I haven’t found anything yet that confirms his Visa had expired. In any case, that hardly justifies killing him.
John Corrado, would it be possible to keep this to discussion of British police and their actions? It’s a different situation. General British police don’t carry guns here, and the illegal gun culture is tiny. Maybe I’m nitpicking, but I think bringing in police actions from other countries can cloud the issue.
Anyway … If a group of men pointed a gun at me and shouted - even if I could hear what they were saying, I wouldn’t be certain they really were police - well, I don’t know how I’d react. Maybe I’d run in terror. It would certainly be a natural reaction - especially since I know I’m innocent of any crimes, and especially if I were at a tube station where there had recently been terrorist attacks. Maybe he thought they were terrorists. How is he to know? What’s to stop non-police shouting ‘stop! police!’
Of course, if I were the police in this situation I’m not sure how I’d react either. But then, they - hopefully - have a Hell of lot more training than I do. I’ve heard lots of people say ‘well, what would you do in that situation, with the adrenaline pumping and all?’ That’s not the point. I’m not a cop whose been especially trained to handle weapons and deal with terrorists. These officers should not react like everday people.
I keep hoping that some new piece of information will come out and give the police more justification, but all the extra information just makes the police look worse and worse. ‘Living near the suspect’ (in the same building, not even the same specific address), having brownish skin (not even from an Arabic country), and wearing a big coat (not even carrying a rucksack), is not reason enough. I would rather the risk of terrorist bombers (who seem a bit incompetent anyway), than a new culture where its OK for the police to shoot to kill with so little evidence.