http://www.voanews.com/…

A British jury has found London police guilty of endangering public safety during a tense anti-terrorist operation that led to the 2005 killing of a Brazilian man mistaken for a suicide bomber.

Police shot 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes seven times in the head, after he boarded the London subway in July of 2005. Police had mistakenly identified him as one of four suspects who tried to attack the city’s transit system a day earlier.

In Thursday’s verdict, the jury fined the Metropolitan Police force more than $360,000 and ordered it to pay court costs of nearly $800,000.

Shortly after the verdict was announced, London police chief Ian Blair rejected new opposition calls for his resignation. Blair has steadfastly said his officers did their best under extraordinary circumstances, and says the killing, while tragic, was an error and not a crime.

I wish rulings like this pissed off more people. It’s completely asymmetrical treatment. If I had committed an ‘error’ like this I’d be in jail. I’d be brought up on at least man-slaughter charges and probably civil charges of wrongful death or the like. The government employees however have immunity. Neither their employer nor the individuals are held responsible for this man’s murder. To add insult they are fined. Not to pay a restitution to the man’s family… but to transfer money from one subsidiary of the government to another. Lets play “Follow the Money.” The government used money (coerced out of the citizens of the UK) to charge the Metropolitan Police (who are part of that government and implement the physical side of the coercion) with ‘endangering public safety’ after they had put 7 bullets in a mans head. It seems to me they had already been endangering the public. Who benefits from this? Obviously not the public. They gain no wealth or get any greater service for the time and money spent.

[Post to Twitter] 

Related posts:

  1. Brazil unhappy with Menezes ruling
  2. Maryland State Police put activists on terrorist list, claims it’s due to software limitations
  3. NYPD Police State camera plan back on the roadmap
  4. Teens fined for hacking down and burying speed camera
  5. DC Metro to start performing random bag searches

This entry was posted on Friday, November 2nd, 2007 at 3:19 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.