Sunday, July 24, 2005

Man shot by British cops not terrorist

This is a real shocker. Man shot by British cops not terrorist. (It looks like I do regret it.)

British police hunting London bombers yesterday admitted killing a Brazilian electrician by mistake -- a blunder that dealt a blow to their efforts to track down militants they fear could strike again...

Police expressed regret for having killed the Brazilian man a day earlier and identified the victim as Jean Charles de Menezes, a 27-year-old electrician who had been living in London for three years.

I guess he thought Immigration was after him when he took off. Looks like this is what is given up. You'd think police had more on the guy than it looks like they had. In fact, it looks like they had nothing.

What a terrible thing.

UPDATE 7/26: Contrary to what I posted, it looks like he was there legally. As to why he would run, someone has suggested that being followed by men who end up brandishing weapons would make anybody run.

Someone once said that if it is a choice between stability and freedom, societies will choose stability. [Originally wrote "freedom" but that was not what I meant.] We in the West may think that people fundamentally desire freedom. That may be true to some extent in the West because the West has been so stable for years. But it is not really true. Others not of the West would just as soon have stability. They have seen what freedom can do and what change can do and they don't like it. And even in the West what will people think about freedom if the bombs keep going off, in the malls, the stores, at public gatherings, at any place we go to as part of our lives? If it is a choice between this or giving up freedom, I think society will choose giving up freedom every time.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The man did jump the turnstile and knew that he was disobeying orders to halt.

Why would he committ these petty crimes and THEN try to enter the subway.

Its possible that he was involved in more - not terrorism but perhaps drugs?