Alex Miller
On July 22, a 27-year-old Brazilian man, Jean Charles de Menezes, was shot eight times by armed police in London — seven times in the head and once in the shoulder. The police later admitted that de Menezes had been unarmed and had no connection to any terrorist groups. According to the July 25 British Guardian, Home Secretary Charles Clarke expressed his regret at the mistake, but also said he had "nothing but praise and admiration for the police".
The Guardian also reported that Britain's most senior policeman, Sir Ian Blair, "admitted more people could die at the hands of police marksmen in the escalating battle against terrorism".
The shooting of de Menezes came on the heels of a series of failed bombing attempts on the London transport system on July 21, in which Londoners received further proof that the Blair government's policies on the Middle East and its participation in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had made their lives more dangerous, not less.
The July 21 Guardian reported that shortly after the attempted bombings, British PM Tony Blair stated at a press conference: "The police have done their very best, and the security services too, in the situation, and I think we have just got to react calmly and continue with our business as much as possible as normal."
One man who followed Blair's advice to continue with business as normal was de Menezes. Police tailed the Brazilian electrician, who had been living in London for three years, after he left his home in a block of units in Tulse Hill to go to work on the morning of July 22. According to the July 25 Guardian, de Menezes was under police surveillance because the block's address was found in one of the four backpacks retrieved after the previous day's failed bombing attempts.
De Menezes was followed onto a bus by several plain-clothes policemen, who confronted him after he got off the bus and approached Stockwell underground station. De Menezes allegedly panicked and ran to board a train (not an unreasonable thing to do when suddenly challenged by a group of unidentified strangers with guns). Mark Whitby, who was in the train carriage where de Menezes was killed, told the July 23 Guardian what happened next: "As he ran, he was hotly pursued by what I knew to be three plain-clothes police officers. He tripped and was also pushed to the floor. One of the police officers was holding a black automatic pistol in his left hand.
"They held it down to him and unloaded five shots into him. I saw it. He's dead, five shots, he's dead. I'm totally distraught. It was no more than five yards away from where I was sitting as I saw it with my own eyes. As the man got on the train I looked at his face. He looked from left to right, but he basically looked like a cornered rabbit, like a cornered fox. He looked absolutely petrified." The only crime de Menezes was guilty of was that he panicked when confronted by armed strangers. It was also reported that he happened to be wearing a thick coat that might have been used to conceal explosives, although according to the July 28 Guardian this was later refuted by de Menezes' cousin, who said he had been wearing a denim jacket.
Why were police so suspicious of de Menezes? De Menezes' block contained many other units, and it is unclear whether the address found in the backpack was that of the block or that of de Menezes' unit in particular. If de Menezes was such a danger to the public, why did the police not apprehend him as he left his house? Why did they let him board a bus? What warning did the police issue to him before they fired? On whose authority did they fire?
Questions like these are all the more urgent as the killing of de Menezes seems to be a manifestation of a general "shoot-to-kill" policy adopted by the Metropolitan Police. The July 25 Guardian reported: "Britain's most senior policeman remained defiant last night over the new 'shoot-to-kill' policy for dealing with suspected suicide bombers, despite the killing last week of an innocent man by armed officers. Sir Ian Blair, the Scotland Yard commissioner, apologised to the family of Jean Charles de Menezes ... But he admitted more people could die at the hands of police marksmen in the escalating battle against terrorism. Openly discussing the shift in police tactics for the first time, Sir Ian defended the policy of 'shoot to kill in order to protect', saying it was necessary to shoot suspects in the head if it was feared they might trigger devices on their body."
In the same issue of the Guardian, the Met's shoot-to-kill policy was criticised by human-rights lawyer Aamer Anwer: "Shoot to kill is justified only if you get the right person. It is never justified in any situation where someone is unarmed. Real questions have to be asked. I understand the situation where if someone is carrying a bomb and looks as if they are about to detonate it, but this man was followed and chased. On what basis did they shoot to kill? There has to be public accountability. In a democratic society you can't just implement shoot to kill without some form of accountability. To think what was going through that man's thoughts in his last moments ... it was an execution, and at the end of the day it is murder. What else could it be called? They shot an innocent man."
In Brazil, there have been angry responses to the shooting. BBC News Online reported on July 25 that according to the Jornal do Brasil, "Instead of apologising, the English authorities came out in defence of those responsible for this disastrous [police] action". Others in Brazil have made the connection between the shooting of de Menezes and the war in Iraq (which Brazil opposed). The BBC quoted Maria Luisa Mendonca of the Network for Justice and Human Rights in Sao Paulo: "What the British government is doing in Iraq is a clear example of human rights violation, and the reaction is happening against its own population."
From Green Left Weekly, August 3, 2005.
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