11.17.05
who mourns for Jean Charles
Jean Charles who? i’m sure you’re asking… Jean Charles de Menezes, a 27-year-old Brazilian electrician, who cops shot dead in a London subway because he had been identified as Hussain Osman, a suspected bomber…
seven shots, in the back of the head with hollow points — because they thought he was a terrorist… and, they defend this as a righteous shooting, talking up their "Operation Kratos" shoot-to-kill policy, extolling it’s capabilities to make the public safer from terrorism… all the while ignoring one very simple fact:
the very first time they implemented this policy, they COMPLETELY FUCKED UP!!! here’s a news flash for these clearly brain-dead, fear addled zombies, a basic truth that any public school student knows:
Theory and practice do not count towards a grade: ONLY the actual performance matters
HELLO!!! Is this thing on??? People; it is waaaay past time to wake the fuck up, already! Just how fucking scared are you, of bogeymen and threats that might occur, that it’s acceptable that the cops, YOUR OWN police force, might blow your fuckin’ head off, accidentally, in the course of "protecting" you?
i–… i’m astounded that i actually have to address this point, in print, to an allegedly intelligent audience but, here goes: death, among other things, is what they’re supposed to be protecting us from. Not WITH…
the problem with the use of excessive force is that it’s irreversible. the problem with giving presidents, legislators… anyone the power to use excessive force is that, in the end, they’re just as chickenshit scared as we are.
london’s abovementioned tragedy is proof positive; these were elite cops, not beat cops, that murdered Jean Charles… if they fucked up a visual ID, and mishandled the encounter fatally, who gives a shit what their intentions were? we need steady hands on the holsters, boys, not hands quivering with fear and shooting at shadows…
people who can’t tell an arab from a brazilian have the right to shoot you dead… do you honestly feel safer now?