AAW CONDEMNS ILLEGAL 'SHOOT TO KILL POLICY AND DEMANDS IAN BLAIR'S SUSPENSION.

In a letter to Len Duvall, Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority, Chris Coverdale of Action Against War today asked the MPA to:

* Direct the Metropolitan Police to withdraw the illegal ‘shoot to kill’ policy and to revert to legal procedures of arrest and detention for terrorist suspects.

* Suspend Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair and other officers involved in the planning and employment of the criminal ‘shoot to kill’ policy from duty.
* Set up an independent criminal investigation of the offences involved in the ‘shoot to kill’ policy and to lay charges of ‘conspiracy to murder’ against Government Ministers and Metropolitan Police commanders involved in its introduction.
* Warn police officers and the general public of the criminal nature of the ‘shoot to kill’ policy and their criminal liability as an accessory should they support the policy.

Chris Coverdale claims that “Shooting an innocent visitor to London eight times in the back of the head, when he was already pinned to the ground, is the type of execution tactic used by the Mafia, and Chicago gangsters. Assassinations such as this are used by political tyrannies to impose control over a population and terrify those who dare to oppose, disobey or disagree. That a British Government or police force should employ such tactics and so brazenly break the law and abuse the fundamental human right to life, is a national disgrace, and should be of immense concern to law-abiding Londoners and anyone concerned to uphold the rule of law.”

“When the Birmingham police used a stun gun to arrest a man suspected of the London bombings, they demonstrated that it is perfectly possible to arrest a suspected terrorist in a legal manner. If a dangerous arrest can be made legally in Birmingham, why can’t a similar approach be used in London? Why is the MPA supporting a Commissioner of Police who openly promotes the use of illegal, criminal policing methods? Why are the MPA allowing plain-clothed armed police officers to roam freely around London using assassination techniques favoured by military dictators such as Augusto Pinochet? Why won’t the police arrest their own commanders when they so conspicuously break the law? The public need answers to these questions and they need London's police to uphold the rule of law.”