The commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, has said many of his firearms officers would rather face off with terrorists than gangsters because they believe they are more likely to get a “fair hearing” if they end up using their weapons.
“Whereas with a gangster, they feel that campaign groups can influence accountability in a way that leads to something that’s unbalanced and lasts forever,” he added.
At the time of the shooting, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said the Audi, which was not registered to Mr. Kaba, had activated an automatic number plate recognition camera, which indicated it had been linked to a firearms offence a few days before.
Mr. Kaba, who was also known as Itch or Mad Itch, was a rapper with a drill group called 67, which has been involved in a long-running feud in south London.
Anonymity Order on NX121 Lifted
But last month the recorder of London, Judge Mark Lucraft, KC, decided he would lift the anonymity order at the end of Jan. 2024.The Chris Kaba case, and the treatment of W80, the officer who shot dead Jermaine Baker during an operation to thwart the attempted springing of a gangster on his way to court, have both been greeted with horror by firearms officers, many of whom have chosen to quit the role.
Mr. Chesterman said, “The only way that we can mandate officers carrying firearms is by recruiting officers to be firearms officers, and my worry is that, after hundreds of years of tradition in this country of having an unarmed police service, we could be sleepwalking into having to mandate officers to carry firearms.”
W80’s Career in ‘Suspended Animation’ for 8 Years
“Even regardless of the rights and wrongs of the IOPC decision, to have someone’s career in suspended animation with that stress for eight years is not acceptable,” added Sir Mark.Last week Sir Mark reacted angrily at the end of the trial of PC Paul Fisher and criticised the decision to prosecute the officer, who had been speeding to the scene of a terrorist attack in Streatham in Feb. 2020.
Amman—who had been released from prison after serving a sentence for terror offences—was shot dead by other police officers.
PC Fisher was cleared of dangerous driving at Southwark Crown Court on Friday and outside court, Sir Mark said the decision to prosecute him, “undermines the confidence of all officers using their powers to keep the public safe.”
He said: “Thank god for the common sense of British juries. Paul Fisher is a firearms officer who was under the most unimaginable pressure. He clearly made some mistakes on that drive, the right answer would have been some warnings within the organisation, some re-training, some re-testing to getting back to protecting the public.”