When homicide becomes part of the bureaucracy

Killing an innocent bystander because he looks "muslim" is acceptable as long as it is meant to protect said by-stander from the actual terrorists.

Better err on the wrong side of right than to not err at all.

England has become the new United States, were murder is not a crime but an unsanitary nuisance.

[via Mirror.co.uk - News - THEY'VE GOT AWAY WITH MURDER]:

Mr de Menezes was shot eight times on his way to work on July 22 last year - the day after four failed suicide bomb attacks.

Surveillance officers mistook him for terror suspect Hussein Osman and he was hit after boarding a train at Stockwell underground station in South London. Initial reports he vaulted the ticket barrier and ran from police were found to be false.

The CPS considered charging officers with offences ranging from murder and manslaughter to forgery. But Mr O'Doherty announced: "There is insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction against any individual police officer.

"While individuals made errors in planning and communication, and the cumulative result was the death of Mr de Menezes, no individual had been culpable to the degree necessary for a criminal offence."

Instead, Sir Ian Blair's office will prosecuted under the Health and Safety at Work Act for "failing to provide for the health, safety and welfare" of Mr de Menezes. Mr O'Doherty added: "This is not a prosecution of Sir Ian Blair in his personal capacity."

If found guilty, the Met could face an unlimited fine likely to run into millions of pounds. But London Mayor Ken Livingstone said: "I doubt al-Qaeda will be considering the implications for health and safety legislation when they plan terrorist activities.

"Health and safety legislation was simply not drawn up to deal with policing a city facing the terrorist threat of July 7 and it makes no sense to apply such legislation in such an extreme situation."

Home Affairs Select Committee chairman John Denham said: "I am uncomfortable with using health and safety legislation in cases like this. Perhaps we now need to look at new legislation to cover when things go wrong with the police at a corporate level."

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Liza Sabater is the founding blogger and publisher of culturekitchen and Daily Gotham. She also a new media producer and social technologist with 10 years experience. You can reach her at blogdiva [at] culturekitchen.com or follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/blogdiva

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