Can we now assume that the police force in this country are above the laws?

Question

that they are employed to enforce. this is a follow on to the question about the cold blooded assassination of the brazilian citizen on the london tube! i would like to hear from serving officers of their opinion and justification of that tragic event

FFTLANDMCRFAN the poor man was scared witless, he was in fear for his life and you call his slaying justified. shame on you! would you have the same opinion if that had been your father or brother. i think not as for the individual following orders in that case the chief constable of the met should have been charged as he gave the order or is ther more whitewash

Answer 1

Sadly that does appear to be the case.

The whole episode with regards to Mr De Menezes (apologies if the spelling is incorrect) would be farcical if it were not for the fact an entirely innocent person was killed. The Police were supposedly acting on intelligence. How ironic that intelligence was the major missing element in the whole episode. The officers were acting on advice given to them. Anyone with so much power MUST have intelligence that is, as far as possible, reliable. In this instance it was far from it. Worse still is the sad fact that this is only one of several incidents where innocent people have been killed. It's not that long ago that a man was shot walking down the street carrying a table leg in a bag. Apparently it was mistaken for a gun.

In none of these cases has any officer been successfully prosecuted. It's simply not good enough.

Answer 2

If we lived in a perfect world we wouldnt need poliice.Unfortunatelly we dont.At the time of the shooting a lot of mistakes were made but not long before 4 young men with backpacks just like the one the young man was carrying blew up a train an killed many innocent people.There was a lot of tension in London at the time and everyone knew there was including this young man if the police issued a challenge and the man ran what were they supposed to think.If the police had done nothing and the guy blew up another train killing more inoccent people what would the public have said then.I am not a big fan of some of the things done by the police but in a case like this I feel the police were in a lose lose situation.If they chase and he had a bomb he could have detonated and people would have said WHY DIDNT THEY SHOOT. In this case they shot and were criticised for that.I have heard many people criticise but I have yet to hear anyone come up with a viable solution.Given the facts of the case what would all of you armchair critics have done.(and that is without hindsight) I talk about the situation as it happens because I dont know and I hope I never have to make that decision

Answer 3

Of course we are not above the law.

The circumstances on that fateful day were completely different to anything encountered before in mainland Britain.

A potential suicide bomber about to commit an atrocious act - much like the 52 dead the previous month.

Unfortunately the police do not have 'hindsight'. What should they have done? They can't challenge the person because he would detonate his device. They can't shoot in the normal manner because he would detonate his device. They had little alternative but to do what they did. They were under orders. They had a duty to protect the public.

Answer 4

Only those with blind ambitions. Most are honest.

Too many laws to control Americans.

Read Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell.

Sadly the honest ones suffer at the hands of those than hould had NEVER been allowed to become a Peace Officer.

Frank Serpico of the NYPD would not had been a successful whistle Blower.

Answer 5

If you are honest and think back to the events of that week then you may understand that we were in effect under attack in London at that time.

Perhaps the Officers were in the genuine belief that they were risking their own lives trying to save hundreds of lives innocent people from a suicide bomber.

Yes in hindsight they were mis-informed but do you really think they deliberately shot him in cold blood?

Perhaps we should look at the bigger picture and ask as a society what we can do to catch the murderers amongst us instead of trying to blame individual Officers and looking for scape goats.

Answer 6

Re-introduce POTA and type specific tension to combat terrorism. military ought to deal at borders and thieves must be dealt by way of police. Forces msy be shaped on the lines of NSG commandos and public must additionally tackle terrorists by way of regarding in forces like SALWA JUDUM. that isn't any longer the accountability of only government to combat with terrorism. everybody ought to take an element in this combat.

Answer 7

If anything they don't enforce the law enough and i think the shooting was justified in many countries they shoot suspected terriorists on the spot. This man was told to stop and ran for it he knew full well that we recently had terriost problems, what if he was a terrioist and he went on to bomb the place your'd change your story then? The police officers had to make a choice and they were told to shoot on the spot and they all thought he was a terroist the man should had stoped they would had just arrested him.

Answer 8

That was bound to be a whitewash as the Government do not want to be seen in a bad light, therefore they never admit to being in the wrong and tailor any enquiry to find in their favour.

Answer 9

On a whole they aren't above the law as many have been prosecuted. But I agree that the officers in this case seem to be, they definitely should be answering criminal charges !! :)

Answer 10

for many years it has happened, but as said before, if the Brazillian were a Terroist, then we would be saying well done, as many people were when they heard.. and as before, the armed Police and Army are legally obliged to give three warnings,
Armed Solider/Police stop or I will shoot x 3

then they have the right to fire as they see fit