De Menezes Campaign launched

The family of Jean Charles De Menezes have launched a campaign to find out what led to his death. 10th October 2005 saw the launch of Justice4Jean. Jean Charles’ mother, Maria, said “I do not want any mother to suffer as I have.” The meeting was also attended by the UN goodwill ambassador Bianca Jagger and relatives of other people shot by police in London.

Mrs Menezes demanded an end to the police’s shoot-to-kill policy, and the family have been critical of the way the police handled the incident’s aftermath and are demanding to know why misleading information was allowed to be actively promoted in the public domain.

The event was also attended by other families who have lost loved ones at the hands of firearm officers. Irene Stanley, whose husband Harry was shot in Hackney, east London, when officers mistook a wooden chair leg he was carrying in a plastic bag for a sawn-off shotgun said that lessons had not been learnt. She told the meeting: “It is six years on. With Harry dying it didn’t stop, it still continues.”

Susan Alexander’s son, Azelle Rodney, was killed as he sat in the back of a car stopped by police officers in Edgware Road, north London, in April. She said, “It was so similar to what happened to my son, so we were just reliving the same thing over again.”

Other speakers, including Menezes family lawyer Gareth Peirce and Livio Zilli, of Amnesty International, voiced concerns over police actions that led to Jean Charles death.

Campaign website: www.justice4jean.com

Filed under: Police Custody