Don’t Menshn The Duggan Verdict

The inquest into the death of Mark Duggan, shot dead by armed Police in August 2011, an event which triggered rioting in London and other cities, concluded yesterday as the jury found by an 8 to 2 majority that at the time he was shot he was not carrying a gun, but that he had been lawfully killed. This was not well received by Duggan’s family and supporters.

Has she got news for us? Er, not really

Given what happened two and a half years ago (you can see the aftermath of the Manchester riots HERE and HERE), one might expect all looking in to exercise restraint. But for one champion of self-promotion, the benefit to Herself Personally Now overrode such niceties: step forward former Tory MP for Corby and East Northants Louise Mensch, who immediately knew all the answers.

So there was no need for her to bother with trivia such as reading the record of the inquest (see it HERE), which sets out the criteria in law referring to lawful and unlawful killing verdicts. Ms Mensch needed only to think it was right, and then it was. “I think many people will feel that if you have just disposed of one gun Police entitled to fear you are still armed. Lawful killing” she asserted.

Easy, isn’t it? You think that someone feels something and so it’s OK to pull the trigger. Who knew that the law worked in such mysterious ways? And, as the man said, there’s more: “anyone carrying a gun whom the Police believe to be a threat they have the right and (possibly) duty to shoot” she told Diane Abbott and Laurie Penny. This exercise in blatant bullshitting did not impress Ms Abbott.

“If the Duggan jury believe that he did not have a gun in his hand when he was shot, how can they find it was a lawful killing?” she asked (a read of the inquest record may inform her thinking). But it was enough for Ms Mensch to launch an assault on all those rotten lefties. “Complete disconnect from left-wing Twitter over verdict on Duggan. Wholly lawful killing. Jury found marksman thought he had 2nd gun”.

The flannelling continued: “Duggan gang member armed with gun [he wasn’t when shot] and Twitter/Labour axis still attacking the Police. Public is all against you”. Yay those false assumptions! “Labour’s Police blaming over the tragic death of an armed, gun-toting gang member [see above] reminds me why I am a Conservative”. Yay strawman! Yay sample of one! Yay false inference!

And there was still time for the occasional whopper: “Jury determination very clear. ZERO members of jury felt Duggan killed unlawfully. 8 lawfully. 2 open verdict”. Perhaps Ms Mensch would like to read the inquest record to see what “open verdict” actually means. But that might be too much like hard work, and interrupt her exercise in self-promotion (she has a book to flog, don’t you know).

There’s only one beneficiary in the world of Louise Mensch. No change there, then.