What would we say if it were the Russian or Chinese police who acted like this ?

The most interesting and shocking fact to come out today regarding the shooting of jean Charles De Menezes has been the facts relating to the actual shooting and the varying and different accounts of what happened.

The two police gunmen said they shouted clear warnings to Jean Charles, they said he did not respond and he then approached the policemen, intimating this was a threatening gesture.

The problem is that all eighteen witnesses on the tube train said they heard no warning shouted at all and that Jean Charles remained seated, not approaching the policemen at all.

Now who are we to believe ? The two policemen, who with Sir Ian Blair's collaboration had five days to prepare an alibi whilst the Metropolitan police destroyed CCTV images and tapes whilst the Independent Police Complaints Commission were kept away or the eighteen independent witnesses who have no axe to grind.

If Sir Iain wanted to prosecute a case against two gunmen, and eighteen witnesses all said the gunmen were lying, he'd be furious if the law prevented him from gaining access to evidence and the truth but almost unbelievably, the police are allowed to get away with it.

If this was happening in Russia or China we'd say it is an example of the police being above the law, and if the Russian or Chinese government's did nothing we'd say it is a sign of their utterly corrupt systems. Yet when it happens in Britain, we are no better. Sir Ian Blair should go.