Chris Kaba trial ‘a farce’ – former Met firearms officer

On Wednesday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced reforms to give anonymity to firearms officers facing trial over the shooting of a suspect, unless they are convicted.

Mr Long said he thought it was the “correct decision”.

“The home secretary’s proposal doesn’t have any real repercussions; there’s no real reason for the jury to know his name or for the public to know, until such time as he’s found guilty.

“If we, as a society, expect people to run into danger to protect us with guns, it sounds foolish and unfair to prosecute them and name them in the aftermath (of a charge).”

When asked about how black people might feel about the shooting of Mr Kaba, Mr Long said: “I think the large majority of the black community feel the same as the white community: they’ve read what Chris Kaba was; the veil is up and they know that he wasn’t a good person.

“We talk about terrorism – no-one is concerned if police shoot terrorists – but really I think the black community may feel very unsafe, more unsafe than other communities, because of things like knife crime and gun crime in their community.

“They suffer disproportionately from the likes of Chris Kaba.”