Last night, Channel 4 News led (see here and here) with the circumstances immediately leading up to the shooting dead of Jean Charles de Menezes on the tube at Stockwell (22 July): 'it was a catastrophic failure of intelligence - ending in the death of an innocent man mistaken for a suicide bomber'.
An official inquiry is underway into the fatal shooting of the young Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes - a tragedy shrouded in confusion from the start. Now tonight, leaked documents and photographs from that report reveal just how badly the police operation may have gone wrong.
The Observer reported on the death of de Menezes at the weekend: 'He wasn't wearing a heavy jacket. He used his card to get into the station. He didn't vault the barrier. And now police say there are no CCTV pictures to reveal the truth. So why did plainclothes officers shoot young Jean Charles de Menezes seven times in the head, thinking he posed a terror threat?'.
Today's papers and the death of Jean Charles de Menezes: The Independent, The Times. Wikipedia has an entry on Jean Charles de Menezes. The IPCC enquiry is yet to be completed.
Myths
and untruths are everywhere in the aftermaths of the July terror events
in London (see my post of a couple of days back), whereas press and media coverage
about these events needs to be as informed and discriminating as possible — now that so much is at
stake. On 7 July, Christopher Hitchens wrote:
Europe is steadily becoming a part of the civil war that is roiling the Islamic world, and it will require all our cultural ingenuity to ensure that the criminals who shattered London's peace at rush hour this morning are not the ones who dictate the pace and rhythm of events from now on.
And on 8 July, Ian McEwan:
… we will face again that deal we must constantly make and remake with the state - how much power must we grant Leviathan, how much freedom will we be asked to trade for our security?
Footnote: how did I learn, before last night's TV news, of the Wikipedia article and the Observer report? Via Canadian bloggers … Thank you, small flightless bird.
