UK: "Disgust" at Menezes officer's promotion
01 January 2007
The police officer who supervised the Metropolitan police operation that resulted in Jean Charles de Menezes being shot seven times in the head as he sat on an underground train at Stockwell tube station was promoted at the end of February (see
Statewatch Vol. 16 nos 5/6). Despite what the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) described as "unprecedented circumstances", Cressida Dick was confirmed as a deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police force and took up her new post, which will focus on the safety of the monarchy, on 16 March. Len Duvall, chairman of the MPA, which oversees London's police force, said:
the people of London must have confidence in the police who work, in what are often difficult circumstances, to protect them. By confirming this promotion we are making it clear that the officer retains our full confidence.
However, the family of Jean Charles have said that they were "absolutely disgusted and outraged at what is just one more slap in the face."
This development comes after the Crown Prosecution Service's announcement last year that no police officers would face charges over the shooting of Jean Charles, although they do face an investigation for minor infractions of health and safety laws in the autumn. The publication of the Independent Police Complaints Commission's (IPCC) inquiry into the killing has been delayed by challenges by senior Scotland Yard officers, some of whom have threatened the IPCC with legal proceedings. One of the firearms police officers involved in the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes shot dead another man last November. In this incident a CO19 firearms unit shot dead Robert Haines (41) in an alleged robbery attempt on the offices of the Nationwide Building Society in New Romney, Kent. A spokeswoman for the Menezes family expressed "shock and disbelief" that the same officers involved in the killing of Jean Charles had "been given a license to kill again even before the investigative process into Jean's death is complete."
Reuters 19.2.07