De Menezes proves target practise is paying off, says Police Chief

23rd July, 2005

Metropolitan Police Chief Sir Ian Blair spoke last night of his pride in the new training regime which allowed his officers to shoot Jean Charles De Menezes with such unerring accuracy.

De Menezes, a Brazilian electrician based in London, was shot several times in the head at Stockwell Tube on Friday, by officers who had recently been through an upgraded ’sharp-shooter’ course.

Sir Ian Blair spoke to reporters, saying, “Mr. De Menezes was shot seven times in the back of the head, do you know how hard it is to group seven shots so close together in such rapid succession?”

“It’s almost impossible, that’s how hard it is. We’ve spent a lot of money ensuring that when our officers shoot at someone, they die.”

“The fact that de Menezes was dead before he hit the floor should be cause for celebrating these well-trained, highly skilled fire arms officers.”

“Unfortunately, all we read about in the press is ‘they got the wrong bloke’ - never anything about how good the shooting was.”

Criticism

Mr De Menezes’ death has led to significant criticism of Sir Ian Blair’s force, with some suggesting that perhaps they should stop trying to kill everyone, all of the time.

Blair responded saying, “Would you rather be here talking about how they shot at and merely clipped and Al Qaeda suspect, hmm?”

“Or maybe if we’d put a member of the public in a persistent vegetative state that would be more ’socially acceptable’ - is that what you’re saying? Is it?”

“Sometimes I feel like you don’t want us around at all.”