London police chief Dame Cressida Dick finally quits following slew of scandals

Al Jazeera
Fri, 11 Feb 2022 10:49 UTC

Beleaguered Dame Cressida Dick has finally resigned as Metropolitan Police Commissioner after presiding over a litany of controversies as Scotland Yard chief

London police chief Cressida Dick has resigned after a slew of scandals undermined confidence in her ability to deal with the problems afflicting the force.

Trust in the Metropolitan Police was shaken by the abduction, rape, and murder of a woman, Sarah Everard, by one of its officers last year, and has been further undermined by more recent revelations of a culture of bullying, racial discrimination, and misogyny.

Dick announced her resignation on Thursday after the mayor of London Sadiq Khan told her he was not convinced she could carry out the reforms necessary to rebuild Londoners' trust in the Met.

"It's clear that the only way to start to deliver the scale of the change required is to have new leadership right at the top of the Metropolitan Police," Khan said.

Comment: If the current state of affairs in politics is anything to go by, any overhaul could actually create a situation many times worse: The UK government has lost control of its woke civil service

Dick said she was left with no choice but to stand down.

"It is with huge sadness that following contact with the mayor of London today, it is clear that the Mayor no longer has sufficient confidence in my leadership to continue," she said.

Comment: It's telling that it took Khan this long to lose faith in Dick. Although there's every reason to believe Khan is equally unfit for purpose.

Dick, an experienced counter-terrorism officer, was the first woman to lead London's 193-year-old police force and had had her contract extended until 2024.

Comment: Considering all the scandals Dick oversaw, that they were still eager to extend her contract up until recently points to this departure as being tokenistic rather than any genuine concern of the evident corruption and incompetence overwhelming the Met. Although what's happening at the Met reflects exactly the insidious goings on in the upper echelons.

The sudden announcement comes amid an investigation into the "Partygate" scandal swirling around Prime Minister Boris Johnson over alleged parties held in breach of coronavirus restrictions. The Met is expected to send letters to at least 50 people in the prime minister's office on Friday, including Johnson, over the events, according to the Times newspaper.

Comment: Just yesterday the following picture of yet another event held at Number 10 that violated lockdown rules and had the PM Boris Johnson in attendance, and that wasn't one of the 12 events already being investigated, emerged:

Leaked photo of the lockdown violating party at No.10 Downing Street on the 15th of December 2021

Damaged confidence

Dick said Everard's murder and "many other awful cases recently" had damaged confidence, but the force had turned its full attention to rebuilding trust.

Khan singled out Dick's reaction to the report on the behaviour of 14 serving police officers at Charing Cross Police in central London for making her position untenable.

"The response from the Commissioner wasn't up to the scale of the change required in the Met Police Service," he told broadcasters.

Johnson, the prime minister, said on Twitter that Dick had "served her country with great dedication and distinction over many decades".

Home minister Priti Patel, who will be responsible for choosing Dick's replacement, said earlier this month there were problems with the culture of the police force.

Comment: As an MP notes, amidst an inquiry into MPs, MPs can't be trusted to appoint a replacement who will, in one way or another, be overseeing the investigation:

On Thursday, however, she said Dick had undertaken her duties "with a steadfast dedication to protecting our capital city and its people - including during the unprecedented period of the pandemic".

The 61-year-old had been under mounting pressure since the March 2021 rape and murder of Everard, who was grabbed off the street by Wayne Couzens, a serving officer.

Revelations that officers shared photographs of two women killed in a north London park on WhatsApp, an official inquiry ruling that the organisation was "institutionally corrupt", and an expansion of controversial "stop and search" policing also damaged trust.

Comment: The Daily Mail details just how many scandals Cressida Dick has presided over. And it calls into question, at just what point does incompetence become outright complicity in corruption?

String of disasters at the Met under Dame Cressida's watch

April 2017: Appointed as first female Metropolitan Police commissioner with a brief to modernise the force and keep it out of the headlines.

April 2019: Extinction Rebellion protesters bring London to a standstill over several days with the Met powerless to prevent the chaos. Dame Cressida says the numbers involved were far greater than expected and used new tactics but she admits police should have responded quicker.

The same was true of the BLM riots. Although the police were quick to clamp down on lockdown protests. during the lockdown they became notorious for harrasing people who were simply out for a walk in the countryside.

September 2019: Her role in setting up of shambolic probe into alleged VIP child sex abuse and murder based on testimony from the fantasist Carl Beech (right) is revealed but she declines to answer questions.

Lest we forget there have been numerous paedophile scandals at the very top levels of government, which the Met police are known to have helped cover up: How Thatcher's Government Covered Up a VIP Pedophile Ring

2020: Official report into Operation Midland said Met was more interested in covering up mistakes than learning from them.

February 2021: Lady Brittan condemns the culture of 'cover up and flick away' in the Met and the lack of a moral compass among senior officers.

• The same month a freedom of information request reveals an extraordinary spin campaign to ensure Dame Cressida was not 'pulled into' the scandal over the Carl Beech debacle.

March: Criticised for Met handling of a vigil for Sarah Everard, where officers arrested four attendees. Details would later emerge
about how her killer, Wayne Couzens (below), used his warrant card to trick her into getting into his car.

Wayne Couzens

• In the first six months of the year, London was on course for its worst year for teenage deaths - 30 - with knives being responsible for 19 out of the 22 killed so far. The youngest was 14-year-old Fares Matou, cut down with a Samurai sword. Dame Cressida had told LBC radio in May her top priority was tackling violent crime.

June: A £20million report into the Daniel Morgan murder brands the Met 'institutionally corrupt' and accuses her of trying to block the inquiry. Dame Cressida rejects its findings. Mr Morgan is pictured below.

Daniel Morgan

July: Police watchdog reveals three Met officers being probed over alleged racism and dishonesty.

• The same month the Yard boss is at the centre of another storm after it emerged she was secretly referred to the police watchdog over comments she made about the stop and search of Team GB sprinter Bianca Williams. Dame Cressida is accused of pre-empting the outcome of an independent investigation.

• Also in July she finds herself under fire over her woeful security operation at the Euro 2020 final at Wembley where fans without tickets stormed the stadium and others used stolen steward vests and ID lanyards to gain access.

August Dame Cressida facing a potential misconduct probe over her open support for Deputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Horne who could stand trial over alleged data breaches.

December: Two police officers who took pictures of the bodies of murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman (below) were jailed for two years and nine months each.

Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman

Pc Deniz Jaffer and Pc Jamie Lewis were assigned to guard the scene overnight after Ms Henry, 46, and Ms Smallman, 27, were found dead in bushes in Fryent Country Park, Wembley, north-west London. Instead, they breached the cordon to take photographs of the bodies, which were then shared with colleagues and members of the public on WhatsApp.

December: Dame Cressida apologises to the family of a victim of serial killer Stephen Port (below). Officers missed several chances to catch him after he murdered Anthony Walgate in 2014.

Stephen Port

Dame Cressida - who was not commissioner at the time of the murder - told Mr Walgate's mother: 'I am sorry, both personally and on behalf of The Met — had police listened to what you said, things would have turned out a lot differently'.'

January 2022: She faces a barrage of fresh criticism for seeking to 'muzzle' Sue Gray's Partygate report by asking her to make only 'minimal' references to parties the Met were investigating.

February 2022: Details of messages exchanged by officers at Charing Cross Police Station, which included multiple references to rape, violence against women, racist and homophobic abuse, are unveiled in a watchdog report.

It's rather telling that so many Dames and Knights are also involved in some of the most questionable scandals of our time:

• Petition to have Tony Blair stripped of his knighthood gathers pace - UPDATE: Petition gathers more than 1M signatures and counting
• UK's Met police to investigate No. 10's multiple violations of lockdown, police want FULL report to be published immediately
• Cressida Dick, new chief of British police, oversaw 'botched' post-7/7 de Menezes operation
• Met police told 40% of recruits must be from BAME backgrounds
• UK Police Chief: 'Now is really not the time for freedom of speech, right to assembly'