About that "innocent" man shot in London...

Did he have ties to the London bombings?

No.

Did he look suspicious?

Maybe.

Did he refuse to stop and obey police orders?

Yes.

Refusal to obey police orders to stop + wearing a large jacket in the summer = not "innocent" and therefore meriting being shot out of reasonable concern.

Therefore, no apologies to the Brazilian government.

UPDATE: Via Doug at all-encompassingly:

“The government expects the British authorities to explain the circumstances that led to this tragedy…”

How about this: your citizen was dumb, dumb, dumb. You’re in a foreign country, STOP for the police! Don’t run like, gee I dunno, a suicide bomber would: straight for the subway train.

It is a tragedy that someone died. But one can hardly blame the police for trying to protect the British populace after the horrific bombings of 7/7. A man under observation after exiting a suspected “terrorist house” who runs from police toward a crowded train car with a heavy jacket in summer should not be questioned, he should be shot.

Sounds reasonable to me.

There's only so many ways you can say this in plain English.

I'd say it in Spanish pero yo no sé cómo decirlo en español.

I'd learn to say it in Portugese, but, why bother, they apparently won't hear the voice of reason---they're too busy samba-ing to worry about international terrorism.

Posted by Kyer at July 24, 2005 10:05 AM | TrackBack