In this country police marksmen shoot and kill on average about seven of us a year. The legal and moral justification for these killing is of course a matter of opinion but one thing has always puzzled me. How come the identity of the officers involved always remains a secret? We all look after our own and we shouldn't expect the cops to be any different. Sure they will close ranks to protect the identity of marksmen who take a life and generally speaking the courts will be complicit in this. But in this internet age it seems almost impossible to keep anything secret for long and the number of people who know who shot who when must be considerable. Why does this information never emerge on the net?
Whenever a police killing or police corruption is in the headlines we are constantly reminded of the "courage" and "bravery" of the force. But is being a copper that dangerous? All right, any risk assessment would put the job as being more hazardous than say, being a computer programmer but it's not in the same league as the construction industry, or farming, or fishing and when it comes to facing violence from members of the public NHS staff are far more likely to be attacked than coppers.
Like most Londoners I would have been pleased if police marksmen had taken out the 7/7 bombers before their devices went off and took fifty two innocent lives. But the reality is that one more innocent life, that of Jean Charles de Menezes, was added to the carnage. Who killed de Menezes and what are those officers doing now? We all make mistakes but most of us have to hold our hands up when we do. The police should be no exception to this.
1 comment:
Something I've noticed, cops who kill get promoted soon after.
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