Workers Revolutionary Party - SACK POLICE CHIEF DICK! says Jean Charles de Menezes campaign

The News Line: News Monday, 11 February 2019 SACK POLICE CHIEF DICK! says Jean Charles de Menezes campaign

The Justice for Jean Campaign still insists that Jean was murdered by the Metropolitan Police after an order from Cressida Dick

‘WE VERY much stand by the comment we made at the time of the murder of Jean Charles that Cressida Dick should be sacked’, Asad Rehman, spokesman for the Jean Charles de Menezes family campaign told News Line yesterday.

In fact she was protected from prosecution and then promoted to be in charge of the Metropolitan Police in 2017. Asad was speaking after Commissioner Dick appeared on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs yesterday in which she claimed that her role in the killing (she gave the order to shoot) had made her ‘a better leader, a better police officer and it has made me more resilient’.

Jean Charles de Menezes, a 27-year-old electrician from Brazil, was shot seven times by firearms officers in a Tube train at Stockwell Station in south London on 22nd July 2005, with Dick, as Gold Commander in the Control Room giving the order to shoot to kill.

Rehman continued to News Line: ‘The family’s goal was to expose the truth and get justice for an innocent man. ‘They had to fight tooth and nail to expose the truth, against the wishes of the Metropolitan Police.

‘But ultimately they were unsuccessful in obtaining justice with senior officers in the Metropolitan Police, including Cressida Dick, not having to account for their actions.

‘Her role in the death of Jean Charles de Menezes was brushed aside in the rush to appoint her Commissioner in 2017.

‘It is deeply ironic that she should now claim that she has been troubled by the death of Jean Charles de Menezes when it was the actions of the Metropolitan Police when she was in charge that led to the death of an innocent man.

‘We’ve always said that it is inappropriate for her to be in charge of the Metropolitan Police and we have no faith in her ability to lead the Metropolitan Police in one of the most diverse cities in the world.’

Dick told Desert Island Discs yesterday: ‘The events of that day stay with one; I think about it quite often. ‘It was a traumatic period. It was an awful time for so many people, obviously and most of all Jean Charles’s family, the people who were there when it happened, the firearms officers, the surveillance officers.’

However, she said that the Metropolitan Police had digested lessons from the incident, during which Jean Charles De Menezes was repeatedly shot in the head by officers. ‘I came through having learnt a lot about how operations like that can be run. The Met learnt a lot and the testament to that is the hundreds and hundreds of firearms operations they have had since.’

Dick, the first openly gay person to head the Metropolitan Police, also said her sexuality was probably the ‘least interesting’ thing and that she ‘loved’ her police officer partner ‘Helen’.