Strange

[louiselux]

Today's disturbing news is: Police shoot man in Tube station. Either they knew he had a bomb on him and was very likely to set it off or-- who knows? The description of how the shooting took place is very disturbing. Armed police in this country don't have a very good track record. I'm thinking about the man who got shot for possession of a table leg.

Comments

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

Very, very disturbing. Armed police aren't so great here, either.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

As Jane said below - summary execution is just not on.

[snowballjane.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm afraid Harry Stanley was my first thought too. I know they have split second decisions to make, but if the eye witness accounts are accurate it's very worrying. I don't care what someone was planning to do, summary execution is Not On.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

It's a very worrying development. Even if they had solid evidence that guy was carrying a bomb, there should be some other option rather than shooting him dead.

[saralotte.livejournal.com]

It's a bit worrying isn't it - personally being surrounded by policeman with huge guns doesn't make me feel any safer.

I was on the district line last night and some idiot left their bag behind. Someone else, feeling jumpy, pulled the alarm. Then a tube worker got on, kicked the offending bag, picked it up and took it away. Not a bomb, then. I expect you have to have a lot of training to do that.

[snowballjane.livejournal.com]

I reported an unattended bag at Heathrow once and a member of staff came over and jiggled it. Just - bwuh?

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Oh my god. You should report that. At the very least he should've asked you all to move to a different carriage, or something.

Still, Virgin trains are not much better. Some guy left his bag in my carriage anf got off thr train and it took at least 45 minutes for the staff to decide to call a security alert. There was much looking at the bag and stroking of chins!

[saralotte.livejournal.com]

It's difficult - one the one hand you don't want to be blown up, on the other we were all quite happy that the situation was resolved so quickly without the need to evacuate the train/ station/ entire tube network. We'd have been less happy had the bag exploded, of course...Perhaps if you work on the tube you get more of an idea what a bomb-in-a-bag might look like, and what an idiot's left-behind bag might look like.

[rochefort.livejournal.com]

The police's record in these things isn't too bright, but it is consistent -- shoot first, say sorry later. If you're an Asian male, unfortunately carrying a backpack anywhere in London these days is going to get you looked at twice. It's a bad development all round.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

I don't think this guy even had a bag-- he was wearing a big coat apparently, so it's possible he could have been wired up underneath it. I don't know what's a worse turnout from this, that he was another suicide bomber or an innocent person. They're both equally chilling.

[rochefort.livejournal.com]

Just saw a report which suggested that the guy tripped and two cops caught him and held him down while a third shot him. Shooting someone who's a suspect is bad enough, but an execution like that is utterly horrific.

Whether or not he turns out to have been an actual suspect or an innocent in the wrong place at the wrong time -- well, it really is anyone's guess. Both options make me really nervous about the extra powers the police now want.

[mandragora1.livejournal.com]

Latest reports were that he may have been wearing a bomb belt. If so, presumably the police shot him to prevent him from potentially setting it off and killing not just himself but also them and innocent passersby.

Let's wait until we've got the full story before passing judgment on whether the police used unreasonable force, and 'executed' him, huh. Possibly they did but at the moment we just don't know. As a lawyer I have to say this time and again to people - do not make judgements until you know all of the facts.

The stories that are coming out are necessarily partial and confused and even the witness who said that he tripped said that the dead man was wearing a thick, bulky coat, which is suspicious bearing in mind the weather. In addition, other reports suggest that he fled *into* the station pursued by police, leaping over the barrier. Why didn't he stop?

Other reports are that he was told by the police to stop and that they'd fire if he didn't. He didn't stop, he was wearing a bulky coat, there are reports of him wearing a bomb belt.

Some of those may not be true. All of them may be. At present we don't know.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

I think the sooner the police tell us what happened with this man the better. Either way, it's incredibly depressing and scary.

[mandragora1.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is. According to Sky News website, the police definitely challenged the suspect, and I therefore think it likely that they acted in accordance with procedure.

I think it a safe bet that they would rather not have killed the man, but would have preferred to have him alive to question, in the hope he could provide them with vital information. It is likely therefore that they really did feel that they had no choice in order to protect the public.

*shakes head in amusement*. Ah, the irony. Here I am, a criminal defence lawyer, to whom the police are necessarily the 'enemy', and who has to be fully aware of all the little tricks they use in order to try and get a 'result' from a case. And yet, here I am defending them.

Look, I hold no particular trust for the police in a work situation but they're not cold-blooded killers. Not in Britain, they're not.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Point taken. I don't think they're cold blooded killers either, but apart from that I don't know what to think about today until, as you say, there's more information.