The shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes by plainclothes police officers of the London Metropolitan Police in a Tube station on 22 July was shocking to say the least. Police justified the shooting by saying he had come from a block of flats which was under observation for being a suspected bomber hideout as well as being dressed in a heavy jacket on a warm day, 17°C being the temperature of the day in question. Jumping over the ticket barrier and running for the train didn't help his cause. Coming a day after 4 bombs fizzled in a botched attempt at a second wave of bombings targeting London's transport system it seemed as if the authorities had finally scored one for the good guys when they announced the shooting was "directly linked" to the bombing investigations.
The next day, the Met revealed the identity of Menezes along with the even more shocking revelation that he wasn't remotely linked to the attempted bombings and more damningly, wasn't carrying any explosives at the time of his death. The Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, apologised to the Menezes family and called the death a "tragedy" but maintained the "shoot to kill" policy concerning suspectedsuicidee bombers would stay.
How Jean Charles de Menezes came to die on the floor of a Tube train presents us all with a little problem. An innocent died at the hands of the police. To be sure, he's not the first. Amadou Diallo comes to mind, but we can explain Diallo away as a case of trigger happy policemen who shot first and asked questions later.
But wait, Menezes looked like a bomber, acted like a bomber. He was shot because he looked like a threat to the policemen of an already frazzled city which had suffered two bomb attacks in the space of two weeks. No matter which way you cut it, Menezes was in the wrong place at the wrong time and wearing the wrong thing. Then again, he's Brazilian, where I'm from, 17°C is pretty damn cold to me, I'm sure it was to him. Okay, so why did he run when police told him to stop? Men dressed in plain clothes start waving guns at you. English isn't your first language. Maybe the accent wasn't didn't help. I don't know. Whatever the case is, Menezes was shot in the head because he looked like a suicide bomber, acted like a suicide bomber. Hindsight is 20/20, don't diss the cops for doing their job.
Sir Ian Blair says Menezes may not be the last, the "shoot to kill" policy stays. To put it crudely, the first time was a freebie, but Menezes Part II? A bit much innit? Where does one draw the line? Locking people up without need to show cause is already a bit much, especially if they're innocent. But to shoot me in the head just because I happen to fit the profile of a suicide bomber? Remind me to wear a singlet if I ever manage to get to London and ride the Tube. Some stuff I rather not regurgitate here and here.
And to top things off, just this morning, Brit police apprehended a suspected bomber of the 22/7 bombings, apparently he had on him a backpack with a "device" in it at the time of his arrest. Uniformed officers took him down with a Taser. Food for thought.
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