The Metropolitan Police are in a spot of bother this week.

I'ts a black week for the police in the UK this week, with a double whammy. The assistant commissioner resigns over 'exposing a sensitive document', and the riot police beat someone to death.

The bumbling buffoon

It appears that Scotland Yard’s assistant commissioner Bob Quick (Bob Slow would be more appropriate eh?) has been photographed holding a sensitive document in public relating to counter terrorism. He was on his way to see unelected Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Home Secretary/porn scandal survivor Jacqui Smith when it was noticed that he had these secret documents on full display for everyone to see.

Hang on a minute. Is this kind of criminal negligence possible? I mean, you’ve got a document related to preventing a terrorist attack from happening (allegedly). You’d think the chief commissioner would say the following:


“Bob, it is of the utmost importance that this document MUST NOT BE REVEALED in public. London is the most surveilled city in the world. You can’t move for CCTV cameras. Tourists and paparazzi take pictures all the time, and you cannot be 100% sure that terrorists are not taking pictures as well.
“As a result this document must never be revealed outside this office, and must be stored in an lead lined x-ray proof briefcase with a double combination lock until it reaches Downing Street. ”

Those sorts of high standards should not be considered unreasonable should they?

So how come it is possible for this scenario to be happening at all? Was bungling Bob set up? Or was there some other more sinister agenda here? Well, if you read the news cuttings you will find that this situation lead to the fast tracking of a few raids on British muslims (apparently potential terrorists) which lead to one man being tasered. Were these people potential ‘Al Qaeda’ terrorists? Whether they were or not, wouldn’t the police tasering one of them be detrimental to building good relations with the British Muslim community? Wouldn’t that make a lot of muslims lose respect for the police and want to join a jihad?

Also Bob Quick has been paid off with a £110,000 pension for his ‘minor error’ (see left).
Something here does not add up.

The baton wielding marauding barbarians

It’s a double whammy for the boys in lime green this week as four riot police at the G20 demonstration beat up Evening Standard seller Ian Tomlinson with their sticks, resulting in him having a heart attack and dying. At first he was said to be an innocent bystander who was in London that day to sell the Evening Standard, but later they dished up evidence of him being drunk whilst blocking the path of a police riot van. I supposed they’ll say they were provoked into beating him up as a result will they?

I have also included a piece from the London Paper, Wednesday April 9, 2009 containing graphic images of Mr Tomlinson’s confrontation with the police (see left).


There's no doubt a few funny handshakes have been exchanged this week.