Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Independent Commission: dead Brazilian non-terrorist not acting like a terrorist

According to a report by ITV News, someone at the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has leaked information indicating that there was no reason to conclude slain Brazilian Jean De Menezes was a terrorist with imminent plans to cause an explosion in London earlier this month. It aapears as though police decided De Menezes was a terrorist because he'd been misidentified.

ITV News, citing documents and photographs, reported that de Menezes was not carrying any bags when he entered the Stockwell Tube station and was wearing a denim jacket, rather than a bulky coat as police had previously said.

De Menezes walked at a normal pace, did not vault any barriers and even stopped to pick up a newspaper, ITV News reported.

He descended to the train slowly on an escalator, then ran toward the open subway car and took a seat, according to ITV, which based its account on a document outlining what was captured on surveillance footage.

At about the same time, armed officers were provided with positive identification that de Menezes was either Hamdi Issac, also known as Osman Hussain, one of the suspected bombers from the day before, or another suspect, at which point he was shot, ITV News reported.

This points clearly to the problem of utilizing racial profiling to determine who may be a terrorist, especially since it appears as though many of those in favor of that sort of actiondon't seem to know jack about how to identify someone as semetic (guess what, they're not all "brown") let alone the differences between folks who aren't quite lily-white. No doubt the Freepers will soon be calling for some sort of racial identity test followed by a requirement that all those who do not neatly fit into a classification as abvioulsy white & Christian wear some sort of large & obvious physical marker indicating their race/religion (preferably based on some sort of validated assessment to ensure they limit their negative assumptions to those they consider undesirable regardless of guilt or innocence).


Tags: ; ; ; ;; ; ; ; ; ; ;

Sphere: Related Content

No comments: