Jean Charles de Menezes was shot EIGHT times, not five as earlier reported. This was confirmed yesterday by a medical inquest into his death.
He was shot seven times in the head, SEVEN!!! times (what does that tell you about the man who pulled the trigger) and once in the shoulder by an undercover officer at Stockwell Tube station in south London.
PM Tony Blair said he was 'desperately sorry' for the death of Menezes, and added:
"At the same time, therefore, in expressing our sorrow and deep sympathy for the death that has happened, it is important that we allow the police …….. and support them in doing the job they have to do in order to protect people in this country."
Fair enough. At least it's not as moronic and insensitive as Charles Clarke's 'congratulations' to the police.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission promised a fair investigation of Menezes' killing. Its chairman declared:
"We enter this with open minds, as we search for the truth, and we have accepted the full co-operation of the Metropolitan Police service, which they have pledged. Firearms officers have a unique and awesome responsibility. I believe they and the public accept they must be accountable for how they exercise that responsibility."
Now, he's talking!
"But I think that both the police service and public expect that the process of accountability should be proportionate and fair, and that those who judged — with hindsight and in the comfort of an office — the actions that firearms officers take when split-second life-and-death decisions have to be made, do so with great care and a degree of humility."
He's right. We cannot exclude the possibility of extenuating circumstances, but the investigation ought to look at the following points:
(1) 8 shots on a bloke who was already pinned down - one wonders about the professionalism, training and state of mind of the police officer responsible.
(2) If the police had trailed him from the house under surveillance, and they had reasons to believe he was a suicide bomber, meaning he had explosives strapped under his jacket, why wasn't he stopped earlier? Why wait until he entered the Tube? It's all very dodgy.
As one reader in a Sydney newspaper wrote (basically what I mentioned in a previous post):
"One shot at close range to the head sounds like an action to eliminate a terrorist threat. Five shots at close range to the head sounds like an execution."
Eight shots? Sounds like an execution conducted with over-the-top violence a la the Israeli doctrine.
eight shots do seem excessive. but then again, have u considered that the police might've been trained to BE SURE that the target is dead? And what could be surer than eight shots to the head?
ReplyDeleteIt's a bad business this, i agree. But would you be adopting the same tone had the coppers got the right man?
Even the "right" man doesn't require 8 shots! Ask yourself, who would fire 8 times into a man's head to kill an extremely dead man?
ReplyDeletesomeone trained to take a target out for one. perhaps he didn't specifically count off the shots, he was emptying his clip. and i don't think he bent over to check the dead guy's pulse after a shot or two before continuing with the other rest.
ReplyDeletethe guy was mistaken for a suicide bomber. On an underground. Right after the bombings. If i were the cop, i'd definitely want to make sure that there would be absolutely no chance in hell that a bomb would go off there killing the peanut gallery with their noses pressed to the windows and me along with them.
Well mate, I wonder whether you've fired an automatic before, but one single shot to the head makes one hell of a mess. No matter how much a bloke wants to make sure the person shot is dead, a professional doesn't require more than two shots max at most.
ReplyDeleteIf a policeman pulls the trigger until the magazine is emptied, I don't think much of his training or professionalism. In fact, he should be counting each shot fired if he was a professional, unless of course he was so consumed with hatred, acquired because of personal feelings or through indoctrination.
Lol, experience with an automatic or not, I'm pretty sure one shot makes a hell of a mess too. Still, in dealing with a possible suicide bomber, I'd want to be damn sure there isn't enough brain matter left to process pressing a trigger button.
ReplyDeleteThen again, what nom de guerre mentioned in one of your posts above makes a whole lot of sense too. The copper could've been in a right state of panic especially if that was his first time actually shooting at a live target, stopping to count each shot might not've been very high on his list of priorities.