Metropolitan Guns
So Megan and I were in Taco Bell eating earlier this eveningfternoon and I was reading an article on the anti-terrorism progress in London. Then I read this..(paraphrased because I can’t find the article online)…
Suspect pursued into Subway, tackled and shot 5 times. Witnesses say he was not carrying any bags of any sort, but the thick padded jacket he had one seemed odd for the Hot weather
For one thing - Metropolitan Police carrying guns, let alone rifles, is a pretty big deal and really shows the general feeling over there. Secondly - for an organization that doesn’t carry weapons on a regular basis it’s really important to instruct them on we in American Policing call the “Force Continuum”. The Force Continuum is basically the procedure any law enforcement officers uses and dictates the terms in which deadly force may or may not be used.
So when I read this I was pretty shocked - these officers (undercover) chased this guy down and blew his brains out in front of some Tube passengers because he had on a thick jacket. Crazy? Anyone reading this should be reasonable enough to agree that it’s ok to shoot and kill someone who you truely think is gonna run into that Subway car and blow himself up thus killin innocent people. If you don’t agree you are stupid and I stand behind that.
So I read this…I’m shocked…and I hope that when they opened his jacket they found a bomb strapped to him. It was a risky move to shoot in the first place if he had a bomb on him…but whats the less of two evils? It was at this point I decided to blog about this…
So I come home to find the article only to find this..
Man Killed in London Not Linked to Blasts
By PATRICK QUINN
Associated Press WriterLONDON — Police identified the man who was chased down in a subway and shot to death by plainclothes officers as a Brazilian and expressed regret Saturday for his death, saying they no longer believed he was tied to the recent terror bombings.
Friday’s shooting before horrified commuters prompted criticism of police for overreacting and expressions of fear that Asians and Muslims would be targeted by a “trigger-happy culture” after two well-coordinated attacks in two weeks.
The man shot at the Stockwell subway station was identified as Jean Charles de Menezes, 27. Witnesses said he was wearing a heavy, padded coat when plainclothes police chased him into a subway car, pinned him to the ground and shot him in the head and torso.
Hours after the shooting, Police Commissioner Ian Blair said the victim was “directly linked” to the investigations into attacks Thursday and July 7. In the latter, suicide bombings on trains and a bus killed 56 people, including four attackers.
Police initially said the victim attracted police attention because he left a house that was under surveillance after Thursday’s bungled bombings, in which devices planted on three subway trains and a double-decker bus failed to detonate properly. Stockwell is near Oval station, one of those targeted.
“He was then followed by surveillance officers to the station. His clothing and his behavior at the station added to their suspicions,” police said Friday.
But Saturday, a police official said on condition of anonymity that Menezes was “not believed to be connected in any way to any of the London bombings.” The official requested anonymity because no official announcement had been made.
“For somebody to lose their life in such circumstances is a tragedy and one that the Metropolitan Police Service regrets,” a spokesman said on condition of anonymity, which is police policy.
However, police did not explain what went wrong. Citing a need to keep the investigation under wraps, the authorities refused to give any indication whether Menezes had done anything wrong at all….
There was no bomb! He probably wasn’t a terrorist! A criminal perhaps..
He walked out of a building under surveillance - he disobeyed police when they tried to stop him (presumably before he got anywhere close to the Subway). He got a bullet in his head.
I understand the stress associated with making sure more bombs aren’t set off - ecspecially in a place where it’s happend within 7 days of each other. I understand use of force, and I understand making a last ditch effort to stop someone who you think it about to kill a bunch of innocent people…
I just won’t understand if the Metropolitan Police don’t learn a lot from this and change these immediately.
Don’t think this is a big deal? Wait till it happens on the streets of America to someone who has a mental disability.