Well Done, Thou Good and Faithful Servant

Those tiresome De Menezes people are complaining again, this time because Cressida Dick, the officer commanding the Stockwell shoot-to-protect squad, has been promoted to deputy assistant commissioner. As to whether Cressida Dick should face disciplinary charges, no final decision has yet been publicly admitted; so, not being an asylum seeker or on benefits or having an Asian demeanour or having been denounced as a terrorist by anyone who matters, she is of course innocent until proven guilty.

One investigation has found that Cressida Dick's orders to the shoot-to-protect squad were unclear and that the officers who carried out the prophylactic action misinterpreted what she said; hence, as we all know, the protection was nobody's fault. A further investigation is still trying to determine "whether the force told the truth after the killing". Since Metropolitan police officers, in the words of Cressida Dick's sponsor and fellow Oxford graduate, do not spin, and since a spokesman from the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police said that De Menezes' "clothing and his behaviour at the station added to [the officers'] suspicions", given the presumption of innocence it appears that a denim jacket and an unhurried gait were sufficient to set alarm bells ringing and, subsequently, trigger-fingers pumping.

During the investigation, Cressida Dick is "said to have impressed her bosses with the way she coped with the pressure". She may give garbled orders when mere lives are at stake; but under genuine pressure, it seems, she manages admirably.