I expect he was a drug dealer. He was carrying a hand gun for which he is unlikely to have had a concealed weapon permit due to them not being available to the general public in the UK. I've already said that his death seems to me to be no great loss to the world.

Nonethless, the post to which I was replying seemed to me to be making an invalid assumption that a black Londoner in trouble with the police must be a drug dealer, there's no proof that he was.

Is it wrong to have laughed at this? D'oh!

At the end of the day though, the police were must certainly operating on intel as to his intentions and general information about him. So on the part of the police it is not an assumption, it is a reasonable belief, both a subjective and objective view of what the lad was up to. The vey fact that SO 19 officers were involved suggests a strong and very real concern that they were dealing
With someone with an inclination towards guns and violence.

Well, at the risk of picking hairs on the internet (!), he might be an extortionist, a torturer for a gang, an armed robber, there are any number of occupations involving guns and violence other than drug dealer.

What about the police having lied about him shooting at them?

What about the police apparently being so inept that they ended up shooting each other?

It happens. Discipline the person who lied and move on.

Unfortunately thanks to the riots I don't think there are many people with any sympathy now.

A

Hmm, not justified use of force in my books, at least operating on limited information. Funny how in the context of a riot when we feel aggrieved, that we see such actions as acceptable but not in everday circumstances.....a police man's lot is most certainly not an happy one.

Believe it!! They were shipped from Northern Ireland yesterday. LOL

People seem more concerned about sticking up for them.

This kind of thing does lead to unease.

Where is the lie? How about assumptions, mis-information, or jumping to conclusions. If the met were he'll-bent on lying would they have not stuck o the lie as you call it.....

Missing the point son.....the police had a reasonable belief what he was and why he was tooled up. That is all that counts at the end of the day.

Well no. The police have a miserable reputation for shooting innocent people. We've no reason to put more faith in what they thought than what he thought. For the moment, he's an alleged drug dealer and they're alleged careless users of firearms.

Not following you here I'm afraid.

The lie would be that he shot at the police, his bullet lodging in the radio (a claim Boy d made some pages back), but do we know that the police actually said that?