Running to catch a train

[rowyn]

This version of the events leading to the London Tube shooting is the most unbelievably awful thing I can recall reading.

...

I'll be following this one to see what else comes out. I hope the officers have better justification than it currently appears. O_o

Comments

[howardtayler.livejournal.com]

This underscores the challenge for Western civilization in the War on Terror (which can more appropriately be renamed "the War on Islamofascism," because that's what we're really fighting).

The challenge? How to fight an enemy who is among your civilians without incurring civilian casualties. Charles De Menezes should be considered an additional victim of the London 7-7 bombings.

British authorities clearly overreacted and overescalated their security measures, but it only became clear AFTER Menezes was identified. Imagine the trouble Britons would be in if they'd been RIGHT, and Menezes had been carrying a bomb! They'd be JUSTIFIED in using that level of immediately lethal force...

This is not just a British problem. Islamofascists all over the western world would LOVE to see such police killings in the United States, France, Germany, South Africa, Australia, Greece, Italy... wherever. And now they've got a pretty good idea of how to make it happen.

--Howard

[ceruleanst.livejournal.com]

They wouldn't be justified, they'd be lucky. To say that someone could have had a bomb is not justification for that kind of overkill. And reassigning all the responsibility to the terrorists with "look what you made me do" does not solve the problem.

[howardtayler.livejournal.com]

I'm not suggesting that it does. I'm just describing the problem in different terms.

[howardtayler.livejournal.com]

Allow me to clarify:
1) In saying they'd be justified, I'm being half-sarcastic. They would APPEAR to be justified, and the erosion of personal freedoms in the name of security would continue to escalate, with the pendulum only swinging back in the other direction after potentially MANY similar incidents.

2) Collateral damage inflicted upon your own citizens during the time of war can be blamed on those pulling the triggers (your own soldiers), but the enemy can credit THEMSELVES with those kills. In the case of our Islamofascist enemies, be sure that they DO credit themselves.

3) Through all this, we must never allow ourselves to forget that we are fighting a war. It has numerous fronts, including a home front, where enemy operatives under deep cover position themselves to murder civilians. Those who would fight on that front need to be a LOT better trained than the police who shot Charles De Menezes.

[zaimoni.livejournal.com]

When I initially saw this (22nd), I was appalled at the deficiency in the U.K. police training/equipment. They did not have the option to fortuitiously capture.

It took me a while to realize that the U.S. is bizarre in explicitly training its police for fortuitious capture.