Ladies and Gentlemen, please put your hands together for the amazing Exploding Blog.
Only just managed to post an item I'd written over a week ago.
Anyhow, in the interim we've had all the suspects from the attempted bombings on the 21st rounded up and an unfortunate shooting on the 22nd.
The shooting of Mr Menezes, who upon being ordered to halt by Police officers who identified themselves, in unequivocal terms as being armed, broke into a sprint, vaulted the turnstiles of a London Underground station and proceeded to run at top speed, down an escalator and into a departing train, seems to have provoked one of two reactions from most people.
Depending who you ask, it is either:
a) A tragic example of our trigger-happy knee-jerk approach to terrorists
or
b) A tragic candidate for this year's Darwin Awards.
I lean towards 'b' here. Sorry but those policemen did their job.
Wearing a bomber jacket in summer is stupid, but excusable
Running from the Police is stupid, but occasionally excusable (right to resist arrest under certain circumstances).
Running from the Police after they've shouted "STOP! ARMED POLICE!" is incredibly stupid and rarely mitigated (there are only 2 units of Her Majesty's Constabulary who are armed, if they want you to stop it's not likely to be a matter of disturbing the peace).
Doing all this just weeks after suicide bombers had killed dozens of Londoners on precisely the method of transport that you're attempting to gatecrash at top-speed is an act of such considerable witlessness that it honestly defies belief. The only thing this guy could have done to have made this any more farcical would be to scream out "DEATH TO THE KUFFAR! ALLAHUAKHBAR!" as he ran. The actions taken by Mr Menezes are so ridiculous that the only sentences I have to describe them are quoted directly from the Sci-Fi Sitcom 'Red Dwarf' ("... a battle of wits with a stuffed Iguana", "... Who would do such a thing? Only a Yoghurt!" etc).
As empty as it may sound, having savaged Menezes' decisions that day, my heartfelt condolences go out to Mr Menezes' family.
Nonetheless I'm sure as hell not going to start pinning the blame on the Police. If they hadn't shot him, with the circumstances of the event being as described, I'd be asking some serious questions of the Metropolitan Police's ability to defend London.
Later
John
Posted by John Swaine at July 31, 2005 02:13 AM