Amending The London “Bomber” Shooting
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in The War On Terrorism, The WorldWe first blogged about this here and here.
Now, more details are coming out, and they make the police officers on duty look very bad.
…the evidence given to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) by police officers and eyewitnesses and leaked to ITV News shows that far from leaping a ticket barrier and fleeing from police, as was initially reported, he was filmed on CCTV calmly entering the station and picking up a free newspaper before boarding the train.It has now emerged that Mr de Menezes:
· was never properly identified because a police officer was relieving himself at the very moment he was leaving his home;
· was unaware he was being followed;
· was not wearing a heavy padded jacket or belt as reports at the time suggested;
· never ran from the police;
· and did not jump the ticket barrier.
But the revelation that will prove most uncomfortable for Scotland Yard was that the 27-year-old electrician had already been restrained by a surveillance officer before being shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder.
Previously, I have stated to friends and colleagues that the officer’s actions were understandable given that the guy ran down into the subway station and jumped the ticket barrier after being shouted down by police. If the above proves to be true, my opinion will completely change.
True, it happened during a very crazy time in London, but there’s no way I’ll ever be able to justify that this man’s death was something that “terrorism” caused. Sure, it was certainly a big part of it, but this is more akin to gross negligence brought about by fear and incompetence, which is much different.
And by the way, Jean Charles de Menezes’ family has called for an inquiry into the shooting. After learning about this new evidence, I’d expect they’d be calling for more than that.
(HT: Balloon Juice)
UPDATE: 11:21 pm CMT
Dean’s World has a great post/mea culpa on this situation.
