Not everyone can wear a trench coat in the summer and run from the police
One witness to the killing, Mark Whitby, said that as that he saw the man as he entered the subway car."The man got on the train I looked at his face. He looked from left to right, but he basically looked like a cornered rabbit, like a cornered fox. He looked absolutely petrified. He sort of tripped but they were hotly pursuing him and couldn't have been more than two or three feet behind him at this time. They unloaded five shots into him. I saw it. He's dead, five shots, he's dead," Whitby said.
From MSNBC
Comments
You dumb shit. The police were in plain clothes and didn't identify themselves. If people just started chasing you, what would you do? That you would suggest the fact that the innocent Brazillian was wearing a "trench coat in the summer" as a justification for his being executed (without a trial or even an investigation) shows how seriously fucked up you are.
There is no excuse for the behaviour of the Metropolitan Police. There were reasons, which I understand. I know why they shoot to kill; I'm not clear on why they weren't in uniform, why they failed to identify themselves or why they didn't make any attempt to detect a bomb before murdering someone they considered to be a bomber, but I appreciate their anxiousness to prevent many more deaths and the difficulties involved in pursuing suspects willing to blow themselves up. That doesn't make the eschewing of any form of judicial process and the killing of an innocent man justifiable, however. And it most most certainly doesn't make that innocent man any less innocent. Your attempt to shift the blame onto him is abhorrent.
Posted by: a.different.perspect | July 30, 2005 09:24 AM
im sorry, but you are assuming the police didnt identify them selves. Its very sad that an inocent man died. But *if* the police did identify them selves as armed police, as they have to do by law, and he ran...he was partly involved in his own sad demise. In times like these to fail to stop when ordered to by police, and then jumping onto a crowded tube train the day after the attempted bombings is a particually bad move. I feel sorry for the police involved. At the time they would only of thought they were doing the right thing.
Posted by: percy | July 30, 2005 11:10 AM
Actually there's no proof they didn't identify themselves... So you get your facts right.
The police were justified in this imho. But they are dammed either way.
If he HAD of been a bomber and they didn't stop him and he blew up a train full of people then all hell would have broken loose for the police.
I must say thought I feel VERY sorry for the guy and his family it's devistating this happened.
Posted by: Another perspective | July 30, 2005 11:55 AM