Letter: Time to stop police injustice
Correspondent • Published 6 Aug 2010 10:15
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NOW in his recent column, Maurice O'Brien ('Some are more entitled to justice than others', Reading Chronicle, July 29) has got it right.
The 16-month investigation into an unprovoked assault on an innocent man ended with no police officer being charged with an offence.
The technical justifications - time running out, conflicting post-mortems, procedural difficulties - used to justify avoiding action being taken against the officer involved are feeble evasions of responsibility by senior officers.
Not a single British policeman in the past 50 years has been found responsible for the death of a member of the public. People may die in custody, or after being restrained, chased, assaulted or - as with Jean Charles de Menezes - shot.
By some strange magic, no police officer has been found guilty of manslaughter or misconduct in public office in connection with a death.
Violent policeman need to know that effective sanctions will be taken against them.
They must know that they will be disciplined, sacked or jailed for aggression that cannot be justified. Simon Harwood, the officer who hit Ian Tomlinson, avoided disciplinary proceedings for violence by taking medical retirement, yet had no problems rejoining the police.
Every death in custody or at a protest must be automatically treated as a homicide, not as another injustice.
Ken Mann
Albany Road, Reading
This letter appeared in Reading Chronicle 06 Aug 10
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