Excellent. More cojones than I thought the PC Brits had...
Why didn't Sir Ian Blair of Scotland Yard have his agents infiltrating radical Muslem groups years ago instead of having his policemen shoot a Brazilian electrician to make the public think the Yard isn't filled with a bunch of incompetents?
The moral to this story is when the police tell you to stop then stop!!!!!!!! This guy was killed by his own stupidity. I'm sure that there will be much liberal hand wringing over this.
"The braver officer will be the one who shoots to kill next time.
198 posted on 07/23/2005 5:55:34 PM PDT by SlowBoat407
A victim of circumstance.
Headshootin' salaameez is a good policy. However, I'm conerned about their descretion. If the cops think you're a bomb toting toady from falafal land, how do you not get shot?
I'm not so sure using the phrase 'shoot to kill' is a smart PR move. He could just explain the reason for the head shots and let it go at that. In fact, it is not so much shoot to kill as shoot to prevent an aggressive action - no different than any police officer or experienced citizen shooter anywhere. Only in this case they have their reasons for the head shots instead of the larger chest area. I mean, they are not so much interested in ending the guy's life as they are stopping the immediate threat of exploding a device. The Commissioner actually explains that toward the end of the piece. A targeted killing is shoot to kill.
Other than that though, this is exactly the way this should be handled. Cut off the debate, Monday morning quarterbacking and agonizing right from the get-go. We knew what we were doing when we made up these rules. We still believe in them. Everyone knows them now and they will not change. Period. Sorry this guy died, but we are at war and these things happen in wartime. No inquiry, no further comment. End of debate.
If the liberals and the press want to moan and groan, then at least they won't have daily reactions and clarifications from the police and politicians with which to pad and drag out the story day after day. I'll bet if the politicians will just shut up and quietly support the Commissioner, opposition to this policy will not get off the ground.
Add Meneze's name to the list of innocent victims of the tube & bus bombings. The real fault for this lies with the terrorists, whose mission is to cause the murder innocent victims. The choice is between accepting Meneze's death as bloody unfortunate collateral damage & moving on or making the terrorists happy with hand-wringing and bashing Scotland Yard, et.al.
I bet they don't anguish over incidents like this in Sri Lanka.
Good to see common sense prevail.
Don't wear a deersuite in a forest full of hunters.
When British police say "stop", it may just be a good idea to do so.
I still don't understand why this guy was supposedly running from police. The more I read, the less I get it. More info here.......
http://www.breakingnews.ie/2005/07/24/story213149.html
BBC
Doctors are calling for a ban on long pointed kitchen knives to reduce deaths from stabbing.
A team from West Middlesex University Hospital said violent crime is on the increase - and kitchen knives are used in as many as half of all stabbings.
They argued many assaults are committed impulsively, prompted by alcohol and drugs, and a kitchen knife often makes an all too available weapon.
The research is published in the British Medical Journal.
The researchers said there was no reason for long pointed knives to be publicly available at all.
They consulted 10 top chefs from around the UK, and found such knives have little practical value in the kitchen.
None of the chefs felt such knives were essential, since the point of a short blade was just as useful when a sharp end was needed.
The researchers said a short pointed knife may cause a substantial superficial wound if used in an assault - but is unlikely to penetrate to inner organs.
In contrast, a pointed long blade pierces the body like “cutting into a ripe melon”.
Actually, I think summary executions would be a good thing in this case.
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.
Oh my....shoot to kill? Is there any other reason to shoot?
The death of Mr de Menezes is another death on the heads of the muslim terrorists.