Update on the tube shooting

This from ITV, an update on the tube shooting. I wrote about this incident and the horrible implications for civil liberties and took some criticism, but there's a reason for judicial oversight. There's a reason for trials and evidentiary requirements.

It is our whole "nation of laws, not men" ethos that has previously prevented this country from travelling down the path of so many empires before it. And that's why we gotta make sure that we refuse the false argument of civil liberties vs security. No elements of the patriot act would have stopped 9-11, and, yet in the frame of security, we're allowing our freedom to be taken away.

I offer this update as a cautionary tale.

Mistakes led to tube shooting

7.48PM, Tue Aug 16 2005

ITV News has obtained secret documents and photographs that detail why police shot Jean Charles De Menezes dead on the tube.

The Brazilian electrician was killed on 22 July, the day after the series of failed bombings on the tube and bus network.

The crucial mistake that ultimately led to his death was made at 9.30am when Jean Charles left his flat in Scotia Road, South London.

Surveillance officers wrongly believed he could have been Hussain Osman, one of the prime suspects, or another terrorist suspect.

By 10am that morning, elite firearms officers were provided with what they describe as "positive identification" and shot De Menezes eight times in the head and upper body.

The documents and photographs confirm that Jean Charles was not carrying any bags, and was wearing a denim jacket, not a bulky winter coat, as had previously been claimed.

He was behaving normally, and did not vault the barriers, even stopping to pick up a free newspaper.

He started running when we saw a tube at the platform. Police HAD agreed they would shoot a suspect if he ran.

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