Former London Mayor praises senior officer in charge of failed police operation as potential future Met Commissioner
Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone, who has staunchly defended both outgoing Commissioner Sir Ian Blair and the officers involved in the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, has praised the senior officer who led the operation that resulted in Jean's death.
Livingstone told BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning that he acknowledged the Met police deserved criticism for the errors they made but said these were the result of the "unbelievable" pressure they were under - a factor that the inquest jury were unable to agree upon.
The former Mayor also lavishly praised Deputy Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick as the "most talented" officer he worked with, an officer with "Commissioner potential". DAC Dick was the senior officer in charge of the police operation on 22 July 2005, an operation that was the inquest jury believed was a surveillance failure and a communications disaster, with numerous opportunities to make decisions that could have prevented Jean's death.
Cressida Dick's twenty five serious and catastrophic failures
The interview with Livingstone was followed by the family's lawyer Gareth Peirce, who pointed out that the family had highlighted "25 serious and catastrophic failures on the part of Cressida Dick alone." She added that "the handling of the events that led up to the fatal shooting was disastrous, and it was disastrous on the part of the senior officers, who had a public duty and were paid to exercise that duty of care."
You can listen to both interviews online here or download as an MP3 (warning - 6Mb file. Right-click to save). Gareth Peirce's interview starts at 7 minutes.
Labels: Verdict
This entry was posted
on Saturday, 13 December 2008 at 09:05.
