The second Independent Police Complaints Commission report on the events of last June in Forest Gate when one innocent man was shot, another arrested, and a family traumatised, is a poor piece of work which evades the main issue of police use of false intelligence.
Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23 – the man shot in the shoulder – and his brother Abul Koyair, 20, were released without charge a week after the police operation which had involved 250 officers looking for a “dirty bomb”.
How on earth can the IPCC say that it accepts the police had no choice but to act based on the available intelligence, which suggested an “extreme lethal threat”? What kind of intelligence were they working on? And who gave it to them?
In fact there was no bomb factory, no chemical device, no evidence of terrorism-related activity, as the media frenzy, which has so tarnished this family, related.
Why didn’t the IPCC investigate the sources of that false intelligence? Is that source still supplying the police? Surely that source should be in court charged with supplying false intelligence, wasting police time, bringing the police into disrepute and causing harm to individuals and property?
The IPCC commissioner Deborah Glass upheld no complaints about excessive force, saying that the level of force had to be judged in the light of intelligence. This only emphasises the importance of understanding what that intelligence was, and who was responsible for it. The chance of a proper investigation has been missed by the IPCC, but the pressure for one will continue.
The IPCC upheld only a small number of complaints involving treatment in custody. Just one officer has received a written warning, and that for an allegation of neglect. This is scandalous.
Of course it is good that the IPCC says the Metropolitan police should apologise to the family, and recognises that they suffered a terrifying experience. But the damage from the events at Forest Gate goes wider and deeper, not only to the family, but to the Muslim community. Underlying it is the issue of poor intelligence from within the Muslim community by the security services, who too often use informers who have their own agendas to seek police protection.
The second Independent Police Complaints Commission report on the events of last June in Forest Gate when one innocent man was shot, another arrested, and a family traumatised, is a poor piece of work which evades the main issue of police use of false intelligence.
Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23 – the man shot in the shoulder – and his brother Abul Koyair, 20, were released without charge a week after the police operation which had involved 250 officers looking for a “dirty bomb”.
How on earth can the IPCC say that it accepts the police had no choice but to act based on the available intelligence, which suggested an “extreme lethal threat”? What kind of intelligence were they working on? And who gave it to them?
In fact there was no bomb factory, no chemical device, no evidence of terrorism-related activity, as the media frenzy, which has so tarnished this family, related.
Why didn’t the IPCC investigate the sources of that false intelligence? Is that source still supplying the police? Surely that source should be in court charged with supplying false intelligence, wasting police time, bringing the police into disrepute and causing harm to individuals and property?
The IPCC commissioner Deborah Glass upheld no complaints about excessive force, saying that the level of force had to be judged in the light of intelligence. This only emphasises the importance of understanding what that intelligence was, and who was responsible for it. The chance of a proper investigation has been missed by the IPCC, but the pressure for one will continue.
The IPCC upheld only a small number of complaints involving treatment in custody. Just one officer has received a written warning, and that for an allegation of neglect. This is scandalous.
Of course it is good that the IPCC says the Metropolitan police should apologise to the family, and recognises that they suffered a terrifying experience. But the damage from the events at Forest Gate goes wider and deeper, not only to the family, but to the Muslim community. Underlying it is the issue of poor intelligence from within the Muslim community by the security services, who too often use informers who have their own agendas to seek police protection.