No charges to be laid in murder of Jean Charles de Menezes

Perry de Havilland outlines the depressing news:

So we now know that the police officers who shot dead Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, claiming they thought he was a suicide bomber, will face no charges. Instead, Scotland Yard may face charges under, wait for it, health and safety regulations.

Yet all this utterly misses the point. I am willing to believe that the event itself was all just a horrible cock-up but what I am not willing to accept is that after shooting dead the wrong man, the authorities can issue a stream of bare faced lies with complete impunity. Very soon after the event it must have been clear to the police they had made a horrible blunder and this fact soon came out. However we were then told that the unfortunate Brazilian had significantly contributed to his own fate . . . he was wearing an unseasonable padded jacket¹, he had run when challenged by the armed police and been chased in the tube station² and finally had vaulted over the gate and run on to the train pursued by the cops³ . . . all of which we now know was completely false.

¹ He was in fact wearing a short jeans jacket

² He rode to the station on a bus without being challenged

³ He calmly used his season ticket to pass though the automated gate

Under the circumstances, at the time, it all seemed like the police were being (understandably) over-enthusiastic in attempting to prevent a suicide bombing. As the facts started to come in, it became clear that the job had been botched. As more facts came in, it became stunningly clear that the police were a mob of cack-handed imbeciles, and worse, that the bureaucracy was covering up like mad.

Rule of law? Faugh! Rule of moral cripples with delusions of righteousness, more like.

And lest we point fingers across the Atlantic and say "It could never happen here!" I'd point you to any random day's posts at The Agitator to confound that notion. (Update: Have a look at the graphical evidence.)