A SPEAKER’S CORNER

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.