Well, I’ve been reading and participating in a few political discussions over at several groups I belong to at Flickr.
I certainly don’t wish to create yet another heated debate here BUT – was it entirely neccessary to pump five bullets at close range into the head of a man who as it turns out was innocent? I’m surprised that most people I know think ‘yes’ it was. Personally, I’m not so sure.
I am also ashamed to admit that I have had my random moments of fear and un-founded suspicion. Like a week a go I saw a man with a new black rucksack waiting to get on my train – I chose not to get on the train as I judged him and judged him wrongly. I felt incredibly stupid for doing that. Last Thursday I had a second of heart-stopping panic as again, in a packed train I saw a man fiddling with a black wire. He was de-tangling a mobile phone charger cable which was not attached to anything at either end – but I had to check first.
Apparently, the Brazilian man that was shot dead by the police at Stockwell had changed his normal route to work as he was afraid of further terrorist attacks. How ironic is that? A friend I was talking to about it reminded me that we are ‘at war’ (well, no we are not officially but I see what he means) and in war innocent people get killed. I’m not so sure I agree with that but I know there are alot of people that would.
Personally, I think the police over-reacted at Stockwell. Seeing as they had caught up with their suspect and had over-powered him enough to pump five bullets into his head, it surely wouldn’t have taken a second more to immobilise him safely, search and take him away to investigate further? The ‘wires’ that were seen coming out of his coat were probably nothing more than headphones but my point is that sometimes people see what they want to see – re: my phone charger wire above. It takes less than a second to check.
I know, I know – his big maistake was to run away when cautioned to stop but there must have been other reasons for that – and why we’ll probably never know. Sad and occasionally depressing that we have to live in such increasingly Orwellian times.
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