Not before time, it will be interesting to see the posturing and arguments over who is going to take over now, someone else who is good with a whitewash brush and will do Boris’s bidding perhaps.
Cressida Dick to step down as Metropolitan Police chief
Dame Cressida Dick: Crises and controversies of Met chief
She should have gone ages ago IMO, didn’t Johnson support her? The Met is rotten and has been for a long, long time. It’ll take some tough cookie to sort it out.
I very much doubt anyone person could sort out the Met, she played her part, could have gone further if properly supported. Bit by bit people given that post can make changes and it can be improved.
I don’t hold her to account, one heck of a tough job.
We’ve been increasingly frustrated that she wouldn’t resign. The refusal of the to person to take responsibility and demonstrate accountability seems a dominant feature of English politics right now.
Yes a tough job but she knew that and decided she could be effective in role but she demonstrated poor leadership throughout. Disgraced police, such as those found sending racist, misogynistic text messages are still being promoted. She denied the clear evidence of continuing institutional racism and made no impact on Met. culture. She should have gone years ago.
Now we have to watch the assumed outrage at Sadiq Khan for having the guts to hold her to account.
She should have gone when she authorised the deadly shooting of Charles de Menezes, a joiner carrying a table leg which the Met mistook, not only the person involved, but the table leg for a deadly weapon.
It seems abundantly clear she was given no choice.
Yes, she absolutely needed to go, but the timing stinks to high heaven.
Menezes wasn’t the man with the table leg. He was a totally innocent electrician on his way to fix a broken alarm in Kilburn.
On 22 September 1999, Harry Stanley was returning home from the Alexandra pub in South_Hackney carrying, in a plastic bag, a table leg that had been repaired by his brother earlier that day. Someone had phoned the police to report “an Irishman with a gun wrapped in a bag”. At the junction of Fremont Street and Victoria Park Road in South Hackney, close to his home, Inspector Neil Sharman and PC Kevin Fagan, the crew of a Metropolitan Police Armed Response Vehicle challenged Harry Stanley from behind. As he turned to face them, they shot him dead at a distance of 15 feet.
On 22 July 2005, the Metropolitan Police were searching for four suspects in four attempted bombings carried out the previous day. Jean Charles da Silva e de Menezes aged 27 was a Brazilian Portuguese man killed by officers of the Metropolitan Police Service at Stockwell tube station on the London Underground after he was wrongly deemed to be one of the involved in the bombing attempts. Cause of death, gunshots to the head. The police later stated that they were satisfied that they had the correct man, noting that he “had Mongolian eyes”.
Both situations shocking and utterly disgraceful.
Not usual for you Jane but several different things and dates mixed up here
I think the Met is a pretty toxic environment so anyone taking it on and not a freemason is going to have a short job span
My view is she should never have been put there in the first place, it was back then obvious how it was going to go. The replacement needs to have a skin like a crocodile and be just as vicious. Yes the snowflake and wet wipes will whinge and whine, but now it needs someone who is a real hardliner. Discipline starts at the top and if those below cant take the heat then get out and leave some real rozzers to do the work. Cut out the inclusive and diversity crap. If someone is qualified then they get the job clear cut.
There’s a lot of righteous indignation on here. Any of you actually have any experience of what you are pontificating about?
I’m not sure you need experience (of policing, I presume) to see that the Met has a long history of problems.
To which, recently added, is political cronyism and refusal to investigate those in high places simply because they are so elevated.
I understand the sentiment but this is the most high profile policing job in the country and she had made several mistakes during her career, sadly my take on her appointment is that it was down to her gender and dare I say it the fact that she was openly homosexual.
Personally I think the position is a ‘poison chalice’ so maybe now is the time to have a re-think of how the Met is organised and structured.
I think he has pushed her under the bus to protect his mayoralty.
And Boris’s
And there was me thinking she was pushed under the bus because she was incapable of doing her job
I think its a monster of a job. Still we can judge the next post holder.
Yes, I do.
As a ‘country bumpkin’ member (the typical Met view) of a ‘shire’ constabulary, I can say that without doubt there has been a spirit of institutional corruption and misconduct within the Met for many years. Certainly it was present in the 1980s to my personal knowledge. The conduct of Met officers was often not only appalling, but also unlawful to such an extent that our Mutual Aid Unit Commander would not allow us shire chaps to be stationed in the same sector as the Met during the disturbances at the Greenham Common airbase.
The only thing that will resolve the problems within the Met is a root and branch reorganisation that would be well served by starting with a ban on internal promotions to any rank above that of Inspector. Perhaps in that way there could be some new, and untainted blood, injected into the Met.
As for Dame Cressida, she should have gone a long time ago. The first part of the oath sworn by a police officer, and the officer’s first duty above all others, is the protection of life. Dame Cressida was the Operational Commander of the operation that resulted in the execution of Jean Charles de Menezes. This was a failure of the primary duty that resulted in the death of an innocent man. If she had any conscience, or any respect for the family of the deceased, or indeed for the greater public at large, then she would have done the honourable thing and resigned at that time. How she could have made such an error of judgement, and then still be able to sleep at night is beyond me.
The fact that Cressida Dick was subsequently substantially promoted, and then made a Dame of the realm, only serves in my view to demonstrate the lack of decency and honour both within and around the higher echelons of policing in the Metropolis.
I note that even on the very day of her departure, just putting her coat on and going home wasn’t her style, preferring instead to make a televised statement laying the blame on Sadiq Khan. The woman seems to have not one shred of shame.
In my view the Metropolis is well rid of that woman, and Sadiq Khan should be lauded for having the bottle to stand up to her and her supporting ‘establishment’ cronies.
Needs someone in the role who can command respect and not afraid to take the tough decisions, and someone who wont be kowtowing and afraid of standing up to some of the political clowns. Let’s hope no more flim flam and waffle from her successor!