Govt backs London police chief over shooting probe
LONDON, Aug 20: The British government expressed confidence on Saturday in London police chief Ian Blair, under pressure over the police killing of a Brazilian electrician mistaken for a would-be suicide bomber.
The family of Jean Charles de Menezes, shot eight times by police on an underground train last month, have called on Blair to quit after leaked investigation documents cast doubt on the official version of events and highlighted police blunders.
But Home Secretary (interior minister) Charles Clarke said he was satisfied with how Blair and his force had responded to deadly suicide bomb attacks in London on July 7 and an attempted second wave of strikes two weeks later.
“I’m very happy with the conduct not only of Sir Ian Blair but the whole Metropolitan Police Service in relation to this enquiry,” Mr Clarke told the BBC.
He said people should not pass judgment before the results of an independent investigation into the shooting, which took place the day after the failed second set of attacks.
“There are very important issues about the death of Mr de Menezes and what happened and how it took place which rightly should be investigated,” he said. “We have a process for doing that.”
Earlier on Saturday, police said they had reviewed the controversial “shoot-to-kill” policy for suicide bombers after the killing of de Menezes but left it largely unchanged.
“We have reviewed it and we have made one or two small changes, but the operation remains essentially the same,” a spokeswoman for the London police force said.
The spokeswoman declined to detail the changes but Blair said officers would continue to use lethal force if necessary.
“The methods that were used appeared to be the least worst option (for tackling suicide bombers) ... we still have the procedure in use,” he told the Daily Mail newspaper.
British police spent years studying how to deal with suicide bombers but the issue became acute following the July 7 attacks in which four British Muslim men killed themselves and 52 other people on three underground trains and a bus.
Len Duval, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority which oversees policing in London, said there was a growing consensus for a public inquiry into the “shoot-to-kill” policy but it was a decision for the government.
On the day of the shooting Blair said de Menezes was under surveillance as part of a hunt for suspects from the July 21 attacks and had not responded to police challenges. The next day police admitted they had shot an innocent man and apologised. —Reuters
