The killing of Jean Charles de Menezes raises fundamental questions as to who runs the Metropolitan Police Force and who is ultimately accountable for it: the Home Secretary, an MP from Norwich, or the people of London, who actually pay for it. To date their have been calls for Sir Ian Blair to resign, however less scrutiny has been given to those shadowy London politicians, who are appointed rather than elected to provide oversight of the Metropolitan Police.
At the beginning of the 21st century it is unacceptable that the Metropolitan Police should still be ultimately answerable to the Home Secretary, a national politician with no mandate from Londoners, rather than a proper local police authority, directly and democratically elected by the council tax-payers of London. Moreover, why should Londoner’s be continued to be forced to accept less democratic control over their police force, than people in Norfolk, Co. Durham or Fife do over their police-forces?
Of the 23 members of the Metropolitan Police Authority 6 'Independents' are directly appointed by the Home Secretary, 3 are appointed from London’s Magistrates Bench, 11 are appointed from London Assembly Members, there are 2 vice-chairs and a chairman, all appointed. The current chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority is Len Duvall who is also chairman of the London Labour Party. Therefore London finds itself in a situation like Saddam’s Iraq: the boss of the local police is also the boss of the government’s local party apparatus. No possible clash of interest there then!
The 23 members of the Metropolitan Police Authority have divide up London’s 32 Boroughs into geographical areas of special interest between themselves. The task of Metropolitan Police Authority members in their specific geographical areas is “…taking prime responsibility for interfacing with the key players, local group and local people in order to progress the key objectives of the MPA”. However, this creates some strange distribution of responsibilities, for example; Len Duvall a member of the Greater London Authority elected for Lewisham and Greenwich is responsible for Barking and Dagenham in the Metropolitan Police Authority.
In other words a politician that no-one in Barking and Dagenham ever voted for, is responsible for representing the people of Barking and Dagenham on the Metropolitan Police Authority. Furthermore, that the stated aim of the Authority is that the key objectives of the Metropolitan Police Authority take priority over the democratic wishes of the people of Barking and Dagenham.
After the slaying of Harry Stanley it was the responsibility of the Metropolitan Police Authority members to insure that another Londoner was not accidentally shot by armed policemen in the mistaken belief that they were a terrorist. In this responsibility the current Metropolitan Police Authority has clearly failed. As a result all of the current members of the Metropolitan Police Authority should be considering resigning along with the Commissioner Sir Ian Blair.
In place of the undemocratic cabal of political appointees, local-fixers and people no Londoner has every heard of, who currently run policing in the capital; a directly and fully elected Metropolitan Police Authority representing all of London’s 32 Boroughs must be established. Without such a mandate the Metropolitan Police Authority remains a political tool of which ever government is in power, rather than an independent, democratic and representative authority; charged with exercising democratic oversight of the capital’s police force.
Furthermore, an open and democratic police authority in London will insure in future that all policy decisions are transparent and subject to genuine political scrutiny by Londoners instead of secret shoot to kill policies, manipulation by the Home Secretary or political interference by number 10 Downing Street. This will not guarantee that the Metropolitan Police will not occasionally kill the wrong person, but it will insure that in future every Londoner will know exactly where the political responsibilities lie if they do.
Jean Charles de Menezes’ family have called for a demonstration at 6pm on Monday 22nd August 2005 at Downing Street. Every Londoner should support the Menezes family’s campaign for truth and justice. Every Londoner should be asking some hard questions about how our city is policed.
Of the 23 members of the Metropolitan Police Authority 6 'Independents' are directly appointed by the Home Secretary, 3 are appointed from London’s Magistrates Bench, 11 are appointed from London Assembly Members, there are 2 vice-chairs and a chairman, all appointed. The current chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority is Len Duvall who is also chairman of the London Labour Party. Therefore London finds itself in a situation like Saddam’s Iraq: the boss of the local police is also the boss of the government’s local party apparatus. No possible clash of interest there then!
The 23 members of the Metropolitan Police Authority have divide up London’s 32 Boroughs into geographical areas of special interest between themselves. The task of Metropolitan Police Authority members in their specific geographical areas is “…taking prime responsibility for interfacing with the key players, local group and local people in order to progress the key objectives of the MPA”. However, this creates some strange distribution of responsibilities, for example; Len Duvall a member of the Greater London Authority elected for Lewisham and Greenwich is responsible for Barking and Dagenham in the Metropolitan Police Authority.
In other words a politician that no-one in Barking and Dagenham ever voted for, is responsible for representing the people of Barking and Dagenham on the Metropolitan Police Authority. Furthermore, that the stated aim of the Authority is that the key objectives of the Metropolitan Police Authority take priority over the democratic wishes of the people of Barking and Dagenham.
After the slaying of Harry Stanley it was the responsibility of the Metropolitan Police Authority members to insure that another Londoner was not accidentally shot by armed policemen in the mistaken belief that they were a terrorist. In this responsibility the current Metropolitan Police Authority has clearly failed. As a result all of the current members of the Metropolitan Police Authority should be considering resigning along with the Commissioner Sir Ian Blair.
In place of the undemocratic cabal of political appointees, local-fixers and people no Londoner has every heard of, who currently run policing in the capital; a directly and fully elected Metropolitan Police Authority representing all of London’s 32 Boroughs must be established. Without such a mandate the Metropolitan Police Authority remains a political tool of which ever government is in power, rather than an independent, democratic and representative authority; charged with exercising democratic oversight of the capital’s police force.
Furthermore, an open and democratic police authority in London will insure in future that all policy decisions are transparent and subject to genuine political scrutiny by Londoners instead of secret shoot to kill policies, manipulation by the Home Secretary or political interference by number 10 Downing Street. This will not guarantee that the Metropolitan Police will not occasionally kill the wrong person, but it will insure that in future every Londoner will know exactly where the political responsibilities lie if they do.
Jean Charles de Menezes’ family have called for a demonstration at 6pm on Monday 22nd August 2005 at Downing Street. Every Londoner should support the Menezes family’s campaign for truth and justice. Every Londoner should be asking some hard questions about how our city is policed.
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