Jean Charles de Menezes

This isn't specifically about Jean Charles de Menezes, although it's tragic that an innocent man was shot & killed whilst getting onto a tube train. He was only 27 years old when he died; that's no age at all.



Neither is this post a criticism of the armed police that pulled the trigger. Clearly, something went badly wrong that day at Stockwell Tube station. Whether it was human error, a failure of police procedure, incompetence or merely an unfortunate sequence of events, I doubt that the truth will ever be known. However, it has to be recognised that the Metropolitan Police were operating in unprecedented circumstances. Just two weeks prior to the fatal shooting, dozens of people had been murdered on London's transport network by religious fanatics, & the previous day a similar attempt at mass murder had failed.










This post is really about the media's balance of reporting. The de Menezes shooting was an indirect consequence of 52 commuters being killed on 7th July, 2005. I couldn't name one of those 52 off the top of my head. Could you? The de Menezes case has generated a lot of headlines, as his bereaved family & friends seek justice. The same cannot be said for the 52 who died, and the many hundreds who were injured...their struggle goes on quietly in the background.









RIP all those who died on 7th July........Mrs Susan Levy, Mr Jamie Gordon, Mr Philip Stuart Russell, Miss Shyanuja Parathasangary, Miss Miriam Hyman, Mr William Wise, Miss Shahara Islam, Mr Ciaran Cassidy, Miss Jennifer Nicholson, Ms Miheala Otto, Mr Anthony Fatayi-Williams, Mrs Gladys Wundowa, Mr Arthur Edlin Frederick, Mr Adrian Johnson, Ms Anat Rosenburg, Mr Jonathan Downey, Mr Philip (Phil) Beer, Miss Ganze Gunoral, Mr Colin Morley, Mr David Foulkes, Miss Neetu Jain, Mr Lee Baisden, Ms Laura Webb, Mr Giles Hart, Ms Anne Moffat, Mr Michael Minh Matsushita, Mrs Marie Joanne Hartley, Mr James Stuart Mayes, Mr Richard James Ellery, Mr Michael Stanley Brewster, Mrs Behnaz Mozakka, Ms Fiona Stevenson, Ms Helen Jones, Mr Christian "Njoya" Small, Ms Karolina Gluck, Ms Rachelle Chung For Yuen, Ms Monika Suchocka, Mr James Adams, Ms Elizabeth Daplyn, Mr Ihab Slimane, Mr Richard Gray, Ms Samantha Badham, Mr Lee Harris, Miss Emily Rose Jenkins, Mrs Mala Trivedi, Ms Ojara Ikeagwu, Ms Benedetta Ciaccia, Miss Shelley Marie Mather, Miss Carrie Taylor, Mr Sam Ly, Ms Anna Brandt, Mr Atique Sharifi.