Police officer cleared

[Toomanywars]

Martin Blake police officer today cleared by a jury of unlawful killing of Chris Kaba

Should police officers get more support. Perhaps not release name until after trial or inquiry.

He was armed with a car.

Er, how else do you propose they “detain and disable” a suspect they believe to be armed, who’s refusing to stop for armed police, refusing to get out of the vehicle and using said vehicle as a battering ram to try and escape?

He wasn't armed. 🙄

Perhaps before making comment bother to read up about it then?

Well I think it’s a pretty reasonable assumption to make that a suspect driving a vehicle involved in a shooting the previous day who’s failing to stop for armed police might be armed? He was also using his vehicle as a weapon to try and barge his way out as has already been explained.

The reporting restrictions had not been lifted at that point. I think they were lifted late morning today.

I think it is right that the police can face criminal charges - because it is an important part of ensuring standards. I would however prefer to see anonymity for police (and military) during trials, with identity released only after the trial (and potential appeals) are concluded.

Worth reading up on the finer details then

As a long time law enforcement spouse I am relieved to hear this verdict.

Nae chance

Yes, and led to him and his family being threatened and having a price put on his head by the dickhead gang that he was a part of.

I just can't get over the attitude of his friends and family in this situation.

Why on earth would you outwardly support a domestic abusing, drug dealing, gun wielding thug, just because he's your own flesh and blood?

It's OK to love a family member, but you don't have to like them or agree with what they've done.

Like Jay Slater a few months ago, I'm finding it very difficult to be sympathetic.

As I read on X earlier the only reason that CK died is because of CK and his own decisions.

If he hadn't shot someone in a nightclub a few days before, his car wouldn't have been flagged and he wouldn't have been stopped by armed police. If it was a regular stop, the worst that could have happened to him was being tasered.

It was his decision to try and escape the police by ramming their vehicles. The fact that he didn't run over and kill one of the police officers is pure luck on their part. The fact that they had guns on them and were in a position to shoot him was because of his own actions a few days earlier.

If you want to be given the benefit of the doubt and for armed police to assume you’re unarmed, best to behave like an unarmed suspect, i.e. pull over and comply with the police instructions.

If you behave like an armed criminal you should expect to be treated like one for the safety of the officers and the public.

Whenever you deploy armed police there’s a risk someone will be killed in the crossfire, that could be a member of the public hit by a stray bullet or a kid run over by someone trying to get away. Armed police are not deployed for no reason, and people like Kaba are putting everyone else at risk by making armed police come out in the first place.

The IOPC chose to pass it onto CPS because they believed a crime (homicide) had been committed. That was their choice, post investigation.

His family making a fuss as their income has gone....shame on them on TV last night knowing full well his background and all he had done....it beggars belief!

In their shoes you'd hide away....disgraceful I knew as soon as I saw them what his background would be ....d rugs

That’s wrong. A referral to the CPS is made when the IOPC investigation indicates that a criminal offence may have been committed. It does not mean the IOPC believed it had.

He wasn't armed. 🙄

You mean aside from the two-ton vehicle he was ramming at the police?
Why are you so invested in defending this particular individual?

Agree. This had to go to court, and it seems that they've handled it scrupulously carefully.

(edit - lost the post I was responding too!)

Meanwhile, I'm shocked to see Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP named the police officer in March this year and described the case as a 'fight for justice' :

https://x.com/BellRibeiroAddy/status/1766042958854320402

She should apologise.

I've got no interest in him, KC as such. I'm interested in case, the bigger issues.

This is a hard lesson in FOAFO.

All he had to do was stop. This is a tough lesson and one that might help youngers understand that Top Boy, drill and hip music videos and films such as Fast and Furious are not real they are fiction. In real life if you have got to the point that an armed police officer is telling you to stop. STOP

As for the family, they share some of the responsibility for the position this young man ended up in. You can love someone but not like how they are choosing to live. I hope they can find it in themselves to grieve and not allow social media hysteria turn this tragic situation into something that it is not.

Could you just say what you do think?

You have been present on this thread and the other casting scepticism and doubt on what has happened but not what you actually think! (sorry if I have missed it)

And what do you believe the bigger issues are?

Is there a published report of that?

Read his statement. It is an utter disgrace. Bleating about the family's pain and loss. What about absolute hell the officer has been put through for the past two years for simply doing his job.

Only days ago launching a toolkit to prevent violence against women and girls and in the next breath is appeasing the associates of this violent, murderous thug. He's a coward

Pleased the officer was let off.

Think it’s laughable that Kaba’s family said the verdict was “painful proof that our lives are not valued by the system”. Pity he didn’t value the bloke he shot in a nightclub tbh.

The previous day he’d shot someone across the dance floor at a night club….puttting many innocent people in danger (let’s be real the ‘victim’ was probably as bad as he).

i feel rage at the family…the mother who raised him, who at 13 was found guilty of stabbing and breaking someone’s arm…..the dramatics, the portrayal of an innocent man shot by our police who put their life on the line for us every day.

but ultimately, these gangs! This sick culture. How do we stop it?