Jean Charles de Menezes - a tragedy still happening

Nick Cohen recently wrote in the Evening Standard "Often it is hard to feel happy about the state of this country but the inquest into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes ought to make us proud."

Well, no, actually. You're wrong, and it isn't reasonable to compare our police to those attempting to police the favelas of Rio de Janeiro either, though you would like to. They may kill people, but they are in constant danger of being killed themselves. Our police just aren't .

Yes, it's good that we can hold our police to account, but it has no effect if noone will take responsibility for the mistakes made. The police officer in the dock today (deputy assistant commissioner John McDowall, who was responsible for developing the strategy to capture the men behind the attempted 21 July attacks) refused to admit fault after admitting that significant mistakes had been made. He had admitted that many officers had been on surveillance without any sort of photo of the suspect, Hussain Osman, and they had only ever seen a passport photo of him, despite the availability of better images. Incidentally, Jean Charles de Menezes didn't look much like Hussain Osman . He was unfortunate enough to live in the same set of flats, which the police mistakenly believed was a single house.

















This refusal to admit fault despite admitting mistakes - "clearly, I think, there probably are things that I could have done but for whatever reason at that time I did not think of it" - is symptomatic of the political attitude of the police in this country. They are no worse in this than any other major government-funded body, but that's no excuse.

If I drop a glass of red wine on the carpet, I have to get down there and clean it up. I can't just tell my girlfriend, "I could have paid more attention to what I was doing and been careful with the glass and our carpet but for whatever reason at that time I did not think of it". It's my fault and I have to deal with it. In the same way, if the police kill someone they shouldn't and it is demonstrably their fault, because they made significant mistakes, they have to, metaphorically, clean it up.

The refusal of the Met to accept that they were wrong and face the consequences is worrying for anyone who feels strongly about liberty. Freedom comes with a condition - you accept the consequences of your actions, whatever they may be. If our police can make bad mistakes, kill someone and get away with it, our "free" country is in a lot of trouble.