quote:An innocent Brazilian man shot dead by British police who mistook him for a London bombing suspect had taken a seat on a train and was tackled by a police surveillance officer before being shot, according to an account of events broadcast today.
quote:Britain's ITV television news, citing security footage, claimed today that Menezes entered the station at a normal walking pace, stopping to pick up a newspaper.
The television station claimed that witness accounts, included in an investigation report into the shooting, said Menezes was seated on the train before being shot.
If this is true, I'm not sure "whoops" covers it.
Someone in the previous post about called me a liar when I called this a "just in case" shooting, assuming that I was quoting from the article. Other people here have defended the actions of the police, happy and secure in the knowledge that our security forces are keeping us safe by shooting citizens who don't look like us.
If this is true, what's your reaction now?
Posted by TheDisgruntledPostman (Member # 7200) on :
in times like we are in, things like this are going to happen.
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
I hope that doesn't excuse it in your mind. That way lies things like internment camps and fear of all the swarthy people.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
If he was not in fact fleeing from the police -- if he in fact simply boarded the train after stopping to pick up a newspaper, then sat down, and was then shot several times after being pulled out of his seat and subdued by another officer -- then I'm hard-pressed to come up with any explanation other than situational incompetence on the part of the officers.
Posted by Shan (Member # 4550) on :
I am very saddened, Troubs. And frightened.
Posted by Hamson (Member # 7808) on :
Look at the photos at the top of the page! How could they even MISTAKE the two! I bet they wouldn't even look the same from the back! With a hat on! Plus, why would the guy theat bombed the train before without harming himself, this time go on the train he was going to bomb, with dozens of officers on the lookout for him?
Posted by TheDisgruntledPostman (Member # 7200) on :
Bob, i'd never think something like that is right. Those cops were profiling, which is bad, very bad.
Posted by James Tiberius Kirk (Member # 2832) on :
Wow.
I really hope this isn't true.
--j_k
Posted by Jim-Me (Member # 6426) on :
Me too. As someone who defended the police in this particular situation, based on what was released early on, I have to say *this* story makes it look rather horrific and criminally incompetent.
Posted by Troubadour (Member # 83) on :
Keep in mind as well - the Sydney Morning Herald isn't a junk paper - it's a major-league respected daily in Australia and isn't prone to publishing less than solid stories.
Yahoo news has also picked this up: linky WARNING - GRAPHIC IMAGE.
If you choose to look at the image, you can see that the guy who was shot is clearly wearing a light denim jacket, not a heavy coat as previously claimed.
Posted by Xavier (Member # 405) on :