Perhaps the most bizarre of all the stories in today’s news is that the Metropolitan Police in London are investigating whether an officer, giving evidence at the inquest into the death of London Solicitor Mark Saunders spoke his way through a list of songs.
When I heard it this morning, I rubbed my eyes and wondered if it was April 1. The officer known only as AZ8, has been suspended from firearms duties.
It seems that someone listening to the evidence, and a bit of a musician with pretty eclectic tastes, worked out that in his hour of evidence AZ8 had used eight song titles. This was reported to the officer’s management and the man was given a reprimand.
However, somehow it got to the attention of senior officers who decided that a reprimand was not enough. So they decided to refer the matter to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Now I don’t know about you, but I’m looking at this list of song titles, and I’m thinking that many of them...actually all of them, would have been perfectly appropriate phrases to use in the situation that the officer found himself in. I mean, he wasn’t saying things like “A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine go Down”, or “I Don't Know How to Love Him" or “Well Here it is Merry Christmas”.
See what you think of the phrases/titles used... 'Point Of No Return'; 'Enough's Enough'; 'Self Preservation'; 'Blinding Light'; 'Quiet Mo
ments'; 'I'm Kicking Myself'; 'Any Other Way'. All of them could quite innocently have been said in an hour long testimony.
I’m a bit dubious about how he managed to get this one in though: 'F*** My Old Boots' (I wonder what that could be about actually.)
I’m just wondering, given the lamentable quality of management at the Met (remember Cressida Dick?) if this isn’t a huge mistake.
Don’t get me wrong, to poke fun at an inquest is an horrific thing to do if it is done by a member of the public. If it is done by a member of the firearms squad that shot the man, it is bad beyond belief and the guy should be sacked.
But it would be incredibly difficult to get eight song titles into evidence unless you had rehearsed it carefully, and I think it’s possible that it’s coincidence and some sad sack is making trouble.
As an afterthought I hope that the Met don’t employ people to go to inquests to check up on things like this....
Prizes for anyone who can give the artistes (or the show/film from which the pieces were taken). And remember prizes mean points!
When I heard it this morning, I rubbed my eyes and wondered if it was April 1. The officer known only as AZ8, has been suspended from firearms duties.
It seems that someone listening to the evidence, and a bit of a musician with pretty eclectic tastes, worked out that in his hour of evidence AZ8 had used eight song titles. This was reported to the officer’s management and the man was given a reprimand.
However, somehow it got to the attention of senior officers who decided that a reprimand was not enough. So they decided to refer the matter to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Now I don’t know about you, but I’m looking at this list of song titles, and I’m thinking that many of them...actually all of them, would have been perfectly appropriate phrases to use in the situation that the officer found himself in. I mean, he wasn’t saying things like “A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine go Down”, or “I Don't Know How to Love Him" or “Well Here it is Merry Christmas”.
See what you think of the phrases/titles used... 'Point Of No Return'; 'Enough's Enough'; 'Self Preservation'; 'Blinding Light'; 'Quiet Mo
ments'; 'I'm Kicking Myself'; 'Any Other Way'. All of them could quite innocently have been said in an hour long testimony.I’m a bit dubious about how he managed to get this one in though: 'F*** My Old Boots' (I wonder what that could be about actually.)
I’m just wondering, given the lamentable quality of management at the Met (remember Cressida Dick?) if this isn’t a huge mistake.
Don’t get me wrong, to poke fun at an inquest is an horrific thing to do if it is done by a member of the public. If it is done by a member of the firearms squad that shot the man, it is bad beyond belief and the guy should be sacked.
But it would be incredibly difficult to get eight song titles into evidence unless you had rehearsed it carefully, and I think it’s possible that it’s coincidence and some sad sack is making trouble.
As an afterthought I hope that the Met don’t employ people to go to inquests to check up on things like this....
Prizes for anyone who can give the artistes (or the show/film from which the pieces were taken). And remember prizes mean points!
What on earth is going on? I read in the Press and Journal this morning of a woman who drove a 13 year old thug home to remonstrate with his parents after he smashed a window at her home. She was charged with kidnapping fined £600 and given a criminal record. And now we find out that the Met have nothing better to do than vet their own officers testimony for song titles!
ReplyDeleteHello! Were the Tories not going to do something about these ridiculous wastes of time and money?
Um...well, obviously not Munguin.
ReplyDelete