It irks me everytime I hear Brazilians whining about how trigger-happy, corrupt and incompetent our police force is, in the continuing aftermath of the Jean Charles de Menezes shooting.
Perhaps this vocal section of Brazilian society is too young to remember the three convictions of police officers in Rio de Janeiro in 1996 for the shooting dead of 8 street children (although they were aiming at about 70) outside a church in the city. Unlike our armed police officers, who thought they were dealing with a suspected suicide bomber, these noble policemen thought that the gunning down of children was suitable retribution for having kids throw stones at a police car.
Furthermore, those engaged in premature speculation should await the report of the IPCC before making any further claims. The case is presently 'sub judice' and we should all wait for a verdict before deciding whether certain police officers should be arrested for murder, the police commissioner was trying to bury the investigation (hardly by writing an open letter to the home secretary and permanent secretary to the home office), or the survellance tapes were wiped.
Sadly I feel that rather than involving some kind of coverup, this shooting is simply another example of what Dennis Norden would succintly refer to as 'cockup before conspiracy'.
He was not on that train!
It was a cruel hoax to frighten the public and bombers who are not up for suicide.
Explanation given at
http://who.journalspace.com