This week’s acquittal of Metropolitan Police officer Martyn Blake for the murder of Chris Kaba in 2022 is being used to push for the police to be given what amounts to a license to kill.

Kaba, 24, was shot with a single bullet in the head by Blake in London’s Streatham Hill district on September 5, 2022, after a police chase.

Kaba’s killing sparked protests against police in London and other cities including Manchester, Cardiff, Brighton and Southampton.

In the hours after the verdict – following the decision of the judge in the case to allow the media to air details of Kaba’s background – television and the media went into overdrive with the prepared message that Kaba was a criminal who got what was coming. it.

All claims made by Blake and his defense that he had to shoot Kaba because there was imminent danger to the lives of his colleagues at the Met who faced being run over or dragged under the wheels of the car Kaba was driving, were repeated ad nauseam. .

But all these claims were rejected in court by the prosecution.

• Following a chase, police vehicles in a narrow unit fully boxed in Audi A8 Kaba were driving. Once inside, just 13 seconds later, Kaba was shot.
• Blake, after getting out of his own marked police car to confront Kaba, saw Kaba’s futile attempts to hit the cars trying to escape. In the video footage, Blake is seen running from Kaba’s car, behind a parked van and around the back of his own car. Blake pulled up to the police BMW and pointed his rifle at Kaba’s car.

• Blake claimed in court that although he could not see the scenes in front of him due to his hidden position, he could hear Kaba’s car’s engine revving, the tires screeching and the Audi moving at a “high” speed.
• But regardless of Kaba’s attempts to escape, as he hit several police vehicles, no one was in danger as the car was proven in court to have been traveling at no more than 12mph.
• Asked by the prosecution, Blake could not point out the lives of the officers he feared for in extensive video footage of the incident.

That is why Kaba’s criminal history is now focused on to legitimize what was a police execution.

However, Blake didn’t even know it was Kaba driving the car. He was stopped because the Audi he was driving was believed to be linked to a firearms incident the previous day and an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) marker had been placed on it. A briefing given to officers before their shift on September 5 about the Audi potentially being linked to a firearms incident naturally made no reference to Kaba.