Police officer cleared

@JayJayEl. Are people saying he deserved it?

I certainly wouldn't shed a tear and would be thankful another violent wannabe gangster was off our streets but that doesn't mean he deserved it.

So they were to let him ram his way out and possibly kill or injure a police officer or member of the public.
He saw guns pointed at him, had warnings and still continued to ram his way out, knowing he could get shot.
Having 2 hands on the wheel does not mean there wasn't a gun within reach.
The fact he was black has no bearing on the outcome.

Yes the met may be institutionally racist. That does NOT mean individual officers are racist. There has been no credible evidence brought to suggest this to be the case. There is no doubt this case was brought to trial with the fear of claims of racism in the background if it wasn't perused. So it was, and a jury of 12 people heard all the evidence and found the officer to be not guilty. Are you saying the jury is racist?

For what it's worth, if someone well connected to gang violence, driving a vehicle that had been linked to such in the previous 24 hours was refusing to comply with police instructions and using those tonnes of metal as a battering ram near me or my loved ones, I'd want him shot, as I suspect you would if YOU were under threat. Couldn't give a crap about the colour of his skin.

@Startingagainandagain :
"decided to clear him of any wrongdoing.".
No. that's not what the jury was asked, nor ruled. They were asked if it was murder. Not even manslaughter. Murder. They haven't been asked 'was there any wrong doing , at all'. That wasn't the question.

What crap has he been accused of that isn't true

And I get that his own family will be upset, but surely they can't think this is some conspiracy to justify the "execution" of poor little innocent angel son

You seem to be very invested

Probably shouldn't have been shot as it did seem that the danger was limited, but the officer shouldn't have been charged.

Having just watched the footage of the incident it's very clear to me that the correct verdict was reached.

Shameful that some are trying to play the race card here.

The police officer was brought in front of a randomly selected jury who saw all the evidence available and decided to clear him of any wrongdoing.

Are the people complaining suggesting the judge is racist? the jury is racist? where does it stop?

I don't see the need of trying to make into a martyr a known criminal who got himself shot for trying to flee when the police had asked him to stop by a cop who assessed the situation and believed he was using his vehicle as a weapon and about to hurt other people.

He would still be alive today if he had not chosen to be involved in criminal acts and behave as he did on the day. Actions have consequences.

Whatever the alternative usually is when they deal with the thousands of incidents of threatening behaviour towards them, people suspected to having committed a violent crime, thought to be* *in possession of weapons/bombs, resisting arrest, driving off when apprehended. Shooting someone through the head is a rare and significant occurrence. Its correct that the circumstances were investigated.

I have no issue with the criticism of the Met as being institutionally racist (and misogynist) , and their derelict standards in harbouring WC, failing to investigate his sex offending etc.

I also believe that the chances of being shot, in the heat of the moment ,of 2 different men, driving the same car in the same circumstances would not be statistically the same if one was white and one black.

Irrespective, as it happens, of the race of the police officer.

There is institutional racism, there is unconscious bias, there is the fact that unfortunately in S London, so many perpetrators of gun and knife crime are black gang leaders.

All of this wants tackling. Root and branch.

But none of it means per se that MB’s reaction, in the middle of a situation where police on foot were in the middle of a car being bashed back and forth by someone who could well have had a gun, was of murderous intent.

What ‘crap’ is being talked about him? The only unsubstantiated allegation in this thread is about his gf’s previous pregnancy.

The right decision. We ask these police officers to make split second decisions, and the guy was driving his car at them.

People sitting comfortable afterwards, can’t possibly say the police should have done this or that.🤷‍♀️

The jury aren't being asked what I am asking. I appreciate the jury found the police offer not guilty. Of murder. Fine. I expected that. But that still doesn't mean he should be dead. Its unusual for such a police officer to even be bought to court. I'm glad it was. The case doesn't sit well with me at all. I think the question shouldn't have been was it murder, its more subtle than that.

Since 2005 four unarmed men have been killed by the police, all black.

They we're all men as well.

@Toomanywars

The CPS studied the evidence and believed it was sufficient for a murder charge.

During the trial, the jury asked Blake why he needed to shoot Kaba since the car was stationary and he was blocked in.

Blake said he hadn't wanted to kill him but he thought a threat to life was imminent. Blake made a lot of exaggerated statements such as the car was moving at speed and he thought Kaba would hit someone.

Blake did not say in court that Kaba was revving the engine. What he said was that while he was repositioning himself, he could not see what was happening but he heard revving engines, tyre screeches and a vehicle moving at great speed.

Blake claimed officers were in danger of being run over or dragged under the Audi, but he could not point out in extensive video footage which officers’ lives he feared for.

We all know that the Met has been found to be institutionally racist.

Since 2005 four unarmed men have been killed by the police, all black. Tony Long who killed Azelle Rodney was charged with murder, Blake who killed Kaba was charged with murder and I believe they want to charge the killer of Jermaine Baker.

While it's quite cute that people have so much trust in the Met, Wayne Couzens was a trained firearms officer. David Carrick was found guilty of 85 offences of which 71 were sexual.Hussain Chehab abused children as did Farhan Ghadiali and so it goes on. It seems as though everyday police officers are being charged with heinous crimes.

In a recent report the Met was found to be institutionally racist, homophobic and misogynist. Yet people are clapping and cheering over an unarmed man being shot in the head.

He's been accused of all sorts of absolute crap and people are making cruel comments about his devastated family.

I agree 100%. I cheered when I heard the verdict.

username35890 · Yesterday 19:51
We've all seen the evidence. The CCTV evidence and the police evidence, it's been shown on the news and in the media.

We’ve all seen the evidence as shared in the media .

We haven’t seen / heard all the evidence produced in court.

The trial I attended in full, there was loads of content, highly relevant material full of nuance and context, that wasn’t covered by the media. The point of journalists is to distill things from weeks worth of material.

I haven’t listened to this case much but hearing the officer talk about whether the case should have happened on R4 this morning he made compelling points

All risks that these offers have to weigh up in a second or two.

But what do you think the alternative is?

Anyone thinking a car can’t be a lethal weapon might want to have a read of this:

https://www.connexionfrance.com/news/gendarmes-widow-frances-lax-approach-killed-my-husband/675719

There’s been more than one police death in France over recent years due to drivers refusing to stop when ordered to do so.

@username35890 I though the coverage on the pm programme on R4 at about 5.40 yesterday was fair. A senior police firearms officer (himself a man of colour) explained that last year 6 people were killed in tens of thousands of incidents where firearms teams were deployed and two of these were Police officers. The sample is too small to draw inferences about racist motives. As others have said it's not only black people who have been shot by the Police.
Evan Davies got to the nub of the argument - is it more likely that a trigger will be pulled if the suspect is black, in identical circumstances. There's no ready answer but it is clear that many people believe this.
In this case the state did all it could to apply the highest standards of justice to this incident (some say too high) and a jury did not convict.
Whatever anyone here says the officer should or shouldn't have done, a jury, in possession of all the known facts, acquitted him.
It's a tragedy for Chris, who now has no chance of redemption. I cannot imagine the heartbreak of his family, whose comments after the verdict were grief speaking rather than cold light of day reason.
And the police officer who never set out to kill anyone that day, doing a job the vast majority of the public would not be brave enough to do.
No winners.