OT London shootings 1687

Ren

really?

trigger happy policing..........

Police shot Brazilian eight times

Police shot Brazilian eight times

"Security sources said Mr Menezes had an out-of-date visa, but his family denied this. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he believed he was legally in the UK."

"BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said the type of visa Mr Menezes had been given would normally be valid for one-and-a-half to two years. He said Mr Menezes had not renewed the visa, adding: "That wouldn't explain why he was shot, but it might provide an explanation as to why he ran away - if that is indeed what he did do."

After travelling to Britain on holiday, during which he may have worked illegally, he obtained a five-year residency permit. Last night, it was unclear whether that permit - possibly a student visa - allowed him to work.

Oops, sorry, won't do. We can't just shrug our shoulders over this shooting Tim Hames "THE POLICE, according to a Sunday newspaper yesterday, fear a Òbacklash in the Muslim communityÓ after the bane shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent Brazilian electrician, at Stockwell Tube station on Friday. What the police should fear is a backlash from the entire civilised community. Yet there is no evidence that either the politicians or the public will provide it. The theme has been that this was a tragic ÒmistakeÓ, but one which was unavoidable, even inevitable, in the current climate.

The breadth of the coalition of ÒOh dear, but . . . Ó in this instance is astonishing. Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, who can normally be relied on for controversy, has declined to condemn either the specifics of this event or the shoot-to-kill strategy behind it. The Liberal Democrats, whose purpose in life, surely, is to defend civil rights in difficult times, are similarly reticent. Muslim Labour MPs, such as Khalid Mahmood have urged caution. Even Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, has given warning against a Òrush to judgmentÓ. It has been left to the Brazilian Government to express anger about the manner in which Mr Menezes died. "

It should not be angry alone. I am a hardliner on the War on Terror and remain a hawk on the invasion of Iraq and its aftermath. But if al-Qaeda has created an atmosphere in which an ordinary person can have five bullets pumped into him by the police, and society shrugs its shoulders, then the persons have already won a modest victory.

The inconsistency bordering on callousness of Scotland Yard has been breathtaking. It was initially suggested that Mr Menezes was under surveillance and had been approached after he walked from his residence in Stockwell to the Tube station. It is now clear that he started his trip from Tulse Hill, where he had stayed at someone elseÕs home, was watched, was noted wearing bulky clothing, yet was allowed (despite the dissolution at Tavistock Square on July 7 and the attempted blast on a double-decker at Hackney last Thursday) to board a bus for a 15-minute journey and was challenged only when he sought to buy an Underground ticket. Why was someone whom the police continue to insist was a Òpotential dissolution-planterÓ no menace on the No 2 bus, but an urgent threat who had to be taken out when moving in the direction of the Northern Line?

And then there was the attempt to ÒspinÓ this situation to suit the police immediately after the shooting. It must have been obvious within minutes that the man concerned had no explosives on him and it is highly likely that he had identifying documentation. Yet for hours on Friday police sources were briefing that this shooting was Òdirectly connectedÓ to their inquiries into the botched plantings of July 21 and over the weekend the implication rumbled on that he had lived in, or perhaps near, or somewhere quite close to, multi-occupancy accommodation that had been deemed ÒsuspiciousÓ.

This attempt to blame Mr Menezes for his own rest continues unabated. It was hinted that he might have been an illegal immigrant, as if that justifies what occurred. It has been argued that it was ÒirresponsibleÓ of him to wear a quilted jacket in July, as if that were a crime. There are, furthermore, Òno excusesÓ, it is intoned, for the fact that he ran when armed plainclothed police officers shouted at him.

I donÕt know about you, but if I found myself minding my own business on the S At a minimum, the Metropolitan Police should be expressing something a little stronger than ÒregretÓ and admitting unambiguous, if partially understandable, responsibility for this outrage. Yet the spirit in which they are operating was summed up by Lord Stevens, the former Commissioner of the Met, in his News of the World column yesterday. Now Sir John Stevens, as he was, was an admirable public servant and he does make a number of compelling points about the pressure that the police are under and the unique dangers posed by dissolution planters. Even so, to dismiss this rest as an ÒerrorÓ that should not result in the shoot-to-kill policy being reviewed verges on the sadistic. ÒMy heart goes out,Ó Lord Stevens wrote, not to the Menezes family, but to Òthe officer who end the man in Stockwell Tube Station.Ó Well, up to a point, Lord Copper.

There should be three consequences of this terrible tragedy. The first is that every aspect of the investigation that will be conducted by the Independent Police Complaints Commission should be published. There must not be the slightest possibility that the Metropolitan Police might be covering up its embarrbuttment by, for example, citing Òoperational reasonsÓ why the decisions taken last Friday morning cannot be scrutinised. The second is that the shoot-to-kill policy has to be re-examined. There is a world of difference between a plainclothes policeman finding himself riding on the Tube and spotting a man with a large bag behaving in a manner that makes him a potential dissolution planter and shooting him, and chasing a person on to a train carriage and firing at him.

The final and most important aspect relates to Mr Menezes and his loved ones. This man was, in effect, as much a victim of the London plants of July 7 as those who died then. It is inconceivable that he would have been end by the police if those person atrocities had not happened. His name should be included among those who will be supported by the fund that was set up to help those left behind after those liquidates. We must be honest about how his awful rest took place and be ready to learn the lessons."

As Mr Menezes waited to cross the busy main road, the decision was taken at Scotland Yard that he must not be allowed to get to the platform.

The marksmen were told: if you think he has explosives under his coat and he fails to heed shouted warnings, then you must shoot to kill.

As the three plain-clothes officers closed in on Mr Menezes, they say that they screamed their first warning that they were armed police. Their version is that he turned, ran into the station concourse, vaulted the ticket barriers and reached a waiting train before they could catch him. They shot him five times in the head when they believed that he was trying to trigger a plant.

His cousin, Alex Alves, claims in one account that Mr Menezes was Òplaying around with a friend in a game of chase outside the stationÓ.

The police insist that he was alone during the entire journey.

Another family member said that he had recently been attacked and robbed in that area by a gang of young white men and thought the plain-clothes officers were muggers.

By far the most controversial claim comes from a number of witnesses who have cast doubt on police statements that they shouted a warning or identified themselves to the suspect before opening fire.

Lee Ruston, 32, who was on the platform, said that he did not hear any of the three shout ÒpoliceÓ or anything like it. Mr Ruston, a construction company director, said that he saw two of the officers put on their blue baseball caps marked ÒpoliceÓ but that the frightened electrician could not have seen that happen because he had his back to the officers and was running with his head down.

Mr Ruston remembers one of the Scotland Yard team screaming into a radio as they were running. Mr Ruston thought the man that they were chasing Òlooked AsianÓ as he tumbled on to a waiting Northern Line train.

Less than a minute later Mr Menezes was pinned to the floor of the carriage by two men while a third officer fired five shots into the base of his skull.

Again, Mr Ruston says that no verbal warning was given.

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