Our bad

Thought provoking piece from The Times on the new twist which the 'war on terror' took in the UK last week.

Oops, sorry, won't do. We can't just shrug our shoulders over this shooting

THE POLICE, according to a Sunday newspaper yesterday, fear a “backlash in the Muslim community” after the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent Brazilian electrician, at Stockwell Tube station on Friday. What the police should fear is a backlash from the entire civilised community. Yet there is no evidence that either the politicians or the public will provide it. The theme has been that this was a tragic “mistake”, but one which was unavoidable, even inevitable, in the current climate. The breadth of the coalition of “Oh dear, but . . . ” in this instance is astonishing. Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, who can normally be relied on for controversy, has declined to condemn either the specifics of this event or the shoot-to-kill strategy behind it. The Liberal Democrats, whose purpose in life, surely, is to defend civil rights in difficult times, are similarly reticent. Muslim Labour MPs, such as Khalid Mahmood have urged caution. Even Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, has given warning against a “rush to judgment”. It has been left to the Brazilian Government to express anger about the manner in which Mr Menezes died.

It should not be angry alone. I am a hardliner on the War on Terror and remain a hawk on the invasion of Iraq and its aftermath. But if al-Qaeda has created an atmosphere in which an ordinary person can have five (now confirmed as eight) bullets pumped into him by the police, and society shrugs its shoulders, then the terrorists have already won a modest victory.

The story goes on to say

And then there was the attempt to “spin” this situation to suit the police immediately after the shooting. It must have been obvious within minutes that the man concerned had no explosives on him and it is highly likely that he had identifying documentation. Yet for hours on Friday police sources were briefing that this shooting was “directly connected” to their inquiries into the botched bombings of July 21 and over the weekend the implication rumbled on that he had lived in, or perhaps near, or somewhere quite close to, multi-occupancy accommodation that had been deemed “suspicious”.

By Saturday the police were admitting that Mr de Menezes had nothing to do with the attacks last week. This morning they were saying that he was an illegal alien and using that 'fact' to explain why he ran. Mr de Menezes' family have deny this, saying his visa was fully up to date. The police are still failing to answer the basic question. Why did they chase an innocent man onto a train and put eight bullets into his body? The sooner the independent commission set up to investigate the shooting reports the better. But it will help nobody if the public gets fed more lies.

The number of people linking the bombings to Iraq has risen to 85% according to a YouGov poll over the weekend. When will the message get through to Tony? People will not put up with his bluster much longer.