Dear Sir Ian,
I've always believed that yours is the most difficult job and this has never been more true.
I am not much of a politician, but I do recognise that people have ulterior motives when they demand your resignation, or they simply don't understand the pressures under which you must work. Some have no concept of how difficult your job is and that we don't live in a perfect world in which everyone is 100% safe and no-one is inconvenienced in any way at any time.
This much I know for sure. Whatever mistakes were made on the day that Jean Charles de Menezes was killed, none of your officers set out with the intention of killing an innocent man. Their overriding intention was to prevent another terrorist atrocity and, in that context, any other outcome was preferable. They showed enormous courage in the face of grave potential danger, when self-preservation would dictate running in the opposite direction.
Had they indeed prevented a suicide bombing that day, no-one would be complaining about how they dealt with it.
In the UK we do not have significant experience of dealing with suicide bombers, and therefore this is a learning process for everyone. We are in a strange, treacherous new world, with limited resources and no margin for error.
If anyone is to be blamed for the death of Jean Charles, it is the July 7 bombers, who have made all of us in our relatively easy-going society afraid, tense and suspicious.
Whether this was deliberate on their part, I do not know (I hesitate to attribute this success to them, because they were not very bright), but it is a consequence which we must all come to terms with.
Therefore, I urge you to not even contemplate resigning, but to push on with the most difficult (and sadly, thankless) job of keeping us all safe.
Best regards,
Imran Ahmad
Sorry Imran, I can't agree with your letter to Ian Blair.
The Stockwell operation was literally a bloody shambles - the blood of an innocent man.
The IPCC report has catalogued 19 failures in the operation. In the light of this, I must disagreee with Ian Blair - the errors were systemic. He is the head of the service and the buck must stop with him.
There are two points I find particularly disturbing. Firstly, the armed officers reckon that they shouted a warning. All the officers heard this, BUT NO ONE ELSE DID. Strange, that! The officers were not operating under KRATOS rules, which would have meant that they didn't have to give a warning.
Secondly, Sir Ian Blair tried to prevent, or at least delay, the IPCC investigation. In this he was preventing the IPCC from carrying out its legal duties.
No one set out that day to kill an innocent man, but it happened - due to 19 failures in the system. The head of that system must, if he has any honour, stand down.
Posted by: Mark | November 11, 2007 at 05:06 PM
Mark,
You make excellent points: the operation was a shambles, communication was a mess, an innocent man was killed.
But I think this would have happened regardless of who was sitting in the top office. This is new territory for our society, and everyone was very hyped up, the day after the second round of (attempted) suicide bombings.
Sir Ian Blair's resignation would just be a victory for the terrorists - and they are the ones to blame.
We don't want the next police officer in this kind of situation to be thinking: 'If I'm wrong about this, it could cost me my career.' It's an unnecessary additional burden which could cloud their decision-making when they have to be very sharp.
In other words, they need our support and to be confident in the knowledge that we won't crucify them if they make an incorrect call.
Posted by: Imran Ahmad | November 12, 2007 at 10:08 PM
This is rubbish. Your opinion is completley wrong. You shoudl just keep quiet.
Posted by: Mandy | November 14, 2007 at 09:15 AM
Imran,
Ian Blair is the head of the Metropolitan Police. Being Commissioner carries with it some excellent rewards (salary etc.) and a lot of kudos.
It also carries with it the responsibility to make sure that the systems are running as they ought to be.
In this particular, Ian Blair has failed. It is up to him to make sure he has the correct people in place to carry out operations in an efficient and lawful way. This did not happen, and Blair did not dismiss any officers over it. Indeed, he promoted the officer in charge of the operation.
Yet you and I agree it was a shambles. The buck must stop at Ian Blair's desk.
Without his resignation, I can no longer believe Ian Blair to be an honourable man.
Posted by: Mark | November 14, 2007 at 08:45 PM
Everyone go read A Question of Trust by Onora O'Neill and then come back and see if you still feel the same.This situation is part of a very big picture indeed imho.
Posted by: dovegreyreader | November 18, 2007 at 06:52 PM
An IBM sales executive screwed up a deal, and cost the company ten million dollars.
He said to his boss: "I guess you're going to fire me now."
His boss replied: "Fire you?! Are you kidding? We've just invested ten million dollars training you."
Posted by: Imran Ahmad | November 18, 2007 at 09:24 PM