Cressida (Teflon) Dick

Subject: Cressida (Teflon) Dick

Having just watched the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick face the London Mayoral Committee to answer questions on policing in the capital I was drawn to compare her performance with her predecessor, Bernard Hogan-Howe.
He was a straight talking Yorkshireman who never seemed to duck difficult issues. He was at times controversial but seemed to be the sort of boss who would protect your back. Cressida Dick was presented with the job because the new mayor of London, Sadiq Kahn couldn't get on with Hogan-Howe. Being a slippery politician Kahn wanted a yes-man/woman and chucked Hogan-Howe out.
Cressida Dick had a huge black mark against her name, so much so, she left the Met and went to the Foreign Office. She had been officer commanding the shooting of the Brazilian electrician, wrongly identified as a suicide bomber who was shot dead in Stockwell tube station. As senior commander in charge of the operation she was severely criticised but cleared by the Court of wrong doing, although the Force as a whole was found guilty of unlawful killing.
That is no small charge against a police officer and yet she resurfaced with the top job, ousting a man who everyone acknowledged had brought order and discipline  to the force after both his predecessors had been accused of ineptitude.
Kahn is, as I have said a slippy character. Being a politician he needs to hear his own voice and seems to pop up all over the place acting as the reasonable interface of the Muslim community which is no bad thing in itself but is not necessarily part of the job description. His knowledge of policing is I would suggest minimal and Hogan-Howe's attempt to move against knife crime, the fastest growing crime in London, by increasing stop and search was the final straw of the libertarian mayor.
Perhaps as a Muslim member of the Mosque community his insight into the terrorist substructure is well placed to apply some pressure on Muslims to put their house in order but as I watched the new Commissioner today diplomatically field the questions I wondered what a rum game politics is if good people can so easily be moved aside for the convenience of ones own ego