Should Sir Ian Blair Resign?

[fish]

Yes.Yes.Yes.

[cdonline]

It's terrible what happened, but in the context of the events in London at the time, I don't think so.

[citizenED]

Er, yes - he should have as soon as it was clear he had lost control of that control room. One of his officers was trying to save de Menezes by laying on top of him and restraining him and Blairs goons still killed him. If that is the case then any one of us could be killed by an armed policeman when the control room gets he jitters. Of course it would not be any one of us. It would not be my 78-year old mum. It would not be me. It might be any darker skinned bloke. That is the issue. A suicide bomber, intent on indiscriminant killing could get any of us. That is a risk we all live with. The police cannot run a shoot to kill policy. I am noy happy to live in a state that sanctions the murder of in innocent man.

[Ondine]

poor brian paddick on questiontime trying to be very lib dem and defend Blair at the same time. It's not easy!

[*Bob*]

He should resign with regards to the handling of the aftermath of the shooting, taking the case to court and for the presentation of the Met's case within court. All those things were within his direct control and he has failed miserably.

As for the shooting itself.. well.. The police run over and kill people when responding to emergency calls, people die whilst under restraint in custody, there are many accidental shootings. They may not be such high profile deaths under such intense scrutiny, but they are deaths nonetheless. But you never get an audience on QT demanding the Met's head on a platter as a result. If the top brass had to resign in every such instance they'd need a revolving door on the Commissioner's office.

[ChavWivaLawDegree]

Or they'd need to get their shit together.

[Keef]

I agree with *bob*, the worst thing for me has been Blair's arrogant "bullish" behaviour ever since. And frankly, even if De Mendez had been a crack dealing armed robber with a history of violence towards women and children, it still makes absolutely no difference to this case!

And that photo that was supposed to show how similar he looked to the terror suspect... Did the fact their skin was completely different in colour completely escape their attention?

[Brendan]

Of course it did Keef. The police don?t see colour.

[Keef]

;-)

[dave]

Echoing the thoughts above, for the operational failure, no. But at the same time, I am surprised and dismayed by the fact that the commander on the day was singled out as not being culpable - this suggests that you can be in command without being responsible, which seems like a dangerous precedent to set. This is compounded by the fact that she was subsequently promoted - while I am aware of the fact that people are promoted out of harm's way all the time, in this case it seems incredibly perverse.

For the way the charge was defended and the trial conducted, overwhelmingly he has shown appalling judgement and has attempted to evade responsibility and he ought to go having been proven wrong. This was something which the Chief Constable was running and for which he ought to be responsible. For that reason and for the good of the whole police service (incidentally, when did they stop being police "forces"?) he ought to resign.

Anyone got a "Blair Out" t-shirt left over from the anti-war marches?

[fish]

Sir Ian Blair has resigned and will stand down on 1st December.

[Michael Palaeologus]

..and no doubt will pick up his pension, some lucrative Directorships in the security sector and a few choice speaking engagements on the chicken-in-a-basket circuit and may well get a sneaky peerage once our backs are turned.

[david_carnell]

Damn, that was my plan.