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.

A lot of talk about confidence in the police being at rock bottom in the local community. How about confidence in the local community deserving to take a knock? We've all spent days/weeks listening to his family wailing on about how tragic and unjust the loss of his life was, police violence, miscarriage of justice etc etc and all along they knew fine well he was an extremely violent, gun-totting gangster. Frankly, I'm disgusted by them as much as him. I doubt many of the local community who stood supporting the family in their protests were unaware of CK's serious criminal activities either, so I'm pretty disgusted with them too.

I get that the majority honest, law abiding black community have their own wholly legitimate grievances with the MET, where institutional racism is a long-standing and ongoing issue. Standing beside the families of violent thugs does them no favours though. The enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend. They may well be your enemy too.

The advice from the Tory government was "to flag down a passing bus". Appalling lack of care for women's safety.

I'm generally no fan of the Met when it comes to women's safety, and I'm vocal when I think they're wrong. But by all accounts Chris Kaba was no angel, and I'm finding it hard to mourn his loss to society. I am mindful that he will have family who love and mourn him, of course, but as a society, I don't think he's a huge loss.

have not yet read the entirety of the thread. I do not trust the police and if a police car flashed me to stop, my reaction would be to drive to the nearest police station. But then I'm a white woman.

But this isn’t really the same circumstances. I might do the above if I was flagged down by a lone officer but if I’m surrounded by armed police pointing guns at me compliance is the best advice.

There is always going to be a risk when we arm police- from arming a dangerous psychopath (Wayne Cousins) to accidentally shooting the wrong person, bystander or mistaken identity (Jean Charles de Menzes) to a hasty shot by an officer in the heat of a moment where hindsight suggests it might have been OK to wait.

But we started arming police because of armed criminals, and terrorism. Armed gangs are the part cause of the risks they encounter facing armed police. And bear responsibility for the risks that occur because they have made armed police a necessity.

IMO.

What strikes me about this case, the behaviour of Kabas family and the attempts to hide his serious criminal history is just how much harder its going to make it for black people to be taken seriously when they have actually been a victim at the hands of the police.

They didn’t hide his criminal history, it wasn’t mentioned due to the ongoing court case. Now it is over, his history is being reported.

It's not as simple as that.

His mother had been seeking an injunction to stop it being reported.

They did ask, via their legal team, for it not to be made public.

The police had to go to court for a judgement for it to be made public because of the fear of public disorder and the threats to Blake's life.

But it is true that a jury is not usually made aware of a defendant's previous convictions so as not to influence their verdict.

@ChesterDrawz& @MilletOver

I didn’t realise that at all.
I though it hadn’t been reported previously due to the ongoing case.
Thanks for clarifying.

I totally agree and was thinking the same thing myself.

This pisses me of.:
Reported in the Spectator about the Runnymede Trust's response to the not guilty verdict:

"The taxpayer-funded racial justice group.....Runnymede took to Twitter to call for ‘real justice’ for families affected by ‘racist state violence’, raging:
This lack of police accountability perpetuates cycles of violence and impunity. Our thoughts and solidarity are with Chris’ loved ones and wider community".

My son, his friends, and my friends in the area plagued by CK's gang ARE the wider community. 'Solidarity' would look like trying to get rid of these violent drug dealing gangs. That's what the 'wider community' want!

I'm incredulous that people are protesting the killing of this brutal individual. The streets are safer today with one less violent criminal on them . Play by the gun die by the gun .

The night club shooting trial was subject to reporting restrictions, yes, because of this trial upcoming. And a jury is never told about a defendant's previous convictions before they retire to consider their verdict.

But in preparation of the end of the trial the family tried to take out an injunction against reporting after the MB trial. It had to go to a court hearing this morning where the judge threw out their case.

That's why the reports of his former life weren't publicised yesterday after the trial.

The whole media knew he was the shooter in the nightclub incident.

I listened to the trial podcast completely incredulous that it had gone to court and felt so sorry for Martyn Blake and that was before I know Chris Kabas criminal past. His behaviour was completely at odds with any law abiding citizen, it was clearly a very dangerous situation and all the other police officers agreed they would have done the same. What a waste of public money when Chris Kaba sounded like a completely nightmare and danger to society.

Disappointing but unsurprising news

How about they shoot to injure and not shoot to kill? Why would you issue an immediate head shot which is an instant kill shot?

I get that the majority honest, law abiding black community have their own wholly legitimate grievances with the MET, where institutional racism is a long-standing and ongoing issue. Standing beside the families of violent thugs does them no favours though. The enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend. They may well be your enemy too

Beautifully put, @WalkingThroughTreacle
As a PP mentioned, police shooting people is (thankfully) very rare, and nor is it always black men when it does happen, despite several attempts to claim this is the case

Unfortunately, it suits some - criminals and their enablers in particular - to encourage and exaggerate this distrust, not only to excuse their own wrongdoing but also in the hope that surveillance will be hampered

And what does this prove? He wasn’t the registered driver of the car and none of this was known at the time of the incident. So what’s your point?

They did not say that a disproportionate number of black men are the victims of knife and gun homicide.. carried out by other black men.

Black on black crime doesn’t exist. Hope that helps.

Please tell me how you propose you “shoot to injure” someone who’s sat down behind a steering wheel? If you aim for the shoulder or arm you’ll likely miss and send the bullet through the back of the car posing a risk to the surrounding officers general public. Police officers are trained to shoot at the critical mass i.e. chest, which is what Martyn Blake claims to have done, but hit him in the head.

Is that sarcasm ? About the non-existent crime? That’s all there is around here with knives and guns (London)!

Do his family not feel any embarrassment about how their son's turned out.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/chris-kaba-gang-shooting-police-gun-crime-martyn-blake-justice-b1189299.html

seems to suggest that Kaba was indeed the guy with the gun.

If someone aims to shoot in the chest but ends up shooting them in their head, maybe they need additional training

Black on black crime does not exist. It’s not a really thing. It’s genuinely just crime. If you see the post that I quoted then you’ll understand why I’ve said that