|
London Metropolitan Police Chief Sir Ian Blair denied Wednesday Scotland Yard was involved in a cover up operation regarding the July tragic shooting by special agents of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes who they apparently mistook for a suicide bomber.
Scotland Yard's "initial resistance" to a full investigation into the circumstances of the shooting, allegedly was leaked to the British press from the Independent Police Complaints Commission responsible for the inquest. Sir Ian rejected the allegations and said they attack the "integrity of the Police" adding "there was no cover up operation at all". Earlier the IPCC deputy chairman John Wadham was quoted saying that Scotland Yard "initially had resisted us taking on the investigation, but we overcame that. It was an important victory for our independence". IPCC is investigating the killing, - with eight shots, seven point blank in the head -, of Menezes at Stockwell underground station on July 22, a day after the failed terrorist July 21 attacks on the London underground and a bus. IPDD met with the Menezes family lawyers Garteh Pierce and Harriet Wistrich who are calling for a public inquiry into the case. "We expressed our extreme concern that although they have a statutory duty to investigate from the very moment of a fatal death at the hands of the state, they were not there", said Ms. Gareth Pierce following the meeting. She added that the young man's family is concerned with the contradictions between the initial statement of the Police and statements from witnesses. "The family wants to know who is responsible for all the errors regarding the Menezes case", which according to documents leaked to ITV this week, the Brazilian electrician did not run away from the Police or had a winter jacket on under which theoretically he could have been hiding a bomb, as was originally officially stated. On the contrary Mr. Menezes was wearing a denim jacket, walked into the station, picked up a free newspaper, walked through ticket barriers and only started to run when he saw a train arriving. However Sir Ian argued that "at that stage I and my officers thought the dead man was a suicide bomber and we were in the middle of the biggest counter terrorist operation". Mr. Menezes tragic death "has to be seen in the context of what was the largest criminal inquiry in English history", added Sir Ian, who underlined "it is one death out of 57". Ms. Gareth Pierce described the whole case a "chaotic mess" and demanded to know whether this was due to Police incompetence or negligence. Later in the day the IPCC said in an official statement that "both the IPCC and the Metropolitan Police Service recognise that the unauthorized disclosure of information cannot be ignored and must be addressed". Mr. Wadham said the IPCC was looking forward to meeting Menezes family, adding that the inquiry should be completed within three to six months. This article appeared originally in Mercopress - www.mercopress.com.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
Who's fault was it?
Well obviously the police that shot him to death, that's a pretty obvious conclusion. But it was also Mr. Menezes fault for even being in London after his papers had expired. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, because he chose to be. It is also the British governments fault for not looking him up and deporting him. It is also the fault of everyone that helped keep him in London ILLEGALLY until he could meet that fateful day. It is also mine and your fault for not working to make Brazil a better place for our children to want to live in because they can't find jobs.
Bottom line... this whole thing is a tragedy. It happened, everyone wants to avoid this same sort of thing in the future, we're all a little more cautious, but we must move on. Replaying this will not bring Mr. Menezes back, the British Government has already apologized for this tragedy, and those who seek vengance will never get it.
It was a tragedy - as Brazilians we must move on.
Bom Fim