brewnog said:
It's very sad that an innocent man was killed. I'm sure that no amount of sympathy will console his family.
However, I firmly stand by the actions of the police, and firmly support the shoot-to-kill policy which has been introduced for these circumstances. Obviously we don't have a full story yet, but suggestions have been that the man was knowingly running from armed police (for reasons which have been suggested), and had failed to comply with their demands.
If this had happened differently, and the suspect had detonated a bomb on that train, those highly trained police officers would have had hell to pay for not doing what they did on Friday. It's just a great shame that an innocent man died.
There are a few things that are reprehensible about this whole thing that few people take into consideration.
This has been expressed in an Iraqi news service:
[PLAIN said:
http://electroniciraq.net/news/2074.shtml]What[/PLAIN] is already known, therefore, is that almost 24 hours before they saw de Menezes emerge from his house, police had put it under surveillance based on information they found at the scene of one of the attempted bombings at lunchtime the day before. If the overriding goal of the police is to prevent further attacks, why did they not raid the house right away? They might have discovered sooner what they found out too late -- that de Menezes was totally uninvolved in any terrorist plot. The police clearly had more than a "split-second" to act and they need to explain why they did not act.
That was an analysis of people who face bombings on a daily basis.
This person was spotted leaving a house and followed for all the reasons described.
Why was he not challenged while he was not near a populated area?
In Evo's link, witnesses stated that the police did not identify themselves vocally but put on their blue baseball caps.
Some of you have stated he rode a bus to the station ... Nope. But even if he had, this was a target on a previous bombing. Don't you remember the top ripped off a London bus a few days earlier?
The padded coat is now a 'fleece jacket' ... Translation ... Sweatshirt for you Americans. He was wearing a baseball cap, sweatshirt and a pair of baggy pants.
They say they challenged him while he stood in a line to purchase tickets on the tube. So ... that means he was surrounded by probably 20 people at one of 4 ticket machines minimum. Why didn't he detonate.
Why wasn't he shot going down the escalators? If he ran down them, there was nobody else on them. Anyone else ever run for the tube before?
One of you has stated they shot him because a train was entering the station ... no, he was shot ON THE TRAIN.
When they speak of a 'toroso shot' vs. a 'head shot' they are talking about over a distance... sniping him. In this case, they had control of his person. Two police were holding him down while the shot between 5 and 8 bullets into him.
One of you has described the handgun as a Glock 18 set to fully automatic. Have you seen one of these things? http://www.glock.com/g18.htm So tell me what kind of a jacket the plain clothes policeman was wearing to hide this thing that he criticises the suspect.
Also ... FULLY AUTOMATIC ... In a TUBE STATION? A head shot is a precisions shot, not something that is squeezed off with a fully automatic handgun. If there is fear of detonating explosives or shooting bystanders, why fully automatic?
Try an experiment right now. Cock your finger 8 times and see how long it takes. Your finger must travel a full half inch and exert 2.5kg pressure.
I just heard a repoet on Fox News ... they jokingly said, "There are more cameras in these tube stations than they are in this building".
Yeah? So where are all the pictures to back up the story of the police?
Now, about the nature of the explosives ... So far, all the explosives have been delivered in napsacks containing a 1.5 gallon tupperware container for the liquid explosive. EVERY BOMBING WITHOUT EXCEPTION. So did the police suddenly think they got access to better explosives and technology? If so, again, why did they not raid the premesis 24 hours earlier when they had secured the address?
