I don’t think anybody is suggesting that people can be shot by the police without question, Eddie, and that’s certainly not what has happened here. As your article points out, there have been numerous enquiries and investigations culminating in a full jury inquest, led by a senior circuit judge. Nothing in your article is material not known to that inquest and, as far as I can see, no fresh evidence has come to light.
I think that those who are saying that “enough is enough” have a valid point. The question worth addressing is, had that jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing, would an appeal against that decision have been granted? I think it highly unlikely which leads people to believe that the enquiries will only cease when the “right” verdict has been reached.
I am the first to defend the exhaustion of the proper legal process and if the family are entitled to an appeal then so be it. But I have a faint suspicion that if the appeal does not go in their favour it will not be the last we hear from them. Their demand for “justice” is not that at all. Justice will always leave one of the parties disappointed. Their demand is for the people who killed Duggan – who were doing a difficult and dangerous job and who did not have six months to mull the matter over in agreeable surroundings - to be punished, whether the killing was held to be lawful or not. Nothing else will do for them.