It was a terrible decision for the police involved and it will live with them for ages.
He could have been wired to explode and they would have risked the lives of many around them had they not taken action. Yet again he may not have understood who was chasing him and why? (He had been in the UK for 3 years so you would hope he would understand English!).
I don’t think you can label this as any thing other than a very unfortunate accident. The press cannot be allowed to use this to drive a wedge between the police and the public. If we allow this wedge to increase, the bombers will succeed. Let us educate the public that if challenged, STOP. Do not leave unattended items, do cooperate at all times.
We must help the police and authorities in this problem and not put them in the position that they were placed in this unfortunate instance. My heart goes out to both the family and friends of Jean Charles de Menezes and to the officers involved.
As to whether the police have a shoot to kill policy, the press need to rename this as Shoot to Save Lives.
Anyone would run from a bunch of officer not wearing their uniform, to me I’ll run my ass of, their probably terriosts. If this is true, this is not an accident, but an act of racism. I’m ashame of the officer…
Matt Johnson
Racism my arse. You can just imagine them saying, “Oh look, there is a black guy with a rucksack, lets go take him down and really make us friends with the local community”…
Somehow I don’t think that was the case or anything remotely like it.
And before I go any further, I don’t think it was the right decision, but under the circumstances it was the best one they could make at the time with the information available.
Before you go playing the racist card, have a look at the facts surrounding it. He was under observation in a suspect house. He then left the house and headed towards a tube station. He failed to stop when challenged. He then ran away from police. Plain clothed or not, they identified themselves. He then made it onto a tube train where for one they did not know if he was going to explode taking innocents around him with himself. So they shot him.. (Eight times?? A bit severe, but it stops someone from pressing the button).
Some say he thought that they may have been the Brazlian secret police ? Nah..
Some say his visa had run out. So what..
To me, if you run, you have something to hide.
I’m not saying that I wouldn’t run away if the circumstances were right, but then I was not in London where there had been attacks on the tubes and buses. I would not have run to a bloody tube station for one.
Bad decisions were made on both sides, but don’t for one minute play the race card. That just shows you ignorance.
Get your head out of your rear and look at real life for once.
The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes
As leaked documents appear to throw new light on the mistaken shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, BBC News Website looks at the passage of events which led to his death and what followed. A few weeks back I…