Tim Hames on Ian Blair.

Tim Hames lists out the reasons why Sir Ian Blair should resign:

By contrast, the case against Sir Ian’s conduct is rather more robust. His claim that he was “in the dark” about the de Menezes shooting until 10.30 the next morning is astonishing. There were television reports from “police sources” that the man killed at Stockwell was not one of the four suspects of the failed July 21 bombings being broadcast from mid-afternoon of the day that it occurred. Mr de Menezes carried documents which identified who he was, where he lived and what he did for a living. That the Commissioner was not more inquisitive about the man into whom his officers had pumped eight bullets is staggering. It is not exactly a confession which should leave the public confident about his competence.

Then there is the issue of the briefings that the police gave the media about their victim. These were not merely inaccurate but deliberately embellished. Sir Ian swears that he had nothing to do with them and, less persuasively, that he could not correct them later. I have no grounds to dispute his account yet it is irrelevant what his role was. In the aftermath of what was obviously a catastrophic mistake, sections of the police felt at liberty to “spin” their own story and in recent days the surveillance branch and the firearms squad appear almost to be at war with each other. None of this would have taken place under a Commissioner who was respected by those beneath him. The strong and lasting impression left is that Sir Ian is not in control of those notionally under his command.

Finally, there is precedent. Incidents such as these are, properly, rare in Britain. One newspaper investigation yesterday could highlight only 14 examples in a decade where the police have killed an individual in conditions that resulted in their decision being disputed.

In the vast majority of these, the person concerned had a potential weapon, carried an imitation weapon or had seemed to have a weapon in his possession. The closest comparison to the de Menezes tragedy was an instance of mistaken identity in January 1998, when a man was shot by Sussex Police despite being naked and unarmed. Negligence was admitted, and the Chief Constable, Paul Whitehouse, felt compelled to retire.

My take on it is perhaps a little more old fashioned. I’ll leave aside all of the conspiracy theories, even my own basic thought that having armed police units is in itself an error.

Something went wrong with the system. Someone, somewhere, must be held accountable for that. It doesn’t matter that "we are at war", whenever and wherever there is such an error there has to be someone to carry the can, for if there is not then there is no sense of responsibility in the system. And as the man at the top that’s Sir Ian.

Buh Bye, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.