Huddersfield

I last noticed progress with the inquiry into the fatal shooting on the M62 near Huddersfield at reference 1, about four months ago. The notice at reference 2 is dated October 4th and so has probably not changed since then.

The promise of criminal proceedings continues to be used as cover for the lack of any further information, although we are given no clue as to at whom these proceedings might be directed. And I for one am starting to get uncomfortable with the lack of visible progress, with result that the difficulty that the police seem to have admitting when they have made a mistake or when they have a problem is what is uppermost in my mind. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, I continue to think that there must have been a mistake or worse.

Rather different rules seem to apply to the attempted murder of a career criminal (aka double agent) from Russia. But perhaps in a year's time this one will have vanished from view too.

PS: all of this being complicated - and quite possibly slowed down even further - by the metamorphosis of the IPCC into the IOPC. To quote: 'We became the IOPC in January 2018. Before this, we were the Independent Police Complaints Commission. Since 2013, we have doubled in size and now take on six times as many investigations. This led us to ask the Home Office for structural changes to better suit our much-expanded organisation. These changes were agreed through the Policing and Crime Act 2017'. And careful readers will already have spotted the change of address of reference 2.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/huddersfield.html.

Reference 2: https://policeconduct.gov.uk/news/investigation-update-–-fatal-police-shooting-yassar-yaqub-huddersfield.

Reference 3: https://policeconduct.gov.uk/.

No progress

For some reason, the other day I remembered about the matter noticed at reference 1, just about three months ago now. No progress yet on the IPCC website, but I would like to see a better story than that which appeared in the media at the time and I am investigating.

PS: the next day: I can now add that I have had very prompt replies from both the WYPCC (reference 2) and the IPCC (reference 3) which both confirm that no further information is available at the present time, although the WYPCC did point me to a recent piece in the online version of the Huddersfield Daily Examiner in which the father of the shot man is reported as having been told that the investigation might take between nine months and four years. Let us hope that they come in at nearer nine months than four years - it being hard to see what the extra three years could possibly be adding - apart from time to let things cool down.

The Huddersfield Daily Examiner is a long established evening newspaper covering Huddersfield and its surrounding areas and is published daily.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/justice-continued.html.

Reference 2: https://www.westyorkshire-pcc.gov.uk/.

Reference 3: https://www.ipcc.gov.uk/.

Huddersfield

I remembered about the police shooting in Huddersfield last January again this morning, a shooting where I think the police have a duty to explain themselves, to explain why shoot to kill was justified. As from two hundred miles away it does not appear to be justified. No reason why the person shot could not have been invited to surrender.

The fact that the Sun presented this person, back in January, as a violent career criminal does not change any of this. This is not the Philippines.

We do now have an update from the IPCC at reference 1, but an update which adds little to what we already knew. An update which refers to but does not explain ongoing criminal proceedings - citing them as one reason for the lack of update. At least the IPCC has not forgotten about the business.

Reference 1: https://www.ipcc.gov.uk/news/investigation-update-%E2%80%93-fatal-police-shooting-yassar-yaqub-huddersfield.

Reference 2: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/not-yet-checked.html.

Depression

Three depressing news items over breakfast.

First, the police found it necessary to strip search a young woman who would not talk to them - by removal of her clothes by scissors, no less. Why could she not simply have been put into a cell for a while?

Second, the people organising our health care have been directed to cut the queues (no doubt caused by their inefficiency) by contracting some of the work out to the private sector (where things are done so much better). The people who issue these directives are not dim in the ordinary sense of the word, so why does it not occur to them that the reason that there are queues is because there is not enough money in the system and that paying contractors a great deal of money to the work instead is hardly the way to make what money there is go further.

Third, there still seems to be no progress in the investigation of the shooting of someone (who appears to have been a career criminal) on the M62 near Huddersfield, getting on for two years ago now. When are we going to be reassured that vigilante justice is not on the loose? The continuing silence is not encouraging, depressing even.

PS: some days later: email inquiry elicited prompt reply. The trial scheduled for the spring is now scheduled for the autumn - with this trial being one of the things blocking public progress with this investigation.

Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/search?q=huddersfield.

Reference 2: https://policeconduct.gov.uk/news/update-ipcc-investigation-following-fatal-shooting-yassar-yaqub.

And another

Another death which should not have been, this one rather more recent, in January of last year, near Huddersfield.

Still no news from the body charged with the inquiry, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), with my not being able to make any sense of the update of January of this year. While that of December last year talks of the inquiry being on hold, as far as the public are concerned, until after the trial of one of the parties in April (of this year). I quote: 'In addition, there is a possibility that investigators will need to consider evidence given at the trial of Moshin Amin in April next year as part of their ongoing work. It is my view that the investigators should be given time to properly assess any new or relevant information that may be presented during the criminal proceedings'.

Yet another case where we do not seem to be able to get the inquiry right.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/03/huddersfield.html.

Not yet checked

I last noticed the unexplained shooting by police at Huddersfield at reference 1. Hopefully I will remember to check again at the end of the year, by which time the complaints people may have come up with something.

In the meantime, I read about another shooting on the M25 near Bristol. I dare say involving another career criminal well known to the authorities. But once again, I do need to be reassured that shoot to kill, without giving the victim the surrender option, was a reasonable response in the circumstances.

I might add that I have no problem with shoot to kill, without giving the victim the surrender option, in the case of people who are, or who appear to be, terrorists. In which connection I hope that, given the presently difficult times, not many people are stupid enough to dress up as terrorists. I associate to an anecdote about someone stupid enough to make a joke at a bad time about carrying a bomb while checking in at Heathrow. He was given the full treatment. And then to a similarly bad time, many years ago now, at Edinburgh airport, when I had (unthinkingly, I hasten to add) put a large cold haggis in my hand luggage, which rather startled the security person checking its insides by hand, without being able to see them. He was somewhat mollified when I explained that it was a first class haggis, bought from a famous butcher, somewhere at the western end of the town centre.

PS: according to gmaps streetview, the western end of town centre is far too leafy and residential for butchers. Maybe Queensferry Street? More careful check needed.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/no-progress.html.