Sunday, July 24, 2005

Bang bang you shot me down. Bang bang I hit the ground

A supposed suicide bomber was shot dead on Friday after being chased by 3 armed men and not stopping.

Call me stupid but I'd probably run if I was being chased by 3 strangers. Witnesses said that the man was chased, tripped whilst boarding a train, was pinned to the ground and received 5 shots to the head. The witnesses also commented that the man was of Asian origin, possibly Pakistani.

It now turns out that this was completely unconnected with the recent terrorist activity and Met Police chief Sir Ian Blair has apologised calling it "a tragedy".

Is it a reflection on our post-terrorism xenophobic attitudes that several of the witnesses assumed that the man was a Pakistani when he was actually a Brazilian? Are all Pakistanis going to be labeled as possible terrorists?

I don't know the amount of times I've had to run because I'm late for a train, running all the way to the platform. Anyone knows that train stations are busy loud places, and if I hear people shouting then I may give them a cursory glance but will usually choose to ignore them as they probably want to start an argument which will result in me getting a kicking.

I was questioning of Friday that maybe the man was just an innocent person late for a train, and it seems I was right.

Read the BBC article here.

1 comment:

LB said...

it's madness.

the police? over-reacting and heavy-handed? racist?

surely not.