Thursday, August 25, 2005

The last on the brazillian

This is the last I’m sayin on the Brazilian shot dead by London cops.
It seems the police did indeed screw up. From sources such as The Guardian, NPR and various websites, here’s what happened, based on the leaked documents.
Jean Charles de Menezes left his apartment, at this time there was a cop shift change. There was one cop on watch, and he was taking a leak into the bushes. The new shift arrived, pointed to the person leaving the apartment, and asked the peeing cop “is that him” The reply, apparently was “I think so”
He was then followed, silently. He apparently then caught a bus to the tube station, and was still followed by plain-clothed cops. At the tube station, he did not jump the barriers, or run. Instead, he picked up a free newspaper, and used his travelcard to get thru the barrier. He walked down the escalator, and only ran when he seen the train pulling in. (people run when they see a train pulling in as there is only about a 10 second window to get onto the train). This was apparently the first time the cops identified themselves to him, seconds before they filled his head with 9’s. The large coat turned out to be a denim jacket. There was never any attempt by him to escape the cops, he was not chased, and he was dead seconds after the cops made him aware they were after him.
The released stories were conjured up by hearsay and the press; seems the cops were quite happy to allow the public to believe the press story rather than the truth.
Bottom line is, whether they believed they were right or wrong, they should not have did what they done.
While lethality like this sure is a warning to those who may think about running onto a train with bomb, it’s turning the UK into a police state. The only good thing is that the cops will take better care when deciding to eliminate a “threat”.
5 years ago, I would never have said this. Now I’m sayin it.. its about time the cops (ALL COPS) are armed in the UK.

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