Pee-d off

Remember last summer's point-blank shooting by police of a totally innocent man on the London tube? No, of course you don't. That's because the government and the constabulatory have been trying to keep their murder of Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes under wraps. What's more, they're keeping the fact that it's under wraps under wraps.

Check out this interview Deborah Turness, editor of British channel ITV News, gave Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! today.

We found out the truth of this, because we obtained a copy of a leaked report that was done into the shooting. In the U.K., the moment somebody is shot dead by police, the Independent Police Complaints Commission come in immediately, and they start compiling a report. It was only a few day into the compiling of that report that we received the early leak, which actually showed that it was a series of police blunders. They hadn't identified him properly. The man who was supposed to be on is surveillance had gone to take a leak and wasn’t even at his station. There were lots of miscommunications. And so, we put out that story, and in the wake of doing so, we have faced pressure from the police. We have been a subject of an investigation. One of our journalists has been arrested and is facing potential action.

AMY GOODMAN: Arrested on what grounds?

DEBORAH TURNESS: Arrested as part of the investigation over how we came to get hold a copy of the report.

AMY GOODMAN: How did you get it?

DEBORAH TURNESS: I'm not at liberty to talk about that. It’s extremely sensitive at the moment, and I really can’t talk any more about it.

Read the whole thing. The situation is outrageous.

Comments

[Stephen Reevess]

Well the British Govt, has not been doing a good job of covering this incident up, the BBC and the Guardian and others have had extensive coverage.Of course our so called progressive left love to make polictical points out of this as if it is a regular occurance,not looking at the actual context of the incident.
I love how our elite Left in Riverdale and the Anex from the safety of their comfortable lives. love to pontificate about such incidents that can happen after terrorist incidents in other countries.

[Adam]

What political points are there to be made here? How in Hades is this a 'left-right' issue?

An innocent man was shot several times in the head from point blank range for the crime of being non-white. If there is a "context" that makes this defensible I'd like to hear it - seriously - but we haven't and we can't, evidently because it's being aggressively covered up.

How long should it take to investigate an incident where everyone involved (except the victim) is a police officer, and the key event are caught on videotape?

[True North]

Yes - it would appear that some people in places like The Annex or Riverdale are so self important they feel compelled to prattle on and on about the state of freedom and democracy etc. etc. in the capitals of the western civilization - when we know full well it has little relavance to yokels in a place like Hogtown.

The so called "progressive lefties" are such a bother! That's why it's important to never argue the facts with them - just impune their motives and credability. It's all deserve. Just shut down the conversation with crap.

So Stephen - from your perspective as a "non-progressive rightie", please tell us who you feel is entitled to speak, think or be informed about which topics.

[Bill Lee]

Well, the Brazilian president visited
London on a state visit last week and the
story was front and centre.

But the first report was the internal (whitewash)
police report last week.
The real report still has to come out
from the Independent Commission.

Trigger-happy as everyone knows they
were.
Still unnecessary searches of the
public are going on over there.
See Linkname: Innocent as charged
URL: http://memex.naughtons.org/archives/2006/03/05/2604
and
Linkname: Jean Charles de Menezes - Google News
URL:
http://google.sh/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=Jean+Charles+de+Menezes&bt
nG=Search+News

[Stephen Reevess]

to True North, not quite sure what a "Non-Progressive Rightie" is.Anyone can write what they want, as long as they allow someone to comment without them getting all defensive.
Of course it would nice if those in the Annex
did prattle on about the state of Freedom and Democracy in the West, and more important elsewhere.

[arthurdecco]

"That's because the government and the constabulatory have been trying to keep their murder of Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes under wraps." posted by Antonia

Thank you for using the correct word here, Antonia - Murder - I'm so tired of the euphemisms that have replaced it in the stories about this deplorable incident.

Jean Charles de Menenzes was indeed murdered by a British government-sanctioned psychopath. (Who else but a psychopath empties their pistol into a physically restrained and unarmed man?) More people need to realize that.

[Bill-Muskoka]

Good grief! A left/right issue?

I think some people are so obsessed with their 'side' issues they probably had a traumatic experience in wiping their arse!

Maybe the old medieval reminder would help! Eat with your left, and wipe with your right!

[Stephen Reevess]

This morning a watched the episode of Panorama which was broadcast on the BBC in Britain last night, I am sure Newsworld will show it sometime. The episode was broadcast docu-drama style. The events of that day were re-enacted starting from the moment Menez go up that morning and his journey to the Underground Station..
The program also has extensive interviews with the Menez family in Brazil, his friends in London, and the security people.
We also go to Israel/Zionist entity. to see how they deal with suicide bombers, and also what training the police in the U.K, had to deal with such incidents. The viewer can view the program through the eyes of Menez and also through the eyes of the security officials, and draw his/her conclusions.

As said before context must be taken into account, four suicide bombers were at large, after having attempted to duplicate what had happened a couple of weeks before. The Capital was on edge to say the least. The police had never had to deal with this type of incident before. There appeared a massive communications breakdown, the security officials were actually following one of the suspects , or thought they were. They did not randomly shoot a guy because he was not white,(watch the program if you can), the security officials being unable to use their cell phones underground caused much confusion.
Then of course the Police made the big mistake of trying to withhold information\ etc, in order to protect their own. Of course this only feeds the paranoia of the left.

That people concerned about cover ups etc is ok, it is when we have commentators talking about “Murder” and ‘shooting at point blank range” as if this was some sort of random occurance.

Getting back to the context issue, some of the Left,(not all thank god), are quite willing to look at the context around suicide bombing, (it was a criminal act, but______________), but unwilling to look at the context here.

I have more to say but this is already too long for a comment section(and I have to go to work) but I leave the last word to the BBC website.

"Stockwell was a double tragedy above all for the de Menezes family but also for the Metropolitan Police whose officers believed they were trying to protect London.

If the suspect had been a suicide bomber, the officers who ran the operation and finally killed him would probably have been decorated instead of facing the possibility of ending up in court."

Oh one more thing some of you guys are good at collection figures on who shoots who? can anyone tell me how many victims were shot by the Police in Brazil last year.???

[Adam]

Stephen;

I can't see the docudrama, but I also don't see much for "context" in your post. They shot him because they believed there were terrorists somewhere in the city, and their cellphones didn't work, so they assumed he was one?

Admittedly they didn't just shoot him because he was not white. They shot him because he was not white and he lived in a 'suspicious' apartment block. And he took the subway. That's the sum total of evidence they had to work with. Any other "context" - the stakeout officer had to pee, their phones were temporarily out of coverage - is beyond feeble. If he were white he'd be alive today.

I still don't understand why you consider this is a left-right issue. And as for "shooting at point-blank range" - how am I supposed to describe it? Is there any word in that phrase that is remotely contestable?

[Antonia]

Adam wrote: "They shot him because he was not white and he lived in a 'suspicious' apartment block. And he took the subway. That's the sum total of evidence they had to work with. Any other "context" - the stakeout officer had to pee, their phones were temporarily out of coverage - is beyond feeble. If he were white he'd be alive today."

Don't forget ''the puffy jacket''

[Johan i Kanada]

So it was murder, was it? And Zerb, you know this, right?

Murder is to "kill intentionally and with premeditation".

Are you suggesting the London police didn't like this guy for some reason, planned to kill him, and then took the opportunity
when the bombs went off?

Get serious, will you?

[Stephen Reevess]

It is a bit more complex than that Antonia and you know it.You are making it into a simple race issue.
During the IRA bombing campaign, many false arrests were made, including imprisonments,these guys were white, no-one back then complained about profiling or whatever.
This was just down to circumstance. If the bombers in this case had been white,it is quite possible that a white man running into the station would have been shot.
Anyway this is a British issue what is your stake in this???

[Antonia]

Read my post again, Stephen:

TURNESS: "It was only a few day into the compiling of that report that we received the early leak, which actually showed that it was a series of police blunders. They hadn't identified him properly. The man who was supposed to be on is surveillance had gone to take a leak and wasn’t even at his station. There were lots of miscommunications. And so, we put out that story, and in the wake of doing so, we have faced pressure from the police. We have been a subject of an investigation. One of our journalists has been arrested and is facing potential action."

When journalists are arrested for doing their jobs, that puts my stake in it.

[arthurdecco]

"If the suspect had been a suicide bomber, the officers who ran the operation and finally killed him would probably have been decorated instead of facing the possibility of ending up in court." posted by Stephen Reeves

Based on your twisted, ridiculous logic, I should be able to saunter down to the subway, pull out a Glock, empty the clip into a young man who may or may not look vaguely Middle Eastern and then turn around and glibly assert, "Hey! Relax, People! He could have been a suicide bomber!" And then I should be able to expect to be treated as a "Hero of the Anti-Terrorist Movement”. Hey, I've got a secret to impart, Stephen - Britain isn't the West Bank. It's not supposed to be done that way there. They have something called the Rule of Law in Britain. Or at least they used to.

Were you dropped on your head as a baby, Stephen?

The fact remains. This young man was a completely innocent victim of a psychotic murderer employed by the British government. This was a state-sanctioned murder of an INNOCENT MAN in Britain - not Kazakhstan or Israel! What part of INNOCENT MAN can't you understand? What part of Rule of Law do you have trouble with?

ps Regarding the "puffy jacket", Antonia: He wasn't wearing one - just a jean jacket. I'm sure you knew that but I had to say that for the likes of those like Mr. Reeves who seem willing to excuse any evil perpetrated by the all-Knowing, all-Powerful as long as it’s directed against the "different" living amongst us. I suspect those who share Mr. Reeves’ opinions are willing to use any flimsy excuse to pardon the evil and disgustingly immoral behaviour of those who control his government and his thought processes. That’s the only reason I brought that point up – to dispel any lingering doubt that the apologists for state sanctioned murder may have had about the possibility that he may have been a suicide bomber. It would have been physically impossible for him to have a concealed bomb on his person, (which is why the police lied about the jacket in the first place – they realized that point early on in their cover-up investigation.)

[Antonia]

Sorry. I meant a ''pouffy'' jacket.

:-)

[Bill-Muskoka]

Johan i Kanada,

Murder can be in the First, Second, or Third degree, aka manslaughter. Premeditation is NOT a requirement beyond First Degree. Just to be accurate.

I neither defend nor accuse the parties involved because I do not have all the fatcs, nor was I there. All we have heard, so far, is heresay evidence!

When split-second decisions are made errors will occur. That is why we have inquests, hearings, trials, etc..

Its great to arm-chair quarterback the event, however, the issue is the coverup of the report.

[JDot]

It's the way she goes.

[Adam]

Really Stephen, I'd be a lot less upset about false arrest than execution (is "execution" a clean enough word, or too biased?).

But I admit I wasn't very clear. I brought up the colour of de Menezes's skin not becuase of concern about racial profiling, or because I think this is a race issue (although it may be), but because that was the only evidence the police were evidently acting on - other than his postal code and wearing a jacket on a cool day. I would be just as upset if he were killed because of the colour of his hair.

With racial profiling, I can understand the left-right issue, with left wingers coming out against arbitrary searches and detention, and right wingers favouring state power over the individual.

[Bill-Muskoka]

Those of us in the middle ground really have got to unite and balance out the lefty/righty types. Sheesh!

[Dana]

For a certain brand of rightie in today's Canada there is no issue other than ensuring they find ways to ridicule and deride anyone they think may not be a fellow traveller.

That can include anyone at all for reasons that no one else can fathom since some of these folks operate in what bears a striking resemblance to a paranoid delusion.

[Bill-Muskoka]

Right on Dana! I had to love the editorial cartoon in today's Star BTW!

Just checking the Star's latest update! There is the grinning PM himself in Kandahar! Oh whoppee! Maybe he can make some friends?