HEY MOE-HAMMUD!
Posted on 07/24/2005 3:31:09 AM PDT by Hadean
Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Ian Blair today admitted further people could be shot as detectives hunt down the would-be suicide bombers who tried to bring further carnage to London last week.
His comments followed the fatal shooting of innocent Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, who was killed by undercover police officers on Friday morning as he tried to board a Tube train at Stockwell, south London.
Sir Ian admitted there was a “shoot-to-kill policy” for tackling suicide bombers and it would not change, although the death of Mr de Menezes was a “tragedy”.
“Somebody else could be shot. But everything is done to make it right,” Sir Ian told Sunday with Adam Boulton on Sky News.
“This is a terrifying set of circumstances for individuals to make decisions.”
Sir Ian defended the actions of his officers, saying: ``What we have got to recognise is that people are taking incredibly difficult fast time decisions in life threatening situations.
“It wasn’t just a random event and what’s most important to recognise is that it’s still happening out there.
“There are still officers out there having to make those calls as we speak.”
He said Mr de Menezes had emerged from a “not very large” block of flats which had been under surveillance before he was followed to Stockwell station.
The shoot-to-kill procedures for dealing with suicide bombers would remain in place.
“They have to be that because there is no point in shooting at someone’s chest because that is where the bomb is likely to be,” he said.
“There is no point in shooting anywhere else if they fall down and detonate it.
“It is drawn from experience from other countries, including Sri Lanka. The only way to deal with this is to shoot to the head.”
(Excerpt) Read more at breakingnews.ie ...
Wrong. This cop did exactly as he was trained to do and it was a correct call in the given circumstances.
If the next one hesitates then he, his partners, and any civilians standing nearby could be dead in the blast.
As previously stated, don't run from cops, keep your hands in sight at all times, and follow directions given.
This is war, in war it's a given that innocent people are going to die. So far, worldwide, there have been tens of thousands of innocent dead from terrorist actions, and now we have one from police.
Don't be stupid, don't get shot.
Spandex
That's assuming these guys actually intend to commit suicide.
What surprises me about this, and the many other similar comments on this and related threads, is how little attention people seem to be giving to the effects of a panic reaction. Everybody seems to be proposing various scenarios - that he was innocent as now stated, that he was slightly guilty (perhaps of some unrelated petty crime), that he was very guilty (of some terrorist involvement), that he was seeking 'suicide by police', etc. etc: and then seeking to rationalise his actions from that point on. Failing to discover such a rationale, he is simply then dismissed as 'stupid'. Is it not possible that this man, in a foreign country, perhaps already apprehensive after recent events in London, and suddenly confronted by a group of non-uniformed men shouting at him and waving guns, simply panicked? If panic takes hold, by definition you do not act rationally, and the flight reaction can simply take over irresistibly, and in this case fatally. The facts that he could understand English, or that in other circumstances he would perfectly well understand that you don't run when told to stop by an armed policeman, then become irrelevant.
How many of us could say with absolute certainty that we would not panic and flee in similar circumstances? I couldn't be that certain - assuming, that is, that my aging legs were capable of flight.
Why didn't this man STOP when ordered to do so? There is no doubt he heard the police or else he wouldn't have run. To bad he had to die but maybe his death will save the lives of other innocents who will think twice before running from the police.
Are you saying you think the Brazillian story is a cover? That the dude really was a muzzie, and was carrying a bomb? I can see the police taking a little egg on the face to keep certain things quite, but this? I don't know. Pershaps I've misunderstood.
Seems obvious they suspected him of something or else they wouldn't have asked him to stop. I fully support the action of the police here and this sort of action along with strict racial profiling will go a long way in stopping these animals.
We still lack an explanation for why he wore a heavy coat in the middle of the summer, any why he jumped the turnstile. Not capital crimes, but it's almost as if he wanted to be perceived as a terrorist.
HEY MOE-HAMMUD!
I’ve only read the initial reports (for what they’re worth). They stated that he was an illegal immigrant that didn’t speak English.
Touchdown?
That's incorrect. According to the Met Police he had been living legally in London for at least 3 years.
Why do we need an explanation? Every time I walk down my crowded local High Street I see a few people who are unseasonably or otherwise eccentrically dressed (and that isn't just teenagers, for whom the concept of the passing seasons doesn't seem to exist in this age of central heating and air conditioning.) I know several elderly gents who persist in wearing short trousers throughout the winter. There could be a thousand plausible reasons for his wearing a heavy coat. We don't have an enforceable public dress code in this country, thank goodness.
Head shots will work until the suicide bombers start using deadman (pressure release) switches. Then, once armed, it won't matter where you shot them because they will release pressure on the switch as a function of brain shutdown.
Although it is impossible to know, I have to wonder why the Brazilian man fled and ignored orders. Illegally in Britain? Didn't speak English well enough to understand what the police were telling him? And what about the bulky coat? One account I read said he had tools underneath it. Odd place to carry tools. Maybe the man was a day time burgler who got mistaken for something else.
It is a shame if he was truly innocent but I agree with the other postings here. If you are a brown skinned man wearing a heavy coat in the summer in London while a spate of suicide and backpack bombings are going on, you had better stop immediately when the police tell you too. Oh, and if you don't speak the Queen's English, you might want to learn some fast, since "I don't understand" in your language just might be mistaken for "Allah hu Akbar" by an excited Metropolitan police officer with immediate fatal consequences to you.
Well, it sucks for him that his eccentricities happen to correspond rather precisely to the terrorist modus operandi.
Oh my....shoot to kill? Is there any other reason to shoot?
Me too!! I am so glad to see the Brits getting tough. Good form!
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