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A Fine Line...

Like many more around the world, I will chip in on the whole Civil Liberties malarky in light of the recent shooting of a Brasilian man in London.

The man was 'chased' by 5 armed plain clothes men, into a tube station, he jumped a barrier, and tripped and when he fell, these armed plain clothes men shot him 5 times in the manner of an execution.

Those 5 men were police men in plain clothes. The Brasilian was just a man (thus far no connection to terrorism or organised crime has been discovered).

The shooting has been justified by many on the grounds that we cannot be sure that he wasn't a suicide bomber, and so in the interest of the many we had to let the police run a pre-emptive strike and execute him.

What do I think? Well I think there is a heck of a fine line here, and though many are justified in suggesting we cross it and shoot people dead, I prefer the 'hold the line' command and suggest we wait. Lets extrapolate the Stockwell Tube Shooting to 'other' situations in this climate of 'TERROR' (I love that word huh).

A man is bending down to tie his shoelace, he just happens to be bending down next to a bus stop. He has a rucksack on his back. A man comes up to him with a gun, tells him to put his hands up and give him his wallet and ID. The man gives his wallet and ID, the brand new one, and the guy with the gun runs away with it. He wasn't a plain clothes policeman, just an identity thief.

Now how's that for FLIPSIDE?

So you see, there's a fine line, and unlike the US Policeman (sorry folks, I don't admire the fact that people have to carry weapons of mass destruction on them like a fully automatic gun) our policemen should prefer the usual policies they have employed against the IRA etc. The British have always been reserved - lets reserve our civil liberties. They are not for sale - no matter who is bombing us or why. We can defeat them, like we have defeated other foes in our history.
--
dp

Posted 7/23/2005.

Comments:

  1. Blogger Damo says @ 12:37 am
    This whole thing is becoming an astonishing and depressing mess. I don't know what else to say.
  2. Blogger Aravis says @ 6:09 am
    Yes well, our police like to bring people in for questioning rather than shooting them outright, and may only shoot to kill when their own lives are threatened in an obvious manner, such as the perp raising a gun or knife to use against the police or a bystander. The behavior of your police officers was apalling, and I'd think the same if it happened here instead. The same scenario here would see those police officers suspended, investigated and perhaps even charged.
  3. Blogger LB says @ 11:13 am
    it does get a bit "Minority Report" doesn't it if we are shooting people becuase we think they might commit a crime in the future....

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