Menezes: Police "Guilty", But Not To Blame

Shortly after beginning employment as a local government officer, nearly ten years ago, I witnessed the approach taken by my new employer, a Council, in imposing a "no blame" culture.

Local authorities, reservoirs of mediocrity, are ever awash with "new initiatives" and will buy into any trend going, in the belief that they'll be able to spin any perceived benefits as "progress".

The No Blame initive that I witnessed was being employed during a team meeting, where a problem was being discussed. Basically, the team's Fuckwit had Fucked Up, as usual, and the Fuck Up had to be addressed.

As it was a No Blame meeting, the Fuck Up was being discussed in general terms, without naming the Fuckwit concerned, or his culpability for the Fuck Up.

This generalisation meant that the whole team was being addressed in regard to the Fuck Up, addressing what they could do to avoid doing the Fuck Up again by using a few simple, easy to follow, quality control procedures.

In consequence, and not surprisingly, the team grew resentful because they believed that they were collectively being held responsible for the Fuck Up, whilst accordingly, the Fuckwit sat there grinning to himself because the Fuck Up clearly had nothing to do with him.

I was reminded of this nonsense by today's news regarding the verdict against the Metropolitan Police in the Menezes case, where a the innocent Brazilian was murdered in cold blood by armed officers.

The Met's response is very much that of the Fuckwit above, in that they don't appear to think this has anything to do with them. Commissioner Ian Blair's response (that they didn't kill anyone else!) is to reduce the issue to a Health & Safety non-conformance, on par with a poorly stored ladder, or a bulb that needs replacing.

The Met has never shown any sense that they understand the gravity of the fact that the Metropolitan Police killed an innocent man, and did so on public transport during the rush hour.

They continue to tread out the tedious spin of how they're attempting to protect the public in difficult times, yet they have proved to be a far more effective killing machine than the "terrorist cell" that they were attempting to pursue on that day.