Senseless

I know this isn't new news, but as more and more details come out about the Menezes shooting in the wake of the London terrorist attacks, I am more and more bewildered by the senseless nature of his death. When information originally came out that the victim was wearing a bulky coat in the middle of the summer, ran from the officers calling for him to stop, and jumped the turnstile, I was willing to accept that, though tragic, this death was an accident that could not be prevented.
Now, however, as we get more information on what actually happened, it is becoming clear that the story did not unfold exactly as news reports originally claimed.

It has now emerged that Mr de Menezes:

· was never properly identified because a police officer was relieving himself at the very moment he was leaving his home;

· was unaware he was being followed;

· was not wearing a heavy padded jacket or belt as reports at the time suggested;

· never ran from the police;

· and did not jump the ticket barrier.

But the revelation that will prove most uncomfortable for Scotland Yard was that the 27-year-old electrician had already been restrained by a surveillance officer before being shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder.

I'm not saying that the the possibility of getting mistakenly shot looms quite as large in my mind as the possibility of another terrorist attack on mass transit does, but then again, I'm not a foreign, dark-skinned male. So what do I know?