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August 17, 2005

When the Establishment Lies, Trust Dies

The Blogosphere is buzzing over what the British press is calling a "leaked" Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) report that seems to offer clear and convincing evidence, if not evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, that Brazilian Electrician Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, was executed on July 22, 2005. According to the Associated Press, he "was shot seven times in the head" by a policeman involved in the investigation of the failed, July 21, 2005, bombing of a subway train and a bus London.

When this item was posted on August 17, 2005, Technorati, which boasts that it is tracking 15 million sites and 1.4 billion links, had 7,383 posts about the de Menezes execution. Based on the posts I've read at Technorati, London's Metropolitan Police is not doing too well in the public relations department. As the Times Online notes in an August 18, 2005 editorial:

At the time of the shooting, Scotland Yard said that Mr de Menezes clothing and his behaviour at the [Stockwell] station were suspicious. This claim was buttressed by witnesses who claimed that he was wearing a bulky jacket on a hot day and that he leapt over the ticket barrier at Stockwell station.

Now, it turns out that he was wearing only a light denim jacket at the time of his death: perfectly appropriate garb for the time of year. Nor was he carrying a bag or rucksack. There is apparently CCTV footage that shows him walking normally into the station, picking up a free newspaper and using his Oyster card to pass through the barrier. He allegedly began to run only when he saw a train pulling into the station, after which he boarded it and sat down in an ordinary fashion.

After I'd read similar accounts in about a dozen British publications, I found myself being thankful that some one at London' Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) was honorable enough to leak their findings to ITV News, to prevent a coverup and someone getting away with murder. I wish people in the U.S. State Department, the Pentagon, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the White House had the courage to leak documents about the lies, policy disputes and coverups surrounding the decisions to invade and occupy Iraq and Al-Qaida's September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. On that the issue of leaking for the public good, the British have shown for more courage to challenge the propaganda and coverups than have we Americans.

On the other hand, if documents were leaked in the U.S., the question is: would the owners of American media conglomerates allow their editors to publish articles based on the documents?

Finally, as I checked the Blogosphere to see how bloggers took the latest de Menezes news, I came across a post at A North American Patriot headlined "I owe Jean Charles de Menezes an apology." The writer, who describes herself as "A Canadian conservative atheist with a passion for justice," wrote, in part:

News reports are now indicating, that the stories being told, about the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, were greatly exaggerated, or worse, patently false.

I have rarely been one to refuse to admit, when I've been wrong, so I am obliged to do so, now.

In a previous post, I made reference to these false reports, and came to the conclusion that his death was justified, under the circumstances. I will say now, that if these new reports are true, then there was absolutely no justification, for the deadly force, used against him.

Detailed in the reports, is a refutation of the original claim, that he ran from police, when confronted -

They now suggest the Brazilian had walked into Stockwell Tube station, picked up a free newspaper, walked through ticket barriers, started to run when he saw a train arriving and was sitting down in a train when he was shot.

"I can certainly understand the tenterhooks, on which the British police had been hung, following the bombings, in London, but this kind of action, will only serve to boost the opposition, to any manner of policing the threat," the writer added.

Let's see if the British police will apologize for seeming engaging in a coverup of an execution.

Posted by Munir Umrani at August 17, 2005 09:20 PM

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