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[igotthisguitar]

[waggo]

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Just because he wasn't a bomber doesn't mean that he was innocent. The police would not shoot someone who was innocent and cooperating, I don't care what the guardian says.

[matthewwoodford]

[Infoseeker]

[Infoseeker]

Hehe, for those gullible little monkeys who were so ready to heap blame on the victim (as they were indirectly directed to do), perhaps you'll feel better knowing that blaming victims of death in police custody has a nice long tradition.

We cannot take them at their word

'Police sources' routinely vilify victims and excuse police actions

Simon Hattenstone
Thursday August 18, 2005
The Guardian


When the Metropolitan police promptly apologised for killing Jean Charles de Menezes, it looked as if this could signify the new era of openness promised under Sir Ian Blair's leadership. After all, the police had never issued such an unequivocal apology after a death in custody. This week leaked documents suggested that the story the Met had told about the shooting, and the media had dutifully reported, could not have been been more different from the truth; the "suspected terrorist" was not wearing a suspiciously heavy or padded jacket, let alone with wires sticking out; he never ran from the police; he didn't jump a ticket barrier. Worst of all, it emerged that Mr de Menezes had already been restrained when shot seven times in the head at point-blank range.

Now let's return to the initial reports. The press were pretty much as one - this was undoubtedly a tragedy, but the police had at least apologised for the enormity of the error, tensions were high after the bombings, the police had a hellish job and, to be fair, Mr de Menezes was hardly acting like a law-abiding citizen. No newspaper or broadcaster seriously questioned the validity of the reports from "police sources".

If the allegations contained in the leaks turn out to be true, this would not be a one-off. The police and the media have a distinguished history of misrepresentation in such cases; there have been more than 1,000 deaths in police custody in Britain in the past 30 years - most involving restraint, either in the cells or during arrest - and many of these people have subsequently been demonised.

In 1994 Richard O'Brien died after being restrained by police at a party they had been called to - reports focused on the fact that he was overweight (ie vulnerable) and had just been in a fight. In fact, the fight had involved two women.

In the same year Shiji Lapite was stopped by two police officers for "acting suspiciously". Half an hour later he was dead. The cause of death was asphyxia from compression of the neck, consistent with the application of a neckhold. One officer told the inquest that Mr Lapite was "the biggest, strongest, most violent black man" he'd ever seen. In fact, he was 5ft 10. At the inquest an officer admitted kicking him twice in the head as hard as he could, and said he was using reasonable force to subdue a violent prisoner.

In 1999 Roger Sylvester died after being restrained on his stomach by six police officers. He was portrayed as a feral, naked black man prowling the streets of Tottenham - in fact he was an average-sized naked man with mental health problems locked outside his house. He was also described as a crack addict, although no traces of cocaine were found in his blood or urine. Newspapers published first and apologised afterwards.

Scotsman Harry Stanley was killed by police after leaving a London pub in 1999. It was a particularly controversial case - he had been shot, well before the police began to operate their shoot-to-kill policy. The police had received reports that an "Irishman" with a suspicious package that looked very much like a wrapped-up sawn-off shotgun was on the loose. Mr Stanley was actually carrying a table leg. He was not a black man so he was demonised in a different way - portrayed as a feckless drunk.

It was reported that he raised the table leg as if to shoot. One story even suggested that he was depressed because he had cancer, so it was all an elaborate suicide attempt - in fact, he was in recovery and hopeful for the future. It was reported that Stanley was facing an officer with his "gun" - they had no choice, it was them or him. The entry and exit wounds to Mr Stanley's head later suggested that this was unlikely.

In 2003 Mikey Powell, a man without a criminal record, died after police officers drove their car at him, sprayed him with CS gas and restrained him. Soon after, an article in a local paper said that the police had driven their car at him only because he pointed a gun at them. He was actually holding a belt. When the family complained to West Midlands police, they were told it had been a mistake made by a source close to the investigation. By then the damage had been done. In the public mind, Powell was a crazed gunman who deserved to die.

Few deaths at the hands of the police have been as clear-cut as that of Jean Charles de Menezes. None has been as high profile. But the subsequent police distortion is all too familiar. So how should a responsible media treat these official statements or unofficial "police sources" that invariably excuse police actions or vilify victims? With caution, at the least. We know that the reality is so often complex and multidimensional. The police should be regarded as one player in the story. Just as witnesses are "reported" or "alleged" to have seen an incident, so should the police - rather than being allowed to issue reports (often anonymously) as if they were objective purveyors of the truth.

[waggo]

What has any of that got to do with the death of this Brazilian guy?

Where is the link between trying to stop SUICIDE BOMBERS on the subway and people dying in police custody ten years ago?

Dont just follow the Guardian...try and have your own opinion....or even better a solution.....and i dont mean burying your head in the sand and pretending England doesnt have a massive problem with Islamic radicals.

No the Police wouldnt have killed the guy if he had ginger hair and blue eyes....that is inspired!!!

The same way they didnt shoot many Middle eastern types when the IRA were bombing London.That was when it WAS dangerous to be ginger.

Actually I can remember a news incident where they shot up some poor guy in a mini metro who looked the spitting image of a known IRA terrorist in London (but i cant remember the details.)...Im sure the Guardian will do something about that to continue their case against the police.

[Infoseeker]

[waggo]

[death from above]

whoops!! i shot someone SEVEN TIMES IN THE HEAD WHILE HE WAS RESTRAINED.

but don't blame me.. it was an accident, and i had a rough night..

[waggo]

[igotthisguitar]

>. All lies, lies & MORE damn lies.

[The Bobster]

The latest CYA exercise ...

Quote:

Sir Ian has consistently denied that police accounts of the events of July 22, the day London after a second wave of attacks, and the leaking last week of a draft inquiry carried out by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, amounted to a cover up. But until yesterday it was not known how much Sir Ian was told, nor when he learned of the mistake. The Met chief said he first learned the 27-year-old dead Brazilian had no connection with the attempted attacks on July 21 when a colleague told him words to the effect of: ��Houston, we have a problem.��

[Butterfly]

Well it seems the Brazilian investigation force are comfortable that there has been no cover-up, though there is more. I'm glad they came, countries ought to allow it more often in such cases, when there is cause for suspicion. I would expect no less of my country, if a compatriate I loved died under similar circumstances in another country.

It wasn't right to call him an idiot. That was despicable.

I was just reading a memorial to those killed in the London bombings on the Guardian site, and Britain needs to remember that Jean Charles de Menendes is just one victim of the disgusting terrorist actions, among another 56. Those bastards. Anyone who condones this, is not even human. These people never hurt anyone.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/tributes/page/0,16149,1530993,00.html

Giles Hart

Giles was former chairman of the Polish Solidarity Campaign of Great Britain, vice-chairman of the Havering branch of the Humanist Society, chairman of the HG Wells society and a long-standing supporter of the Anti-Slavery Society among other charities. In a statement from his family: "Giles was always a champion of liberty and human rights and a campaigner against political injustice and bigotry."

Lee Baisden

He had just moved in with his boyfriend of three years but also spent much of his time looking after his widowed mother, who suffers from multiple sclerosis.

Friends described him as a shy, reserved person, but who also enjoyed going out with friends. "He was very bright and very loving towards those around him," said a friend, Helen Lasky.

Samantha Badham and Lee Harris

They were only two days away from celebrating their 14th anniversary together when the blast from the suicide bomb ripped through their carriage.

[Gopher]

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