26 november 2011, who killed mark duggan ?

Encyclopedias have been written about the summer's riots (9 august 2011), but less about the event that triggered them - the death of mark duggan. Quick and strong justice was rightly brought to bear on many rioters and looters, but the wheels seem astoundingly slower for what is potentially a much worse crime. 4 months on, no-one has even been arrested, let alone charged, tried or sentenced. It is not outlandish to expect that this could have been a murder inquiry, yet somehow, justice seems to have been postponed pending the work of a rather obscure and lowly-regarded quango (the ippc) that investigates complaints against the police. Yet the ippc may have lost its credibility before it even started its investigation into the death by initially parroting the line that duggan had fired a bullet at a policeman, which it later said was wrong. Without getting into the he said, he said arguments, the ipcc does seem to be rather accident-prone and have the appearance of amateurism, which has led to the build up of a perception of non-seriousness and urgency in their work compared to what may otherwise have been. The ipcc's plea for everyone to await their release of the evidence before rushing to judgement must be respected, but the incongruity of the different time that passes in these circumstances compared to any matter where the police are not involved means that the system just can't be right, and everyone can surely understand the very strong opinion at community level on this. Justice must be done, and be seen to be done, and at the same speed and intensity for all, and that just doesn't seem to be happening.