A mean death in the subway

August 20, 2005

Guest Post by Morbo

Police in London shot Jean Charles de Menezes to death in the Underground July 22. It was about two weeks after a horrific terrorist bombing had taken the lives of 56 people and one day after some phony bombs had been found in the subway.

Initial police reports disseminated through the news media said that Menezes, a 27-year-old Brazilian who worked as an electrician, was acting suspiciously. He was reportedly wearing a large, billowing coat, had jumped a turnstile and ran onto a train at the Stockwell station in south London.

But leaked documents and videotapes contest all of these claims. As Agence France Presse reported, it turns out that Menezes was wearing a light denim jacket, not unusual for a 65-degree day. He walked calmly into the station and did not jump a turnstile. While Menezes did run to catch the train as it pulled into the station, he boarded it in a normal manner. Furthermore, he was already being restrained by several officers when he was shot in the head seven times.

The news agency reported:

Surveillance footage at Stockwell later captured the electrician arriving at a normal walking pace, collecting a free newspaper, then slowly descending to his train on an escalator. Contrary to witness accounts on the day, he was seen to board the train via the middle doors before pausing, looking left and right, then sitting down in either the second or third seat facing the platform. Moments later, police burst in and apparently restrained the Brazilian before pumping seven bullets into his head and one into his shoulder. Three more bullets missed him and the casings were left on the floor.

Menezes was under surveillance because he lived in a building that police believe also housed suspected terrorists. No evidence has come to light that Menezes was connected in any way to the subway bombing.

One thing we know for sure about terrorists: They seek to destabilize Western society. As incidents like this show, they are succeeding beyond their wildest dreams.

The most “telling” story that I read in the British media really demonstrates the serious lack of value now placed on human lives in the name of the global war on terror, or the struggle against violent extremists, or whatever one wants to call this garbage.

The story is that a policeman assigned to watch the suspect’s building and videotape those who came and went. The policeman was working alone. He needed to “relieve himself” and left his post for a few minutes. During that time, de Menezes left the building on his way to work. The policeman, realizing his error, got the wrong details from passersby, and reported these erroneous details to his fellow policemen at the tube. We know the rest of the story.

So, de Menezes was killed because someone had to take a piss. What a sad and cruelly appropriate metaphor for this great GWOT — our governments will piss on our Constitutional rights and shoot us in the head, all to “protect us.” My question is, “Who will protect us from our government?”

  • My only question in reading this is, when are the Americans going to wake up? Hell, at least in Britian, this is prompting major upheaval and questions. In America, we have a guy arrested in an American airport, the Government says he is a terrorist, and he has been locked away ever since…
    The major point that is sticking to people in Britian right now is the fact that the government lied to them, even after they knew the truth. Maybe in the first few hours of chaos, I can see where they might have been confused. But certainly after reviewing the CCTV, etc, the British government KNEW that they were lying. And THAT is what is making people outraged.
    Where is that outrage in the U.S.? We now have so many documented lies from the president (Oops, just looked at Reuters again… We are fighting in Iraq because of 9/11 again…) that it is unfathomable to me that people are not outraged about this. But, we are not like the British. We enjoy when our government lies to us again, and again, and again.
    Kinda pathetic, actually.

  • For many Americans, as long as the government is protecting them from the “evil doers”, that’s all they need to be supportive of such a government. The rest is just inconsequential details that rarely interfere with their daily, ignorance-is-bliss lives.

  • Here we have a prime suspect terrorist and from the main surveillance vantage point, there was only one person observing? So how important was this terrorist that only one person was watching and when the one and only observer came back from taking a piss, he realised that the prime suspect had moved? Yea right. Em, like he could not radio for assistance even? After all, this suspect was dangerous enough to have been honoured with 7 bullets. Who’s taking the piss?

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