Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Guardian claims report clears London police of lying about De Menezes shooting

Paul Mitchell | 26.02.2007 09:50 | Repression | Terror War | London

The Guardian claims an official report has cleared London’s police chief of lying about the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes on July 22, 2005. The innocent Brazilian was killed at Stockwell tube station by plainclothes antiterrorist police following failed explosions on London’s transport system the previous day.

The report, known as “Stockwell II,” covers an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) into claims by Metropolitan Police Service commissioner Sir Ian Blair that he did not know that Jean Charles was innocent until the following day.

Blair has continued to insist that for 24 hours after the shooting, he and his advisors believed the victim was a suicide bomber.

According to the Guardian, the still-secret report has not found any evidence to support allegations that the commissioner knew Jean Charles was innocent long before he admitted it. But it claims the report will strongly criticise the police force and say that it is “incomprehensible” why it took police officers at Scotland Yard 24 hours to tell Blair that the wrong man had been shot.

The Guardian says that the IPCC has sent more than 21 letters to police officers and officials, warning them that they “face criticism” or that other witnesses contradict their version of events. A particularly “tough” letter is said to have been sent to Britain’s top antiterrorist officer, Andy Hayman, who appeared with Commissioner Blair at a press conference after the shooting. It says his statements to journalists that a terrorist had been shot was at odds with what he was saying at the “Gold Command” emergency meetings held at Scotland Yard following the shooting.

An IPCC spokeswoman told this reporter that the Guardian could not be quoting directly from the report because its publication has been delayed until the autumn. She suggested the source of the story could be one of the people who had received the “Salmon” warning letters. When asked if it was Blair himself, she answered, “in theory, you wouldn’t expect him to.”

The Guardian article raises more questions than it answers. If indeed it is “incomprehensible” that Blair’s subordinates refused to tell him that Jean Charles was innocent and concocted a web of deceit and cover-up in the midst of a “war on terror,” something more than them “facing criticism” would be required. Such an extraordinary failure would necessitate sackings, leading from those immediately involved in the operation to the highest levels of command—even if this stopped outside the doors of Blair’s office.

Nothing of the sort will happen. The Crown Prosecution Service decided in July 2006, following the Stockwell I inquiry into the shooting, not to prosecute any of the officers directly involved or their commanders, on the spurious basis that there was “insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.” To add insult to injury, a prosecution was started against the Metropolitan Police under the Health and Safety at Work Act for “failing to provide for the health, safety and welfare” of Jean Charles. The trial is scheduled to start in the autumn.

If any disciplinary action were to be brought against the officers as a result of the Stockwell II investigation, the decision rests with the Metropolitan Police Authority, which has already signalled its intention to continue the cover-up. The day after the Guardian ran its story, Len Duvall, head of the MPA and chairman of the Greater London Labour Party, confirmed the promotion to Deputy Assistant Commissioner, effective March 19, of Commander Cressida Dick. She was the head of Gold Command and the officer in direct charge of the Stockwell operation. Having considered the “unprecedented circumstances” surrounding the appointment, Duvall said, “We are satisfied that our decision to confirm promotion is the right one to take at this time.”

“The MPA is keenly aware that the people of London must have confidence in the police who work, in what are often difficult circumstances, to protect them,” Duvall added.

The IPCC only carried out the Stockwell II inquiry into Sir Ian Blair’s conduct because of the persistence of the de Menezes family, who fought to expose the lies and slanders hurled at Jean Charles. Even then, the IPCC had tried to shield the commissioner, choosing not to interview him personally and ending its initial investigations with Cressida Dick. And it meekly submitted to Blair’s ban on IPCC investigators entering the scene of the crime, which he enforced for five days following the shooting.

Harriet Wistrich, a solicitor for the family, said that what Blair knew and when was a “key point” of the investigation. “He made statements on the Friday afternoon and later which were misleading. Was he telling the truth? Did the Met give out misleading information to make things look less bad for themselves?”

That Friday afternoon, just after 3:30 p.m., Blair held a press conference at which he declared that Jean Charles “was challenged and refused to obey” police instructions. His words gave the green light to the media to launch a lurid disinformation campaign against the young Brazilian worker. It was claimed that Jean Charles had left the block of flats that were home to a suspected terrorist wearing a bulky overcoat (assumed by police to disguise a bomb) even though it was a hot day. Police were supposed to have challenged him outside the station but he attempted to flee, jumped a ticket barrier, before being overpowered and shot several times in the head. Several reports quoted bystanders who claimed to have seen these events with their own eyes.

It soon emerged that on every important detail, the public was told a pack of lies. At no point was Jean Charles challenged by the police, all of whom were in plain clothes, thus flatly contradicting Blair’s statement. Jean Charles entered the station wearing jeans and a denim jacket, stopping to pick up a newspaper, paid his fare, walked through the barriers and descended the escalator slowly. He then ran across the platform to board the newly arrived train and sat down in one of the first available seats before he was dragged to the floor and shot.

A leak from the IPCC in early 2006 revealed that senior police officers, who were inside Scotland Yard on July 22, said that on the day of the shooting all talk revolved around the assumption that an innocent man had been killed. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick, for instance, stated that a member of Sir Ian’s private office team believed the wrong man had been killed just six hours after the shooting—a claim Scotland Yard vehemently denies.

Of course, none of the events on July 22 are incomprehensible.

From the start, the Metropolitan Police were opposed to any investigation into the killing, which had revealed the existence of a shoot-to-kill policy known as “Operation Kratos” adopted in secret two years earlier in high-level discussions between top police officers and the government. “Operation Kratos” represented the apex of a vast body of legislation enacted by the government that has given the police the power to act as judge, jury and executioner on the basis of the so-called “war against terror.” The treatment meted out to de Menezes sent out the clear message—first articulated by Prime Minister Tony Blair—that the “rules of the game” had changed.

Behind the resort to new forms of rule based on lawlessness and criminality lies a social process. Opposed by the vast majority of the population, the Blair government is charged with defending the interests of a financial elite seeking to enrich itself through colonial plunder and the destruction of the living standards of the working class. The cover-up surrounding the shoot-to-kill operation in Stockwell is one more link in the chain of lies used by the Blair government to justify its predatory foreign policy and the accompanying erosion of fundamental democratic rights at home.

Paul Mitchell
- Homepage: http://wsws.org/articles/2007/feb2007/deme-f26.shtml

Additions

Who Shot Him? Why? What Did He Witness?

26.02.2007 20:58

"Blair has continued to insist that for 24 hours after the shooting, he and his advisors believed the victim was a suicide bomber."

That's all well and good, but it isn't really the point. The point is that they told these falsehoods to the public, through the media. Whether these were the all-too-hasty statements of a Regime relying upon its own Hysteria to remain in power, or these were malicious LIES, the point is that the Government and police were wrong.

What's more, we still don't know the full story.

The circumstances suggest that this Brazillian electrician was, unknown to the spies coordinating and carrying out the 7/7 False Flags, dispatched to correct a problem with the tube's electrical system - perhaps believing this to be the cause of all the relevant CCV cameras going down at once. It would appear that this poor man saw the spies at work, and was chased and murdered in order to keep him from telling people what he'd seen.

If this is not the case, then what happened? There still has not been a satisfactory explanation or investigation into the matter. It appears these mistakes were made because officials were not tey "on script", and hadn't discussed how they would cover-up what had happened, and who was responsible for emptying a full clip into this man's head, once he was held prone on the ground.

"If indeed it is “incomprehensible” that Blair’s subordinates refused to tell him that Jean Charles was innocent and concocted a web of deceit and cover-up in the midst of a “war on terror,” something more than them “facing criticism” would be required. Such an extraordinary failure would necessitate sackings, leading from those immediately involved in the operation to the highest levels of command—even if this stopped outside the doors of Blair’s office."

And not only that, but WHY they did this, would have to be the ultimate question.

"The Crown Prosecution Service decided in July 2006, following the Stockwell I inquiry into the shooting, not to prosecute any of the officers directly involved or their commanders, on the spurious basis that there was “insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.”

Or, perhaps, because this unit was acting as a scapegoat to the real killers, the spies behind 7/7 who actually did the killing. Nonetheless, this is disturbingly suspicious behaviour, which suggests something seriously amiss.

"The day after the Guardian ran its story, Len Duvall, head of the MPA and chairman of the Greater London Labour Party, confirmed the promotion to Deputy Assistant Commissioner, effective March 19, of Commander Cressida Dick. She was the head of Gold Command and the officer in direct charge of the Stockwell operation. Having considered the “unprecedented circumstances” surrounding the appointment, Duvall said, “We are satisfied that our decision to confirm promotion is the right one to take at this time.”

Sounds like someone's loyalty/silence is being paid for here ...

"The IPCC only carried out the Stockwell II inquiry into Sir Ian Blair’s conduct because of the persistence of the de Menezes family, who fought to expose the lies and slanders hurled at Jean Charles."

Right, it wasn't their professional integrity driving them, it was the family of the man whose murder they're covering up, angered because the Regime that killed him was using his death to further whip up fear, and seize for itself powers denied it by the courts for four years.

Who Shot Him? Why? What Did He Witness?


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech