Saturday, February 14, 2009

The Tragedy of Jean Charles de Menezes


It reminds me of the trial in Simi Valley California, when the officers who savagely beat Rodney King were exonerated.  Now, it has happened in the U.K.  The two officers who shot Menezes at a London subway station will not be prosecuted.

The officers thought Menezes was a terrorist - it wasn't long after the subway bombings of July 7 -  But there are many conflicting accounts.  The Washington Post states:

...passengers who witnessed the shooting testified that the police did not identify themselves and that de Menezes did nothing suspicious.

"Although there were some inconsistencies in what the officers said at the inquest, there were also inconsistencies in what passengers had said," O'Doherty said. "A jury could not be sure that any officer had deliberately given a false account of events."

The de Menezes family, which has waged a public campaign to hold the police to account for the shooting, reacted angrily to Friday's decision.

"We are all in shock and simply cannot understand how the deliberate killing of an innocent man and an attempt by the Metropolitan police to cover it up does not result in a criminal offence," said a statement issued by Vivian Figuierdo, a cousin of de Menezes.

"The inquest put the truth out there for all the public to see, but the authorities want us to forget the truth to stop us getting justice," Figuierdo said in the statement. "But we will never forget."..more

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