A policeman’s lot is not a happy one, according to Gilbert and Sullivan. Especially if the officer in question is a member of the specialist firearms squad.
The fine line between hero and villain is Rizla thin. You only have a split second to decide whether or not to shoot.
Get it right and you’re up for a gallantry medal. Get it wrong and you’re up the steps at the Old Bailey on a murder charge, which is where an anonymous copper identified only as NX121 currently finds himself.
He is being prosecuted over an incident in South London last year in which a 24-year-old black man called Chris Kaba was shot dead.
More than 100 of his fellow firearms officers have handed back their weapons permits in protest. In a show of solidarity, armed officers from other forces are refusing to provide emergency cover.
The Army and the SAS will continue to offer support, but only for counter terrorism operations. Meanwhile, Scotland Yard chiefs and the Police Federation are in crisis talks aimed at persuading firearms officers to return to normal duties.
A policeman’s lot is not a happy one. Get it right and you’re up for a gallantry medal. Get it wrong and you’re up the steps at the Old Bailey on a murder charge (file image)
Father-to-be Chris Kaba, 24, was killed in September last year in Streatham Hill, South London
This impasse has been brewing for some time. Rank-and-file coppers increasingly feel they risk being hung out to dry on the rare occasions they may be called upon to discharge their weapons. They don’t expect to be above the law, but this latest case has concentrated minds.
There are justifiable concerns about the inordinate amount of time taken by the independent police watchdog and the Crown Prosecution Service to investigate fatal shootings and decide whether or not the officer involved should be charged.
In one of the most notorious cases, it took ten years before police marksman Tony Long appeared at the Old Bailey, accused of murdering gangster Azelle Rodney in 2005. By the time he was found not guilty, he had retired from the force.
Another officer was left twisting in the wind for three years before the CPS decided to offer no evidence against him.
Both Home Secretary Sue Ellen Braverman and Met chief Mark Rowley have called for an urgent review of the complaints investigation process. But while Rowley has made all the right noises, Long told LBC’s Nick Ferrari that the Commissioner’s words have not been matched by his actions.
In the wake of protests including Black Lives Matter activists, Rowley has twice met the family and supporters of Chris Kaba, offering reassurance. But he has apparently not spoken to the officer accused of murdering him.
Politically and legally, that may have been the wisest course of action. Nobody wants a re-run of the Brixton or Tottenham riots. But equally it has raised suspicions that Rowley is bending the knee to the BLM mob, while throwing the copper involved to the wolves.
Long insists that his fellow officers accept they will come under close scrutiny when they discharge their weapons, particularly if it results in a fatality. They do, however, expect to be investigated fairly and quickly.
Carrying a gun is voluntary and, as Rowley stresses in his letter to Sue Ellen, his officers should be given adequate legal protection against prosecution when they have to shoot someone in the line of duty.
It would be well wide of the mark to accuse the police of being trigger happy. Of the nearly 4,000 armed incidents the Met attends each year, shots are typically fired on two or fewer occasions.
As for this latest case, we can’t be sure what happened. We weren’t there. What we do know is that Chris Kaba was unarmed and was shot once in the head. He was driving a car which didn’t belong to him and which was linked to a firearms incident the previous day.
A group of four armed police officers are pictured on duty in Central London this morning
Kaba, a rapper who also went by the name Mad Itch, was someone described as ‘known to police’. In 2019, he was sentenced to four years in a young offenders institution for possession of an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.
In the days before he was killed, Kaba was suspected of involvement in a nightclub gun attack and was allegedly one of five men suspected of conspiring to murder a rival at a Notting Hill Carnival after party.
If the case proceeds, the facts and the outcome will be determined by an Old Bailey judge and jury.
Over the years, as some of you may have noticed, this column has often been critical of the police. But I’ve always had the highest regard for the firearms squad, who put their own lives on the line to keep us safe.
The difficulties they encounter in the face of danger was brought home to me when I was invited to take part in a Met weapons training course.
You’ve probably seen this sort of thing on TV. You’re given a gun and confronted with a range of scenarios. In a heartbeat, you have to decide if the figure in front of you, lurking in a doorway or leaping out from behind a bus shelter, is friend or foe. Is he wielding a brolly or a sawn-off Purdey?
Hesitate and, bang-bang, you’re dead. Panic and you’ve just killed an innocent bystander.
I have to admit that I shot first and asked questions later. If it had been real life, the firing range would have looked like the set of a Sam Peckinpah movie. There’d have been wall-to-wall claret everywhere. The body count would have given the St Valentine’s Day Massacre a run for its money.
So you can understand why I’m always inclined to give the cops the benefit of the doubt in these high-profile cases.
A policeman’s lot is not a happy one. On the rare occasions they have to fire their weapons in the line of duty, they are entitled to expect the unwavering support of their superiors, due process and, above all, the presumption of innocence.