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Lisa Armstrong & Bryony Gordon

Page 27

Despite apologies, none of the senior police officers was held accountable

Stockwell Underground station is a windowless breeze block of a building that sits on an ugly road leading to the wilds of south London. It is not a destination; it is a place you pass through. Nothing to see here – unless you look up from your smartphone and chance upon the beautiful mosaic just to the left of the news kiosk at the entrance to the station.

Doves and sunflowers frame a photograph of the man who died here 10 years ago, shot seven times in the head as he attempted to get to work on the Northern line. Remember him? Jean Charles de Menezes. An electrician. Brazilian, though he was mistaken for a man of Ethiopian origin called Hussain Osman, who the day before had tried to detonate a bomb at Shepherd’s Bush Tube station. Wednesday marked the 10th anniversary of Mr de Menezes’s death, a fact you probably wouldn’t have realised had you not passed through Stockwell and seen the local news cameras and members of his family who came to hold a vigil. This anniversary was barely reported or remarked on, save for a few dozen tweets. It is almost as if the 27-year-old has become a mere footnote in the history of that terrible month.

I think about Jean Charles de Menezes a lot, though I am ashamed to say only because I pass that mosaic on my way to work. The mundanity of the commute seems at terrible odds with the extraordinary events of that morning, as laid bare at an inquest in 2008.

After the jury recorded an open verdict – the harshest available to them once the coroner had removed the option of unlawful killing – it was widely reported that Jean Charles de Menezes’s only “mistake” was to have got off the number two bus at Brixton, only to get back on when he discovered the station was closed (officers saw this as a “typical anti-surveillance technique”). But “mistake” implies that he should have somehow known he might become the target of a massive police operation, while the real target ran free; “mistake” suggests he somehow had some say in his fate. He did not.

His other “mistake” was to have lived in the same block of flats as Osman. Mr de Menezes then made the “mistake” of leaving the building as the officer in charge of filming everyone who came and went answered a call of nature, meaning de Menezes could not be matched to the faded passport photo of the terrorist. What other “mistakes” did de Menezes make? To have lived in a city where the police force did not see fit to provide colleagues with a clear photo of the man they were after. Mr de Menezes did not make the “mistake” of jumping the ticket barrier, as was briefed to the press at the time; he used his pass, before walking down the escalator and making the “mistake” of running for a train.

Though the firearms officers who killed de Menezes claimed they gave warning that they were armed, the jury rejected this when it transpired not one of the witnesses in the carriage had heard the call of “armed police”. One passenger only realised what had happened when she saw blood on her hands. The de Menezes family, who were later spied on by undercover police, have taken their case to the European Court of Human Rights.

None of what I am writing is new, but it is important we never forget what happened that morning, just as we will never forget what happened to the 52 souls who lost their lives two weeks before. I do not think the firearms officers should be prosecuted or even vilified – they were simply acting on confused orders under extreme pressure. But the senior officers in charge? Well, that is another matter.

But despite apologies, nobody was held accountable. Cressida Dick, the Gold Commander that morning, was promoted several times. She left the Met this year and now holds a “director general” role at the Foreign Office; she was given a CBE for services to policing in the new year honours list. Sir Ian Blair, the commissioner, said shortly after the shooting that “the agonising fact is that sometimes terrible things will happen, yet no one is personally to blame. It’s like the fog of war.” Would such a defence stand up in court if presented by a civilian? Sir Ian stood down three years later, after apparently losing the confidence of Boris Johnson. How he didn’t lose the confidence of the mayor at the time, Ken Livingstone, is almost beyond comprehension.

David Cameron said this week that the best way to tackle terrorism was to reinforce our own values. Perhaps we could start by not turning a blind eye to our own faults and failings.