A SPEAKER’S CORNER

The new information about Jean’s visa irregularity has come late and smacks of an attempt to give justification to Jean’s reason to run. Other details have emerged from the coroners inquest revealling that the official version of events is wrong on yet another count – he was in fact shot eight times: seven times in the head and once in the shoulder.

Yesterday the authorities were telling us that Menezes was a legal immigrant who had been here for three years. Now we are told Jean had been in the UK on an out-of-date student visa. Some feel this claim is controversial given that he only recently returned from a prolonged visit to Brazil. Any visa irregularities would almost certainly have been picked up at immigration, who are particularly hot on Brazilian illegals, for whom London is a favourite destination. There have been protests in the UK and Brazil into the shooting, an official inquiry will be launched and the family are obviously highly emotional, talks of sueing authorities are unconfirmed.

Human rights lawyer Imran Khan called for a radical change in policy on shoot-to kill tactics.

“There’s been a mistake, mistakes have been made; my fear is the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police is saying that this could potentially happen again,” he said.

“Now what does that do to the community, the community is not going to be confident in a police force that admits it can make mistakes.”

Labour peer Lord Ahmed warned that illegal immigrants would try to run away if challenged by police.

“And whilst we need to catch those illegal immigrants or asylum seekers, nevertheless we can’t shoot them because they’re not terrorists,” he said.

Next time it’s probably going to an innocent muslim youth and the backlash that’ll ignite is not worth thinking about. The police obviously have an impossible job on their hands, they are indeed only human. At this time they must be highly professional in their attitudes, investigations and actions. I hope this can be achieved and think it demands that in return the public offer them respect and patience.

More detailed reports on the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes indicate that he was followed from an apartment complex in Tulse Hill, near Stockwell, an ethnically mixed blue-collar neighborhood, thats a block of flats, not a house. He boarded a bus and plainclothes police bolted after him only when he left the bus and headed for the tube station. Witnesses said Jean ran from them towards the platform:

“He looked like a cornered rabbit, a cornered fox, absolutely petrified. They pushed him onto the floor, bundled on top of him and unloaded five shots into him. I saw it. He’s dead.” said Mark Whitby, one of the witnesses.

Ian Blair, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, told reporters that officers had ordered the man to halt and had opened fire only after he failed to obey. But none of the witnesses reported hearing any warning (sic. Washington Post).

The shooting took place under shoot-to-kill, shoot-to-the-head guidelines to deal with the threat of suicide bombers. While officials would not publicly discuss the guidelines, sources told British reporters that a senior officer is authorised to deploy special armed units to track and, if necessary, shoot dead suspected suicide bombers. The officers are advised to shoot such assailants in the head to keep them from setting off explosives.

The guidelines are based in part on procedures used by the Israeli and Sri Lankan authorities in intercepting suicide bombers. But police officials insist officers still must follow the law, which only allows the use of reasonable force in preventing a crime. The guidelines of the Association of Chief Police Officers say police should not open fire except when someone’s life is in danger and there is no other way to stop the assailant.

I met Jean last month in Guanabara- a Brazilian club in Holborn, through friends at my Capoeira class. I saw him there again the Saturday before he was shot, we exchanged a few words once more. On Friday 22/7 shortly after 10:00am he was pinned down by plainclothes policeman on the floor of a Northern line train at Stockwell tube station and shot in the head five times. I can’t say I knew him well, we talked about his time in the UK about his work as an electrician about pursuing women, the usual stuff. I think I bought him a drink, or maybe he bought me one. He seemed a good human being, I remember being impressed by his loyalty to his friends - he was very observant and sensitive to the people around him.

He was working legally as an electrician and had been in the UK for three years. He was resident in Brixton and had close friends in the Brazilian community. He was from Gonzaga in the State of Minas Gerais. Scotland Yard has stated he was “completely unconnected” with the attacks.

His English was good, but I wouldn’t say he was completely fluent. He was pursued by up to 20 normally dressed men who screamed at him in a language that was not his own. Jean comes from Brasil, a country where violent crime is a lot more ‘in your face’ than it is over here. A group of plainclothes men screaming at you, chasing you, you run. Brasilian police are known to shoot the public indiscriminantly, there was an incident last month - 30 killed. Maybe Jean had thoughts about this when he ran, I don’t know. Watch “Bus 174″.

I am shocked by this. It’s the first personal connection I’ve had to events and suddenly it comes into starker focus. What on Earth were the police thinking? Jean was so far removed from any terrorist links, so obviously not invloved. This ‘trigger happy’ event was a terrible error by the police and it seriously colours the impression I have of their ‘investigation’. Jean was an innocent young man, reacting with confusion to what sounds to me like police chaos and desperation. A shooting like this - and the manner in which it was carried out - is only justifiable in a situation of the utmost certainty. BBC article and photos of Jean.

In the days that follow (sic. 7/7) look at our airports, look at our sea ports and look at our railway stations and, even after your cowardly attack, you will see that people from the rest of Britain, people from around the world will arrive in London to become Londoners and to fulfil their dreams and achieve their potential.

They choose to come to London, as so many have come before because they come to be free, they come to live the life they choose, they come to be able to be themselves.