Another Attack

[Dr. Shane]

3 trains and 1 bus - again. Are any of you getting a little concerned? I am glad I don't live in the big city. However if we are hit hard it will affect all of us.

[Dr. Shane]

Today policemen tackled a suspected terrorist and [censored] him in the head five times. Now that gives me pause. It makes me think. Hmmm, is this good that they are getting tough or is this scary that they execute a man without even arresting him?

Not trying to set you up, Brother Bravus. I have serious reasons I support and oppose this.

[Bravus]

Yeah, it does make me wonder: at first it looked like a case of that old (and rather bitter) joke from America about the offence of 'DWB - Driving While Black'. Was this a case of 'running for the train you're about to miss while Asian'? Later on it came out that he had jumped the turnstile and run for the train, and still later that he had apparently been tracked by the police from his home and was already a suspect. The one report that he was shot while already on the ground is worrying... and, if you're of a cynical enough turn of mind, the stuff about him being a suspect could also be thought of as the police in CYA (Cover Your Actions, of course!) mode... Hard to know what to think, but the cops have a tough job, especially right now.

[Dr. Shane]

I guess their reasoning was that he might have had his finger on the bomb's trigger. But if that was the case wouldn't he have set the bomb off as soon as they started to tackle him?

[Bravus]

Yeah, but if you put yourself in the place of the cops: the guy has behaved highly suspiciously and is in a long thick coat: he could *easily* be in a position where he's fumbling to press a button or bring two wires together to set off a bomb on a crowded morning commuter train - and you and your colleagues are standing right there too. It's a sad thing, but I can't say, thinking about it from their perspective, that I'd have called it differently in the situation on the ground.

[aldona]

Now the latest news is...

that the man who was shot by police was innocent. He was a Brazilian who had been living and working lawfully in Britain for 3 years. His family in Brazil, and the Brazilian government, are demanding an explanation.

The British police have issued a statement of regret and apology. The Islamic leadership in London have been flooded by phone calls from worried young men who are too afraid to go out in public while wearing a jacket or carrying a back-pack, in case they too are shot dead.

Meanwhile, my Muslim neighbor and her mother have stopped going to the shopping mall because they have had enough of abuse being yelled at them and attempts to tear off their head scarves.

An eye for an eye...and slowly and surely, the world is going blind...

"There can be no prayer with the smell of blood in the nostrils; there can be no humanity with the thoughts of obliteration of others foremost on your mind. Injustice cannot be cured with more injustice.

When Cain killed Abel, the ground betrayed him. When asked, the ground will tell its tales. From Srebinica to the wall behind Rami Al Durra, from the splattered front of the BMA to the hulks of metal in Madrid, the ground will speak. It will not say Muslim killed Jew because of this or that, it will not say that Arab was massacred here by Christian. It will say man killed man, and I know not why."

(Ali Naqvi, http://www.muslimwakeup.com)

[Dr. Shane]

I have not seen any of those reports however it reminds me of a middle-eastern comidian that says after 9/11 he started wearing a sombrero and speaking with a Mexican accent.

The early reports were that they had this guy under survelance for some time. I don't know why they would have been surveying a Brazilan. That is odd in itself.

The police have a tough job. I was wrongly arrested once myself. I was put in jail and after the attorny fees and bail it cost me over $2,500 to be proclaimed 'not guilty'. Reviewing my own case, I see the police were just erroring on the side of safety. It taught me one big lesson. ALWAYS SUCK UP TO THE POLICE!!!! Even if you are right and they are wrong. If this guy would have done that - which would have meant stopping when told to stop - he would still be alive.

However I don't want to let the police off the hook. Although this is likely a departmental error and not one of the individual officers. Hopefully the officers do not become scape goats.