Well, there's really no good thing that could possibly come out of the horrible attack...on Jean Charles de Menezes not quite one year ago.
So, have you forgotten him? Yeah, I did too--at least I'd forgotten his name. But not what happened--Mr. Menezes was the victim of a terrorist attack, one that left him dead from a bullet fired at point blank range.
The person firing the gun...was a Metropolitan London Police Officer:
A year after the police shot and killed a Brazilian electrician in the subway after mistaking him for a suicide bomber, prosecutors said today that they would not charge any individual officers in connection with his death.
But because the man’s death was the “cumulative result” of police errors, they said, the office of the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, would be charged with failing adequately to protect the health and safety of the Brazilian, 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes...
Mr. de Menezes’s family said they were shocked by the decision not to prosecute any officers individually.
Referring to the health and safety laws under which the commissioner’s office is to prosecuted, Mr. de Menezes’s cousin Patricia da Silva Armani told a news conference that “we did not expect they were going to hide behind another law that has nothing to do with my cousin’s case.”
She added: “By using these laws to cover up their own mistakes, they are treating my cousin like a dead animal."...
The shooting appeared be the result of a series of errors, starting with the misidentification of Mr. de Menezes — who lived in the same building in Stockwell, south London, as a terrorist suspect — as the suspect himself. Leaving home to go to work, Mr. de Menezes was trailed by officers as he boarded a bus and as he got off the bus en route to the Stockwell subway station.
Despite an order to the officers on the ground that they should stop him before he entered the subway, Mr. de Menezes proceeded unchallenged through the turnstile and down the escalator. Once he took his seat on the train, antiterrorist officers burst into the car, pinned his hands to his side and shot him point-blank in the head.
The police originally said he was a terrorist who vaulted over the turnstile and ran down the escalator as officers shouted at him to stop. But within days, they acknowledged that not only was he blameless, but also that he had walked calmly through the station.
And...while this is totally unrelated, but...speaking of England, the Times UK has an interesting article about Lebanese blogger reactions to the ripping apart of their country, which makes for compelling reading. You know, it's one thing to think about the numbers of dead, but when you read someone's written reaction to the thunderous noise of fighter jets, missile attacks, etc., it really has a way of hammering home the insanity...insanity the twitnut faction is celebrating, which proves just what sort of sociopaths occupy that particular side of the aisle.
Hell, just the other day a fighter jet from what I presume was the local Air National Guard buzzed my house as part of the 4th of July celebration. Scared the shit out of both myself and the cat...and it was only a single jet on a single pass without the added "bonus" of bombs, guided missiles, or cannon fire. Imagine how relentless an assault on the senses, not to mention the sheer terror, a full-scale aerial bombardment must be like.
And remember--that's THEIR program. Well, that...and a not-so-benign neglect of things like the disaster along the Gulf Coast.
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