Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Thursday, August 18, 2005

So let me get this straight

Jean de Menezes, the young man erroneously thought to be a terrorist who was shot to death in a London Tube station:

  1. Was never identified because the officer surveilling the apartment block was relieving himself at the time.
  2. Didn't run from police and in fact was unaware he was even being followed.
  3. Wasn't dressed in a bulky coat that might have concealed a bomb.
  4. Did not jump a ticket barrier.
  5. Was already subdued before being shot.

So where did all this fiction of suspicious behaviour that we were fed directly after the fact come from? Was it deliberate misinformation, or just confusion?

This sounds like something out of a thriller. Unfortunately, it's true, and a man is dead because of a series of mistakes that were made that day. Nothing can bring him back, and my sympathy is with the family of de Menezes, who lost a loved one for no good reason. But perhaps further investigation will get to the root cause of such a substantial failure of what should be justice will be determined...and more importantly, fixed. Individuals make mistakes, but processes are usually in place that make it easier for those mistakes to happen, or can minimise them. Hospitals often take a process-over-blame approach because they recognise this. Still, I think some heads are going to roll over this one, and to be honest, they probably should.

New claims arise in Menezes death

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