Learning from the best

Since yesterday, the ABC (via Reuters) has been reporting that the internal UK police review of last year’s shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes has found no reason to review the shoot-to-kill policy:

An internal British police review into procedures for dealing with suspected suicide bombers following the fatal shooting of an innocent Brazilian man last year, has found no reason to change the policy.

This is, in fact, incorrect. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is yet to release its report. In reality, the Association of Chief Police Officers (a kind of union of senior UK police) have tried to pre-empt the inquiry by releasing their own spin – a tactic that seems to have worked particularly well on the gullible folks at the ABC.

The Guardian reports the actual story, thus far:

An official inquiry into the Stockwell tube station shooting has received evidence from senior police officers raising questions about Sir Ian Blair’s account of the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes and its aftermath, the Guardian has learned.… 

The IPCC is carrying out an inquiry into the conduct of Sir Ian – its second investigation into the Stockwell events – in response to a complaint by Mr de Menezes’s family, who allege that the commissioner and others in the force tried to mislead the public about the shooting.

After 9/11, British police were sent to Israel, among other countries, to discover methods of dealing with suicide bombers. We all know that the Israelis are accurate and diligent when dealing with “terror.”

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