Saturday, July 04, 2015

A decade later a decision....

Anthony Long the MET officer placed before the court for the murder of Azelle Rodney has been cleared by the jury.


The officer has been pursued for this tragic incident since 2005


As the officer said after the trial


'Police firearms officers do not go out intending to shoot people and, like me in this case, have to make split second life or death decisions based on the information available to them at the time'.


This should be cut and pasted and put over the office doors of the tribunals, DPS, IPCC and CPS who chewed this over for the last 10 years.


As I have said in previous posts no officer turns up on duty and goes out to take a life.


This sentiment you might think would concentrate the minds of the hindsight merchants, the purveyors of armchair acquired knowledge, the media, interest groups ...et al.


But I doubt it....


Someone has to be blamed and pretty much its usually the  hard working soul carrying the office of Constable at the front line.


This post is not intended to be braying over the result


However it is time for everyone to let the officer Anthony Long to have his life back and to move on


I hope this can happen



2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Eastlondonmet - Strange that the only person involved in the aftermath the alleged accused is the only person to carry themselves with poise, dignity and grace! Senior police management, IPCC et al. All seemed to be looking to put the blame on the officer! Why was it so? Maybe because the person shot was black and the family were vocal and organised in the protest! Management must have quaked in the loafers and tried to spin it for a promotion board! The officer did nothing wrong but his previous actions probably taunted him with the risk averse office based career management with hindsight thought he was "trigger happy". Why would any one volunteer for the role after he has been treated in such a way?

1:07 AM  
Blogger Officer Dibble said...



Eastlondonmet

We now live in a 'someone has to be blamed' culture.

Despite all the background circumstances.

I have said this in previous posts.

I wouldn't carry a firearm for the job

You are carrying personal and career 'luggage' as soon as you pull the trigger.

The system support 'carousel' does not keep on turning. You can be left with a

lonely walk, heavily laden, when it stops turning.

12:01 PM  

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