In the aftermath of the execution of de Menezes and the Metropolitan filth’s conviction under, bizarrely, health and safety law Geeklawyer was a little tickled to see the contrast with another incident. This time a female detective was knocked over by the open passenger door of a reversing car. The door was opened by a fleeing passenger who was attempting to escape arrest alongside the driver who was wanted for fraud. There appears to be no suggestion that the driver instructed the passenger to do this nor that he was aware the officer was in the way of the door: it looks, at first blush, like an accident on his part where in the panic of the moment he miscalculated.
He may be subject to a legitimate prosecution. Perhaps there is a case to answer. Perhaps one is properly liable for the acts of a passenger; perhaps attempting to evade arrest imposes an liability for the consequences of a subsequent miscalculation by another.
Or perhaps when a police officer is hurt by a ‘bad guy’ a different set of rules are applied to when a cop hurts an innocent member of the public: in the former case discretion is exercised in its most lenient form and in the latter not.
As I...
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