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.

Correct decision.

He is still going to be assessed by the independent office for police conduct, but suspect that will feel substantially less daunting after having been through a murder trial!

I wonder if he will want to continue policing after this.

Side question- Do you get any monetary compensation for being held on remand and wasting 2 years of your life waiting to be found not guilty of murder?

I agree with @JaniceBattersby that police officers must be named in the same way as anyone else. The same standards must apply.

The CPS put this forward for trial and a jury has looked at the evidence from the body-worn cameras, and drawn the correct conclusion that the officer fired when he reasonably judged the lives of his colleagues to be at risk from the fast revving car. Justice has been seen to be done.

I feel desperately sorry for the family, no-one should experience the loss of a son but that doesn't make the officer's actions wrong. He made a split second decision to prevent the car from travelling forward at speed. Mr Kaba could have, should have, got out of the car but he chose to threaten the officers with his vehicle instead. A tragic waste of a life.

I wouldn't blame every armed police officer in the country giving up their weapons. Then let's see how happy all these people who want to criticise the police at every turn are when and if there is an incident where the lives of their loved ones are at stake.

The mayor of Londons statement on this is a disgrace. Why does he need to send his condolences to Kabas friends and family? Where are the condolences for the officer and his family who have no doubt gone to hell and back in the run up to this trial?

It's a very different role. You don't know whether you are chasing a terrorist, someone with a gun, a person on drugs who might be very unpredictable. I think if they say stop, you stop and answer what they ask you don't try to ram your way out.

The fact that car was linked to a shooting the night before didn't help. High alert straight away.

They gave to assess risks in a fraction of time and take action. The guy is surrounded by armed police and he choses to try to ram his way out of the situation!

I wouldn't want yo be an armed officer, its a very stressful and challenging role.

He wasn't armed He was using his car as a weapon. And perhaps if he’d stopped his car when he was asked to, he’d have had the opportunity to show he wasn’t armed.

from the footage no one was in imminent danger Several police officers and a jury would disagree with you.

The officer who shot him stood in front of the car and shot him in the head Pretty sure that’s not accurate. And if it were, so what?

I thought the police were meant to disarm people, not kill them Give over. What were they supposed to do? Tap on the window and ask him to roll it down so they could spray him? If they’d shot him non lethally, and he’d had a gun, he could have killed anyone. If you’re going to be put in a position where you have to make the choice of whether or not to use lethal force, you have a responsibility to protect your colleagues and the general public over someone who had already demonstrated that he didn’t care who he hurt in his attempts to escape.

Wasn’t armed? He was using his car as a weapon

No, the police are supposed to protect the wider community and prevent injury or death.

Making threats with a deadly weapon (in this case a car) can result in police doing whatever is necessary to stop them. That's why some of our police officers have to be armed.

"Kaba had been on the phone and realised he was being followed, telling a friend: “I think there is police behind me.” "

At the point he drive past police chatting to his friend on his phone hw could gave just stopped to see what they wanted.

He was a member of a thuggish violent gang of scumbags who had been involved in shootings before and was trying to ram police officers with a car. There was only one correct outcome at trial.

The car was stationary when he was shot. The officer who killed him stood in front of the car. He tried to get away and hit a couple of cars, he was driving very very slowly. There were no weapons in his car and both hands were on the steering wheel.

His car was the weapon he used. A car being rammed into others cars with officers around and near can easily crush, run over or kill.

He wasn't armed and from the footage no one was in imminent danger. The officer who shot him stood in front of the car and shot him in the head. I thought the police were meant to disarm people, not kill them.

It’s very hard to shoot to disarm & pretty unrealistic so I don’t think they are taught this. Also people forgot it’s a high pressured situation with split second decisions.

I have no sympathy for criminals who end up dead. Or their relatives who have desperately changed the narrative and made said criminal out to be an ordinary citizen doing nothing wrong. I do have immense sympathy for the man who was doing his job, had to make a split second decision and has had his life ruined as a result.

Naming him surely makes him an open target now?

You're just parroting what the police said. He wasn't speeding at the time of the shooting, he was stationary.

He had rammed back and forth was reving and ready to ram again. A car xan kill you know. Why not just stop. Why not do as instructed and show your hands? They wanted to see if he was armed. The car was implicated in a shooting the night before!

The police aren't trained to shoot unarmed civilians in the head.

OK some background to Chris Kaba. Previous offence....

"Kaba had been charged in 2018 with possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence,[3] in relation to an incident on 30 December 2017.[4] He was found guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court in January 2019, and sentenced to four years in a Young Offenders Institute.[4] He was released in 2021.[4]"

So had history and did time.

He was stationary because his car got stuck! He didn't 'stop' - he was stopped by getting caught between two cars and was revving, trying to reverse. It's not the same thing and he had a chance to stop properly. Why did he drive away?

It's clear from the footage that he was warned to stop and get out of the car and then he rammed vehicles in an attempt to drive off.

It's highly likely that had he succeeded he would have harmed the officers or passerby's. I would not want to be near that car being driven like that and it must have been scary and the officers would genuinely have feared for their lives.

It's absolutely the right decision but any loss of life is regrettable. The questions his family must be asking is "why didn't get stop and why did he ram other cars". They won't get answers so I can understand their need to blame but their anger is misdirected.

This officer had never shot anyone before. Its not a usual occurrence.

The C4 news report I saw was also a disgrace, showing statistics (correct) that a disproportionate number of black men are killed in police shooting. 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.

Unfortunately this is a fact, and harder for the black community for obvious reasons. And it’s. For many reasons , obvious and complex, and factors which are not the fault or responsibility of black people. Short version: I’m not saying back k people are intrinsically more criminal anyone else.

But for C4 to trot out stats in a context that made it look as if this death was racist is irresponsible, IMO.

And takes focus away from the ways in which the Met do disgrace themselves with racism and misogyny in other ways.

Makes you wonder if anybodys name should be released at charge stage.

Perhaps it should only be released if they are found guilty of a crime?

Something else.

"In the months following his death, six men were charged with conspiring with Kaba to commit murder and grievous bodily harm; the charges relate to a shooting which took place in Tower Hamlets on 30 August 2022, days before Kaba's death.[5][6]"

Kaba couldn't be charged with them because he was dead. A shooting days before he died himself.

Perhaps why he tried to escape, who knows. There's things here that most people don't get charged for or caught up in

I'm thrilled with the verdict tbh. It should never have gone to trial. I get that the family are sad that their son is dead but they should be thoroughly ashamed of who he was and what he did in life. The fact that they aren't speaks volumes. Trying to make out that he was some kind of innocent victim of police brutality is utterly laughable and reprehensible. They know the truth. I really hope the brave officer has felt how much public support there has been for him and his colleagues.

Various other men he associated with were charged with a shooting that happened days before he was shot. He couldn't be charged since he was deceased when they charged the associates.