Yesterday I posted that there was no cctv footage of the killing of Menezes, according to the police. Turns out they lied, as the British tv network ITN has gotten its hands on internal police documents, including the supposedly missing CCTV footage!
Apparantely, footage of it was shown on air yesterday; since I’m not in the UK, I haven’t seen it myself. From the article:
A document describes CCTV footage, which shows Mr de Menezes entered Stockwell station at a “normal walking pace” and descended slowly on an escalator.
The document said: “At some point near the bottom he is seen to run across the concourse and enter
the carriage before sitting in an available seat.“Almost simultaneously armed officers were provided with positive identification.”
A member of the surveillance team is quoted in the report. He said: “I heard shouting which included the word `police’ and turned to face the male in the denim jacket.
“He immediately stood up and advanced towards me and the CO19 officers. I grabbed the male in the denim jacket by wrapping both my arms around his torso, pinning his arms to his side.
“I then pushed him back on to the seat where he had been previously sitting. I then heard a gun shot
very close to my left ear and was dragged away onto the floor of the carriage.”
Emphasis mine.
What is clear from this (and see also the Channel 4 report (WMV file)) is that the Metropolitan Police have been lying about this killing from the start. None of the initial statements, apart from the bare fact of his killing, were true.
Menezes wasn’t killed because he behaved in any way suspicious or even looked suspicious: none of the excuses made for the officers who shot him are valid. He wasn’t wearing bulky clothing, he didn’t run into the station, but used his travelcard and even picked up a free Metro, ran to catch his train than sat down. When an officer shouted “police” he stood up and faced them, at which point he was pushed into his seat and murdered.
In other words, this wasn’t a man chased by police, but a man whose first awareness that he is chased is with the bullet entering his head! He wasn’t a criminal, did nothing wrong and still was killed. The moral? In the UK today, anyone of us can be killed without warning because some police officer gets jumpy and there’s nothing you can do about it. Even if you comply with all police directions you can and will be shot: Menezes was.