de Menezes - open verdict

[Sancho]

Anyone care to explain the justice behind that?

Police shoot innocent man in the face seven times without even identifying themselves. Coroner not sure whose fault that is. I could have helped out with that one.

[fatfires]

Anyone care to explain the justice behind that?

Police shoot innocent man in the face seven times without even identifying themselves. Coroner not sure whose fault that is. I could have helped out with that one.

open and shut in my mind....over enthusiastic macho brained morons being allowed to run arround with firearms without the propper controls

[Apache]

Wonder if he'd been white, middle-class if the verdict would have been any different?

[Sancho]

It was the fact that the coroner wouldn't even allow the jury to call it unlawful killing that really gave me the hump.

[Predictable Bob]

open and shut in my mind....over enthusiastic macho brained morons being allowed to run arround with firearms without the propper controls

And they had the nerve to take my pistols away cos I wasn't to be trusted with firearms (21 years in the Regular Army at the time !)

Tw@ts

[PDR]

Visit and civilian shooting range used by the police and you will soon see how cavalier and downright dangerous they can be. Civilian shooting clubs have a far better safety record.

[MattF]

It was the fact that the coroner wouldn't even allow the jury to call it unlawful killing that really gave me the hump.

That really was a p1ss take. You can't tell me that they can legally make a jury have the option of classifying it as a lawful killing without having the inverse option available. It's p1ssing on the whole concept of the jury system.

[RodLeach]

Right, i might be standing alone on this one!



Dont get me wrong!! Its bl**dy horrible he was killed for no good reason. But its so hard to know what to do to put it right.

If everytime a cop pulls a gun hes branded a maniac killer when his/her only intention is to save others by stopping one then what do you do!!


Its a bl**dy crap thing to have to deal with an i pitty his family for having to endure it all when frankly the legal system has to ignore itself to try an protect itself!!

[MattF]

Dont get me wrong!! Its bl**dy horrible he was killed for no good reason. But its so hard to know what to do to put it right.

Restricting police isn't the point. Not giving a jury the option to return a verdict, (which is the whole purpose of them being there, as they should provide an unbiased judgement), is plain wrong, both ethically and legally.

[RodLeach]

Restricting police isn't the point. Not giving a jury the option to return a verdict, (which is the whole purpose of them being there, as they should provide an unbiased judgement), is plain wrong, both ethically and legally.

completly agree mate, But the problem is what happens to the officers if it was an unlawful death?

If they end up in Jail whats going to happen in the next situation where a police officer with a gun hesitates for his own sake in case its just a tourist?!

Its a total sham for all involved an as soon as it happened it was obvious there would be next to no justice or closure for the family.

[Sancho]

completly agree mate, But the problem is what happens to the officers if it was an unlawful death?

If they end up in Jail whats going to happen in the next situation where a police officer with a gun hesitates for his own sake in case its just a tourist?!

Its a total sham for all involved an as soon as it happened it was obvious there would be next to no justice or closure for the family.

I would like a police officer to 'hesitate for his own sake' if I was sat down, had no weapon, wasn't a criminal and he hadn't identified himself.

They are going through a lot training ATM to remind them to at least tell people who they are before they shoot them repeatedly in the face.

And, yes, it was the jury thing that really got my goat. It's justice. they fcked up, they go to jail. I doubt they'd care if I caused a fatal accident in a car and said it's because I didn't know that how I was driving was dangerous.

[MattF]

If they end up in Jail whats going to happen in the next situation where a police officer with a gun hesitates for his own sake in case its just a tourist?!

They would be forced to take a moment to actually consider the consequence of their actions. Gung ho is exactly that, regardless of the circumstances.

[POPEYE]

The whole inquest was a waste of time, it was a forgone conclusion, the jury did'nt stand a chance being hamstrung like that, i place most of the blame on these guys superiors and the so called survailance squad who failed to identfy
who they were actually following, was'nt one of em haveing a pi$$ in a bottle
when this "suspect" left the house?

[Bogus]

Theres just so much that could be said, and so much being said by police, politicians and all kinds of experts, but the bottom line is that a man was shot by mistake. It could have been anybody, one of us, one of our friends or family. I dont therefore see how it could be considered as anything but an unlawful killing, or manslaughter, or even murder.
Now there are lots of circumstances and reasons to consider but ultimately what happened was just plain wrong, and plain unlawful.
If you are ever arrested for murder or assault or GBH, just tell plod you were totally convinced that your victim was a terrorist or that you believed he was going to harm someone and you should walk, just to give more credence to that you can add that he stood up or walked in an unusual manner. That ought to close it out completely. What happened here was not necessarily down to the trigger pullers, they had also been misled in my view. Maybe the gung ho accusation is correct but theres more than that to it, this is more like "corporate manslaughter"
What really pi$$ed me off today was some tube on sky inferring that the police didnt lie, but that all the witnesses were confused about what happened because they were scared/stressed by the scene and probably got it all wrong, but when a "civilan" is found guilty of something, then the jurys findings of that guilt are invariably reported on by police/prosecution spokesmen as clear evidence that the civilian was a lying toad and that juries cant be fooled.

Bogus

[Predictable Bob]

If you are ever arrested for murder or assault or GBH, just tell plod you were totally convinced that your victim was a terrorist or that you believed he was going to harm someone and you should walk,

Bogus

As I understand it the only defence for killing somebody in this country is:

"I believed that my/his/her life was in immediate danger and the only way of preventing it was to kill the deceased"