Mark Duggan Killing: Police Start Kettling Talkative Guardian As Adviser Quits Watchdog ‘Worse’ Than Evidence Planters
THE investigation into the police shooting of Mark Duggan in a Tottenham street on August 4 is spiralling down completely out of control.
It is now clear London’s Metropolitan Police were involved in the Saturday protest over the Guardian story of the now seeming totally botched investigation into the shooting and death of Mark Duggan.
The Met is complaining over a story concerning an investigation over which they should have absolutely no control or ever venture an opinion…it should never be part of their role while an incident involving their officers is under investigation.
One of the Independent Police Complaints Commission’s own advisers has quit saying an ‘outstanding’ piece of investigation may show evidence to have been tampered with or even planted, some not properly examined and the facts not revealed to the IPCC boss Commissioner Sarah Green until three months after the events.
There is also an allegation the IPCC is worse than the police force it is now investigating.
The quitting adviser says it is time for a new body “truly willing and able to investigate the police.”
Two of the group of three set up by the IPCC in a bid to ease community fears on what many Black Londoners see as a White police on Black slaying of 29-year-old Mark Duggan have resigned. The shooting led to Britain’s worst riots for decades.
Once again the Guardian leads the pack with the news and a damning comment piece from the adviser. All three advisers were gagged up to the quit decision, forced to silence by a confidentiality agreement demanded by the IPCC.
The Guardian says one member of the group claims the police watchdog is, in some ways, worse than the force it is investigating. He also raised concerns about the handling of key evidence at the scene of Duggan’s death, IPCC allowed police to move it. (Read: Chaotic Police Complaint Commission.)
The two who have quit are community activists Stafford Scott and John Noblemunn. The third member, Pastor Nims Obunge, has not resigned. Scott and Noblemunn both say they have completely lost confidence in the Police Watchdog after they complained of gross errors in the investigation. As members of the Black community their membership of the watchdog’s advisory group was probably much less than universally supported in Tottenham where the shooting took place.
In a piece for the Guardian’s comment pages, Scott says IPCC errors led him to lose faith in its investigation.
The “Black Gun Crime” squad Operation Trident were following Duggan when he travelled in a taxi and obtained a weapon. He was stopped at gunpoint, and later shot twice. The IPCC is investigating the circumstances.
In his Guardian comment article I want no part in it Scott says the taxi Duggan had been travelling in was taken away from the scene by police just after the shooting, despite it containing “evidence of major significance“.
He says Rachel Cerfontyne, above left, an IPCC commissioner in charge of the Duggan investigation, was unaware of this.
“Weeks after these revelations we were told by a very embarrassed IPCC commissioner that she had now been informed by her investigators that they had in fact sanctioned the removal of the vehicle. This was before they had even got to the crime scene.
“It took three months for this to be revealed to the [community reference group] and to the commissioner.”
He adds: “I believe that in removing the minicab from the scene, the police have clearly compromised the evidence. Given that the IPCC sanctioned the vehicle’s removal, the entire investigation is now in doubt.”
Engaging with the Met…means being regarded as a snitch or a grass …Stafford Scott
Scott says in his article:
“There is one final piece of outstanding investigative work that we need to put into the public arena. We were told that at least three officers had given a statement that they had witnessed another officer, a sergeant, throwing away the gun that was later found several feet from Duggan’s body. When we sought to identify the officers involved, we were told there was no evidence to support the allegation – that this statement was in fact never given. Yet we were informed by the commissioner that it had been.
Last week a CRG meeting took place in the IPCC offices in central London. The commissioner wanted us there so she could explain away the concerns we had been raising. I and another CRG member, John Noblemunn, did not attend because we knew what would happen. The commission would seek to explain the inexplicable, or try to set up yet another investigation where they investigate themselves, which will then seek to explain the inexplicable.
“In all of my years of engagement with the Met, I have yet to witness such a shoddy investigation. It is time we recognise that we need a body truly willing and able to investigate the police. This is the only way to ensure that they learn from their mistakes; and that, when mistakes occur, communities do not believe the one route to justice lies in taking matters into their own hands.”
Shattered Faith
Right from the beginning of the investigation faith in the IPCC had been shattered when it slavishly followed the police line and announced Duggan had opened fire on police before he was shot and killed. Ballistic tests proved this was not true. The Metropolitan police had mislead or lied to the IPCC and it stupidly rushed to comment before the facts were known.
The Guardian today says:
Scott said: “I have been alarmed to learn that not only have the IPCC broken their own guidelines by giving out erroneous information to journalists regarding the ‘shoot-out’ involving Mark Duggan and police that didn’t actually happen. But I have discovered that their investigation … is flawed and in all probability tainted to a degree that means we will never be able to have faith in their final report into the killing.” Scott, who has also advised the Met, says the police watchdog suffers worse flaws than the force it is investigating. “In all of my years of engaging with the Met, I have yet to witness such a shoddy investigation,” he said.
On August 7, three days after Mark Duggan’s death, Ms Cerfontyne said:
“My role is to oversee the investigation – which must also support the family, and address the concerns expressed by the community. To help me, I have established a community reference group to ensure I am sensitive and responsive to them.”
Last Friday, news leaked police may have missed a chance to seize the gun Duggan was later said to have picked up. The news leak scared Police so much London was put on high alert over the weekend. The gun which led to Duggan’s killing may have been used in an assault reported to the police.
Police Complain To Press Commission
Anorak said it suspected The Metropolitan Police was pressuring the IPCC and can only leave you judge from this, also in today’s Guardian:
“The Metropolitan police said on Saturday that it would report the Guardian to the Press Complaints Commission. It said a headline for a Guardian article raising new questions over the shooting was misleading and inaccurate.
In a statement, the Met said it had reported to the PCC “… its concerns about a headline in the Guardian newspaper which stated: ‘Man whose shooting triggered riots was not armed’.
The headline was inaccurate and misleading based on what is known at this time and despite making this point in the strongest terms to the newspaper, it was not amended.
The article, but particularly its headline, stated as fact issues that are subject to an ongoing investigation by the IPCC, who have themselves issued a statement expressing similar concerns. We would reiterate that it is premature for anyone to draw conclusions prior to completion of the IPCC’s investigation.”
The IPCC said on Saturday that it was also considering a complaint to the press watchdog and that its investigation still has to establish the sequence of events concerning a handgun found at the scene.
The IPCC said: “This is a complex investigation that involves gathering information including witness statements, pathology, forensics and ballistics analysis and we have stated to the coroner that it will be completed within four to six months,” the statement said.
One of the key elements we will seek to establish is the sequence of events concerning the non-police-issue firearm found at the scene.
That has not been established yet, contrary to what has been written in the Guardian article today.
We would urge people not to rush to judgment until our investigation is complete and they have the opportunity to see and hear the full evidence themselves.”
The story said the investigation has found no forensic evidence that Duggan was carrying a gun when he was shot, and that a gun collected by him earlier in the day was found 10 to 14 feet away from his body, on the other side of a low fence.
The headline was amended online on Saturday pending further investigation of the complaint.
The Sunday Times yesterday said it had been told by three sources that the gun was inside a shoebox in the minicab in which Duggan was traveling.
The paper reported that police sources claimed that when Duggan was challenged by officers, Duggan made to pull the gun on them.
There is just one question Anorak would ask.
When did it become part of the IPCC brief to coddle along community representatives into investigations of what is by any term of reference a brutal slaying?
The IPCC’s job is to investigate the facts and present them to the correct authorities not adjust them to sooth police or white or black community sensitivities.
Police Always Knock Twice – ‘Executed’ Mark Duggan Was NOT Armed When Lying Police Opened Fire
Mark Duggan’s Chilling Funeral: Lying Daily Mail And Daily Express Defame Mourners As Gangstas
Reasons Why The London Riots Happened: From Mark Duggan To Blackberry An Arab Spring And Polar Bears
The Hornsey High Street Riot That Should Have Warned The Police What Would Come Next
More Stupidity On The Riots From Russell Brand And Those Dominant Turks Poles And Bengali Muslims
Was Richard Bowes Killed For Being White?
Mark Duggan Never Fired A Gun – But The Police Always Shoot To Kill
Media Use Photos And Mark Lambie To Bury Mark Duggan In Tales Of Torture And Lies
Mark Duggan Death And Tottenham Riot: Bullet Lodged In Police Radio Was Police Issue?
Posted: 21st, November 2011 | In: Key Posts, Reviews Comments (16) | TrackBack | Permalink
