Months ago, I was inspired to write
two diaries about the senseless shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes.
It's late, but I wanted to revisit it and share a few more of my thoughts, in light of this new occurrence.
First off, if you haven't followed the Menezes case, you can either read the excellent
Wikipedia article, or else here's a digest version:
- On July 22nd, in the wake of the July 7th Tube Bombings in London, and the failed July 21st attempts, London police were watching an apartment block believed to be connected to one of the bombing suspects.
- Jean Charles de Menezes, a 27 year-old Brazilian electrician, came out of the apartment block. A surveillance officer noticed that he was wearing a denim jacket on what is apparently considered a warm London day (60°F).
- The surveillance officer radioed HQ that this person seemed suspicious, but was supposed to turn on a camera to send pictures to HQ for them to compare to pictures of the suspects. He didn't, because he was taking a piss.
- Undercover agents followed Menezes to a bus-stop, onboard the bus, and towards Stockwell Tube Station.
- Based on a healthy amount of Confirmation Bias, the undercover agents basically convinced themselves that this completely innocent person must be a terrorist bomber.
- On the train, 7 armed officers rushed him, pinned him to the ground, and shot him 11 times in the head and shoulders with dum-dum (hollow-point, expanding) bullets.
After the incident, the London Metropolitan Police came out and told what we now know to be a pack of malicious lies.
- They said that he ran from police.
- They said he jumped a ticket turnstile.
- They said that they warned him, tried to stop him, and identified themselves as police.
- They said that he probably ran away because he was on an expired work visa, and was afraid of being deported.
- They tried to prevent an official investigation of the shooting under guise of 'national security'.
And it was all lies and ass-covering.
Jean Charles de Menezes was executed like a cow in a slaughterhouse, who doesn't even know the hammer is coming down.
And many thousands of snarking conservatives and liberals alike, even here on dKos, justified it by basically passing off the 'gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette' theory of Homeland Security. Sometimes we have to give up a little freedom for security. Sometimes we'll torture the wrong guy. Sometimes people will get shot in the head, 11 or 12 times. We gotta support the troops, even when they do something senseless and inexcusable, otherwise we'll lose. Just be glad it wasn't you or yours.
And now,we have this. Luckily it was some swarthy immigrant and not a cute white woman who got blown away, so no need for the news to cover it. Rigoberto Alpizar forgot to take his medication, freaked out on a grounded plane, ran off the plane while his frantic wife tried to explain the situation to Air Marshalls, and got shot to death, supposedly for reaching for his back after he was on the jetway, and off the plane. He may have committed the mortal sin of saying 'bomb' on a plane, or he may not have.
I don't think it matters if he said 'bomb'. What we know is that two innocent people have had their heads blown off due to heavy-handed 'shoot-to-kill' policies enacted since 9/11, and those policies haven't yet resulted in shooting an actual terrorist in the act. The policy is 0 for 2.
So either the policy goes, or we have to enact what I suggested back in July:
At the very least there should be multilingual signs in subways, airports, and possibly buses stating the "ground rules" (if challenged by an officer, stop and keep your hands visible, don't carry backpacks with wires hanging out, etc). I mean, we put up a sign to let people know they'll get a ticket for parking in a certain spot, I think that certain death should be treated at least as seriously.
But you are right that simply telling the "truth" about the policy would cause an uproar. If you make it completely clear, like a big yellow sign in the Tube that says "WARNING: SUSPICIOUS DRESS, SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY, OR FAILURE TO OBEY AN OFFICER MAY CAUSE YOU TO BE KILLED", it would have a profound effect on people's perception of a 'free' society.