The Death Of Mr De Menezes
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday July 26, 2005
We know who pulled the trigger, but who really killed Jean Charles de Menezes at London's Stockwell Tube station? The shoot-to-kill policy activated following the London bombings leaves no room for error. Mistakes can only be fatal, as the killing of this innocent young man so tragically attests. The many decisions which led anti-terrorism units to pursue the Brazilian electrician on to a train, then pin him down and fire five bullets into his head, will be painstakingly picked apart by at least two inquiries. There are many valid questions to answer. Why, for example, did police even allow him to board a busy bus and reach a Tube station if they had reasonable suspicions he was concealing a bomb under his winter coat? Did Mr de Menezes realise he was being pursued by the plainclothes police officers, or did he run because he thought he was about to be mugged? That the London police got the wrong man is certain. That they are empowered with the wrong policy, however, is not.
A shoot-to-kill policy must be a last resort. It is undeniably dangerous: such orders have been misused by security forces around the world, resulting in the deaths of many innocents. The test, then, is whether these are sufficiently perilous times to justify its implementation. Many of the shaken residents of London, including several Muslim leaders, would argue they are. The only defence against a terrorist willing to take his or her life is to end that life more swiftly than a bomb can be detonated. But what it means to put a city on a shoot-to-kill footing has not been adequately explained. Only about 10 per cent of British police carry guns and London bobbies, especially, have long enjoyed a benign image, directing tourists and traffic with little more than a truncheon tucked in their belts. The London bombings shattered much more than the immediate blast zones. The Scotland Yard Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, says more people may be shot by police on London's streets. If such resort to lethal force is necessary, an extensive public information campaign is just as essential to assist potential suspects in co-operating safely with armed police. One welcome brake on any police excesses or errors is the prevalence of closed-circuit security cameras. Police actions are likely to be recorded, either on security cameras, or on the mobile phones of passers-by. This makes accountability easier to establish. But the initial decision to pursue Mr de Menezes, a man with no link to any Muslim group, will raise reasonable fears within London's minority communities - the very communities police must rely on for intelligence on extremist groups. The broader question is whether Britain will surrender further civil liberties in the name of security. Regulations allowing longer periods of detention without trial and new laws against glorifying or inciting terrorism will be put before Parliament this year. Britons instinctively resist the kind of security approach adopted in the United States after the attacks of September 11, 2001. But many would agree with the London Mayor and civil libertarian, Ken Livingstone, when he says responsibility for Mr de Menezes's death lies firmly with the terrorists.
© 2005 Sydney Morning Herald
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