Cops in London shoot some guy. It maybe a ‘Katrina Bridge’ incident or not. Now we have riots and arson all over. One possible reason for the riots is that our supposedly independent police complaints commission isn’t. It’s hard to find any decent investigation they have done and senior figures should have been sacked long ago. Internal suggestions include the bosses being warned off proper investigations and nicking bent cops by the Home Office. The worthies who get these top jobs all seem much the same and pretty useless. There is not a single decent investigation report on the IPCC website, yet there is a growing list of worthless self-congratulation and performance management piss that should be the tell-tale sign of hapless management by now – the stuff that comes before Baby P, Fiona Pilkington, killing innocent Brazilians (this seems to have done Dick’s career portfolio good) and the dreadful truth.
The initial protest was peaceful and just an airing of concern. If the IPCC was any good, one can imagine a few people going to make a complaint. This bunch of bureaucratic tossers would probably have fobbed them off with meaningless crud on confidentiality and other routine insulting behaviour concerned citizens get.
Cops immediately started their backfire campaign of smearing the poor sod they shot. This theme is widely reported in journal articles and no one ever seems to be sacked. The lies told around Stockwell helped no one. Blair should have been removed from office as soon as he blocked IPCC people at the scene (I must admit I’d balk at untrained bunglers on my crime scene) and now excuses about CCTV not working and so on look dire, as does the drivel on 17 civilian witnesses not hearing shouts of ‘armed police’, especially as this should not have been shouted. I have no truck with blaming armed people under stress – but Stockwell should have produced sackings in clown Gold and the prosecution of Blair for interfering with a lawful investigation. IPCC investigations do not seem to lead to satisfaction for victims of poor policing or to uncovering corruption.
On a statistical basis, how many of the 40+ forces across England and Wales don’t have problems when they are put under at bit of pressure like the Met on ‘hacking’? We were told GMP was lucky to have such a fine specimen as ‘Shagger Todd’ – in fact he now looks like a total clown in comparison with Fahey – so where was the IPCC when needed? Where are they now on the routine favouritism and chief constables able to bully their way out of gross misconduct and stay in office? Given not a single force has been able to understand its own performance in order to transfer ‘success’, where are both HMIC and IPCC on a corruption enquiry into senior police gaming? Two Merseyside working stiffs are supposed to have been sacked (no report on IPCC website though) and lost pensions over gaming – so what should be happening to the senior network actually raking in bonus payments?
The IPCC has failed – we need a new way to renew faith in our policing. The resources could be found by abolishing ACPO and other nitwit bodies and combining police complaints and HMIC in a quality body. The new body should be responsive to communities and ordinary people and responsible to the public. But on this last matter the question is how? We need new ideas now we have discovered voting is almost useless.
We want our cops nicking the looters, druggies and other thugs rather than see them cashing in on protests and we want cops to be able to tell the truth on crime, not listen to ACPO-types telling us the opposite of what we witness every day. We simply can’t trust that proper investigations will take place.
Nothing excuses this kind of riot and one wishes officers hurt a speedy recovery, as well as the innocent victims who have lost their homes. It doesn’t feel good that we have areas as tinderbox as this. It could be the people involved are beyond any rational appeal – I remember a similar issue over a worthless toerag 30 years ago in Manchester. That one resolved when a good proportion of the protesters realised chummy had been nicking from them and was not innocent. One can’t base arguments on the twits with firebombs, but if this can kick off over what looks like a police return of fire, one has to wonder about the wider issue of investigative credibility. The IPCC seem to have been intimate with the dead person’s relatives and this wasn’t enough.
Allcoppedout's Blog 
My goodness, ACO, my comments on your blog are sometimes pointless. This post contains my exact thoughts arranged as I would order them.
You will have also deduced that finding Gadget has suddenly become a very high priority….for a government and chief police officers with any sense of self preservation.
Melvin,you’ve had a busy morning haven’t you?Must be licking your lips over your keyboard with your ranting about the police.
By the way ACO-the man shot wasn’t a poor sod.He was a gangster scumbag,on his way to kill someone else.Had he not been stopped another man would have died.Then that man’s parents would be moaning that “nothing was done” and “it’s all the polices fault that one drug dealer shot another”.
I’m sure all those people looting Currys were thinking “i’m going to get myself a new plasma TV because the IPCC won’t answer my questions”.
I was aware he wasn’t a poor sod Jaded – other than in dying. He was probably no loss. I have no time at all for the looters but we have to do something to understand why a march on a police station comes about. We had one years ago at Stretford over a tosser called Leroy who was not at all innocent or a good lad – but questions on how anyone could believe this (given the opposite was true and he was stealing from his own) had to be asked. These questions are not just about police but also the state of any community that could usurp the peaceful protest. There is no excuse for the crimes, but also none for whatever led people to feel they had to mob the nick to be heard.
That the poor should be in revolt is a wider political matter. If the white poor revolt, god knows how violent things might become.
‘The Guardian understands that initial ballistics tests on a bullet, found lodged in a police radio worn by an officer during Thursday’s incident, suggested it was police issue – and therefore had not been fired by Duggan.’
Guardian leads with the first suggestion of an execution scenario.
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It seems now Duggan didn’t fire anything, but was shot twice.
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