four
men who had tried to detonate bombs on London's transport system the
day before, an attempt that came just two weeks after four bombers
killed themselves and 52 others on the transit system.
The officers followed the man, 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes,
into a subway train at Stockwell, in South London, and shot him in
front of horrified passengers.
De Menezes' family pressed for the resignations of officers in charge
of the operation, but the London jury cleared individual officers and
instead ruled Thursday that the organization as a whole was to take
some responsibility. Police Chief Ian Blair, who has come under
pressure from some politicians to resign, said Thursday he would stay
on because the case had not uncovered any evidence of "systemic
failure."
The jury, at London's Old Bailey Central Criminal Court, heard from
prosecutors Thursday that the police had made a "shocking and
catastrophic error" and had endangered the public, first by allowing
someone they suspected to be a suicide bomber on a subway train and
then by shooting him seven times in the head at close range.
"It was the result of fundamental failures to carry out a planned
operation in a safe and reasonable way," the prosecutor for the trial,
Clare Montgomery, said.
The police force had argued that de Menezes was shot because he
behaved suspiciously, in line with what behavior officers are trained
to recognize as that of a possible suicide bomber.
After two of the bombing suspects were identified as living in the
same south London apartment building as de Menezes, police developed a
plan to watch the building and stop and question anyone who came out.
Firearms officers charged with making such stops did not arrive at the
scene until several hours later, when de Menezes had already left.
Two teams of surveillance officers tailed de Menezes as he left his
apartment and boarded two public buses before entering the subway
system.
The prosecution said there was no good reason for the police to fail
to stop a possible attacker from entering London's subway network,
just two weeks after suicide bombers had killed 52 people.
"If he (de Menezes) had been a suicide bomber emerging with a backpack
and a murderous intent, no one had any established plan that could
have dealt with him because the firearms officers had not arrived,"
Montgomery said.
Surveillance officers never positively identified de Menezes as a
suspect or completely ruled him out, prosecutors said. Firearms
officers, who arrived on the scene after de Menezes had entered the
subway, believed he was a bomber and shot him dead.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/11/02/MNJRT4OF0.DTL
O'ROURKE: I mean, this is lots of fun attacking George Bush, who is an
idiot and obviously screwed up on this completely
BEHAR: Thank you!
MAHER: Oh, thank you!
PJ O'Rourke on Bill Maher show 9/16/2005
