Saturday, July 23, 2005

Oops. Never Mind. Terribly Sorry About That Whole Shooting-You-To-Death Thing

Okay, raise your hand if this surprises you:
The British police said today that a man officers chased and then gunned down at point-blank range in front of horrified subway passengers on Friday had nothing to do with the inquiries into London’s wave of bombings.

(snip)

"Nevertheless the man who was shot was under police observation because he had emerged from a house that was itself under observation because it was linked to the investigation of yesterday’s incidents," Friday’s statement said.

"He was then followed by surveillance officers to the station. His clothing and his behaviour at the station added to their suspicions," the statement said, apparently referring to reports that the man was wearing bulk jacket on a summer’s day.

Seems like the bar for use of deadly force has been set pretty low. In a civilized country like the U.S., he merely would have been put away in Gitmo for the rest of his natural life without legal recourse - that's how real democracies do things.

7 comments:

Phila said...

I think you're missing the point. Sure, the guy was innocent. But if he hadn't been, shooting him five times in the head would've been too good for him. Have you all forgotten 9/11?

Anonymous said...

I wouold rather die then live in the states with you nutcase yankees. 9/11 get over it!

Eli said...

Well, all the more reason to take him alive so he can be properly tortured for decades and decades!

NYMary said...

OT: You've been tagged!

oldwhitelady said...

Oh, thank you for posting that. I hadn't read the newspapers nor looked at media over the weekend. How come I'm not surprised?

Ol' Froth said...

Considering that most police in London are uniformed an unarmed, I wonder if this guy was running because he thought he was about to be robbed?

Eli said...

I'm not sure it really matters - if you see a crowd of angry guys running at you, I think your instinct is going to be to run away and wonder about what they wanted later.