As you know bob, the Metropolitian Police currently is on trial for breaching the health and safety laws when they murdered Jean Charles De Menezes. One of the more ridiculous features of this trial is the parade of police witnesses only indetified by their code names. Roobin at Through the Scary Door wonders: “Who on earth are the police officers identities being protected from? What do they imagine is going to happen?”
Good question. Perhaps they imagine angry De Menezes taking the law in their own hands, as they haven’t gottne justice through the normal channels, but more likely it’s the usual security bollarks. “the terrorists must not know their identity” and all that. the worse thing is, we all just accept this, just like we accept that there are super sekrit police squads who can blow us away on the street with impunity, if somebody somewhere thinks we might be a terrorist. And if we’re not, hey, the police do a difficult job and we should be understanding of any little errors they make.