Martyn Blake deserves ‘admiration and apology’, says Suella Braverman

Martyn Blake deserves 'admiration and apology', says Suella BravermanLBC

Transcript

00:00I just want to say that someone has lost his life and there's a human element and my condolences

00:04go to the family and friends of Chris Carber. And the sergeant, Sergeant Blake, who was

00:13put through this ordeal deserves our admiration and apology, frankly, because these charges

00:21for murder should never have been brought against him.

00:23They are taking split-second decisions, making extremely difficult judgements that I definitely

00:28wouldn't be able to make. Under pressure, life or death decisions, they are not setting

00:33out to kill people deliberately. They are setting out to keep the public safe and to

00:37catch criminals. And for them to end up in the dock when they are just doing their job

00:43totally undermines confidence in them. And so I want to put on record my thanks to those

00:48brave firearms officers. We value them. We need them. But we do need to, if necessary,

00:54challenge the system so that they know that they are protected and enabled in that very

00:59difficult job.