HoWARd to implement London anti-terrorism measures
Sunday July 24th 2005, 1:16 pm

image: Reuters

John HoWARd has so far been mightily impressed with the response of emergency services in London and has promised to implement similar measures in Australia. Let’s hope that the point-blank killing of innocents isn’t part of the plan.  

It’s far too easy to overreact with the climate of fear that the terrorists have to some degree succeeded in creating in London. All it took for this poor Brazilian electrician to be killed was to be dark skinned and wearing a heavy coat in the wrong season and be fearful of police.

Dunno about you, but when I see big burly mothers in riot gear with machine guns, I’m apt to get the hell out of their way, too.  Will this be interpreted as though I’m carrying a bomb? Perhaps I’m a little too blonde and blue eyed for that sort of thing…

It is arguable that the police were rightfully suspicious of this man and engaged him per terrorism training- that is to disable a suspected bomber without detonating his explosives. That unfortunately means a head shot…. but five EIGHT? How many bullets does it take to stop a brain from working?

I appreciate the level of honesty from the Metropolitan Police and also don’t envy them their task. However, being afraid of law enforcement can be no reason for an on-the-spot death sentence.

Johnny, if you’re going to bring home any lessons from London, bring that one.

 

-weez


10 Comments so far
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Just a technical note, Weez – a lot of you recent photos have a very grainy texture, which results from using GIFs. A GIF is great for simple line-drawings with few colours, but not so good for photographs… you ought to be using JPGs.

Ironically, the mgk banner image is a JPG, but would look better as a GIF 😉

What progam are you using to create these pics, and does it support exporting to JPG?

Comment by Flashman 07.24.05 @ 3:05 pm

how sad. Reminds me of the time my partner (also Brazilian) was detained by police for several hours on suspicion of being a terrorist, simply for being near an oil refinery and looking hairy and foreign.

Luckily the police asked questions first, and didn’t just open fire.

There is no excuse for opening fire upon an unarmed citizen.

Comment by bombayfair 07.24.05 @ 6:49 pm

Flash, some of my source images are small and are require enlargement, which causes much of the grain, not the file format. I find GIFs are often less grainy than JPGs, of course depending on the compression level in the JPG.

I tried the ‘mgk’ logo in both JPG & GIF formats and the JPG was about half the size for a comparable level of grain, so I used JPG.

I use Photoshop 7.0 which can do any format.

bbf, I really wonder what it was that caused this Brazilian chap to bolt from police. He is said not to have had any manner of criminal history. He would presumably have no reason not to stop and open his coat and bag for police. It was his flight which convinced the already nervy cops that he had a bomb.

*sigh*

Comment by weezil 07.24.05 @ 8:10 pm

The police were in plain clothes, perhaps they too were carrying backpacks or bags weez and they looked suspicious and threatening to our victim.
Perhaps our victim was as scared of them as they were nervy of him…his cousin stated that he was thinking of buying a motorbike to commute with as he was anxious riding the train system.
All in all very, very wrong.

Comment by suki 07.25.05 @ 12:53 am

This was not a “tragic mistake”. It was an unlawfull homicide and, if the British are to avoid being ruled by a gang of armed goons, should be prosecuted as such.

Comment by Peter F Bradshaw 07.25.05 @ 9:55 am

A man late for work, running for the train?

A man who thought he was being pursued by (plainclothes) hoons?

A man who just wasn’t paying attention?

It could happen to anyone. Sorry, anyone dark.

Comment by Flashman 07.25.05 @ 1:09 pm

Come to think of it, this reminds me of that Tropfest film “Bomb” from this year’s competition.

A series of Mr Bean-style mishaps intersect with a pair of jumpy Secret Service agents, with (comically) deadly results. Except it’s not funny in real life.

Comment by Flashman 07.25.05 @ 1:11 pm

It’s all pretty disgusting. Imagine what his family is going through at the moment. I hope they sue the bastards.

Comment by Ray 07.29.05 @ 9:31 pm

and it just gets worse.

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