Blair has outlived his usefulness. His incompetence and arrogance can no longer be tolerated and his refusal to take responsibility for policies that led to innocent death is breathtaking. He is staying simply because of the crass support from Labour politicians and senior members of his organization who fail to recognize the corrosive effect he is having on their reputation.

No, not the grinning irrelevance who is still trying to gain a "legacy" in the Middle East but Britain's other Blair - the Commissioner to the Metropolitan Police.

The central event that is leading this call is the death of the innocent Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes. He was shot in mistake for one of those who failed to detonate bombs on the London Underground the previous day and who lived in the same apartment block. Although the central event, it is the events leading up to the killing and since that should cause Blair to go.

A jury in London delivered a verdict of guilty today in the case of the Wrong Man. Jurors imposed a staggering fine upon the Metropolitan Police. It was a bloody crime, if you ask me.

All the police did was get the Wrong Man.

The Wrong Man was an obscure young electrician who for a time lived in London. He may not have been as dark-skinned as the police let on, but he was definitely acting all nervous and twitchy.

Mr Thwaites said a conviction would have the effect of "putting handcuffs on the police". He said the prosecution should never have been brought and that Mr de Menezes was acting like a suicide bomber when he was shot.

"In a surprise verdict, London’s police force was found guilty of putting the public at risk during a flawed antiterrorism operation that ended in the killing of a Brazilian electrician in 2005....but the London jury cleared individual officers"

http://www.nytimes.com/...

In Britain, they are still pondering why they shot the "wrong man" last July. You'll recall that a man on his way to work on July 22, 2005, Jean Charles de Menezes, was pushed to the floor on a London Underground train and executed by Met policemen under their then-secret "shoot to kill" policy. The police had taken it into their heads that Menezes might be a terrorist, so they decided to blow his head off as a precaution.

After a brief attempt at a cover-up, the London police admitted that Menezes was just a man on his way to work. The Independent Police Complaints Commission began a review that, unsurprisingly, soon found that the operation had been a fiasco, and that the Police Commissioner, Ian Blair, bore responsibility both for the cock-up and for the cover-up. Blair, however, held onto his job tenaciously. He took the unexpected position that he was proud of any mistakes the police made.

In his lecture on "leadership", delivered last Wednesday, Blair indicated that mistakes had been made and that ... allowing subordinates to "make mistakes" was a key strength of a good manager.

This diary is intended as an aid to further reporting on the shooting of Rigoberto Alpizar by federal Air Marshals on 12/7/05. The shooting took place at Gate D42 at Miami International Airport on or about the jetway as Mr. Alpizar was exiting American Airlines Flight 492, bound for Orlando (see seating 757-200).

Public passenger statements:

1) John McAlhany - Seat 24C (21C?)

"I never heard the word 'bomb' on the plane,"

"[Alpizar] was in the back," McAlhany says, "a few seats from the back bathroom. He sat down." Then, McAlhany says, "I heard an argument with his wife. He was saying 'I have to get off the plane.' She said, 'Calm down.'"

Alpizar took off running down the aisle, with his wife close behind him. "She was running behind him saying, 'He's sick. He's sick. He's ill. He's got a disorder," McAlhany recalls. "I don't know if she said bipolar disorder [as one witness has alleged]. She was trying to explain to the marshals that he was ill. He just wanted to get off the plane." - Time Magazine

If you ask me, they shot the right man in Miami. If you look into the matter, it becomes abundantly clear. The right man was a family man and was liked by his neighbors, or so it is alleged. He may have said the wrong thing.  The expert on the radio said his shooting was by the book. You see, it was natural under the circumstances that the right man would be shot.

The right man was a naturalized citizen, until Wednesday, when he was shot by the book. The right man was a paint salesman, reportedly. The book called for the right man to be shot dead, before he had a chance to set off the bomb. In this specific instance, of course, he did not have the bomb. We can just be thankful he did not set it off.

The radio expert used to train air marshals, so he knows what the book says about shooting passengers. They are trained extensively, the marshals not the passengers, who don't know the book on shooting. The marshals are trained six to eight weeks, or used to be. Now it is just four weeks, because the training is so superior. Which is how you know they shot the right man.

is something all reasonable people admire and applaud. The London Metropolitan police commissioner is proud, rightly proud. He dotes upon his officers, contents himself in their bungling, and cheers their least mishap as a mark of highest distinction both for them and for him. Sir Ian Blair, honest and forthright to a fault, has held forth eloquently on the subject of misinformation even as evidence mounted that his troops had gunned down the wrong man. I say he is an inspiration to managers everywhere, a throwback to an earlier day when men stood for something and stood for it proudly.

In his lecture on "leadership", delivered last Wednesday, Blair indicated that mistakes had been made and that his officers had failed to stop certain information circulating in the media....Blair also said that allowing subordinates to "make mistakes" was a key strength of a good manager.

First we find out that the London Metropolitan Police lied to the public about the execution of Jean Charles de Menezes; now we discover that the commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, also tried to stop an independent inquiry into the shooting. Instead, he wanted an in-house whitewash in order to avoid damaging the morale of the armed police unit responsible for the killing - people's self-esteem clearly being more important than the fact that an innocent man had just been killed under extremely questionable circumstances.

So says the headline of the Sunday Times today. There was an ideal man to shoot in the head five times from point blank range, there can be no doubt of that, though who he is remains unknown to authorities. The subject will warrant further speculation. But by chance the British police did shoot the wrong man on Friday. The wrong man was Jean Charles de Menezes, who until Friday was alive. He is reported to have been a 27 year old electrician, and the wrong man to be shot that morning.

The London police chased Menezes into the Stockwell tube station and onto a train, where an eyewitness said

"He looked like a cornered rabbit. He looked absolutely petrified."...Menezes tripped or was pushed to the floor. "One of the police officers was holding a black automatic pistol in his left hand. They held it down to him and unloaded five shots into him."

But by some twist of fate that puzzles the London police, Menezes was the wrong man to hold down and unload five shots into the back of his head. Therefore they have promptly, after two days, set the record straight.