Reply #8: UK police chief beats rap on killing

[underpants]

Source: The Age

BRITISH police have been criticised over the killing of an innocent Brazilian man following the 2005 London bombings, but the head of Scotland Yard himself escaped censure and denied he had lied.

The long-awaited report found "serious weaknesses" in police management and, in particular, said a top officer misled his boss and the public in the hours after Jean Charles de Menezes died on July 22, 2005. The Brazilian electrician's family immediately criticised the report, saying they could not believe that Metropolitan Police head Sir Ian Blair did not know about the mistake until the next day.

"The police have been allowed to get away with murder," said Patricia da Silva, a cousin of the dead man. "This is a huge injustice and very shameful … we are very dissatisfied with those findings, very disappointed."

Mr de Menezes was shot in the head at point-blank range at a London Underground train station by police, the day after an attempt to launch further suicide bombings following attacks that killed 52 people earlier that month.

Police, who shot Mr de Menezes after following him on to a train at Stockwell station, said at the time they suspected he was a suicide bomber with an explosive belt around his waist. The killing took place amid a huge manhunt for four men who, the day before, had attempted but failed to blow themselves up on three London Underground trains.



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/uk-police-chief-beats-rap-on-killing/2007/08/03/1185648148505.html