Why No Compensation Should Be Paid In Respect Of The Death Of Jean-Charles de Menezes
On July 22 2005 Jean-Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian citizen living in London, was shot by officers of the Metropolitan Police in the mistaken belief that he was a suicide bomber.
The event was, of course, a tragedy for his family in Brazil. Since then, the precise nature of the events surrounding the shooting have become murkier and murkier, with the criticism surrounding Sir Ian Blair, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, becoming intense.
However, all reporting of the case is now predicated on the basis that de Menezes was 'innocent'. I have now lost count of the number of times I have seen and heard him referred to as 'the innocent Brazilian'.
Almost immediately after the shooting it was reported that Jean-Charles de Menezes was an illiegal alien, his visa to remain in the UK having expired in 2003. It was also later reported that a stamp on his passport showing that he had 'indefinite leave to remain' in the UK had been forged.
This news has, to all intents and purposes, disappeared. The leftist media will criticise the police at all times and under all circumstances, so their lack of focus on the victim's possible criminality is entirely predictable.
However, the rump of what might laughingly be called the UK's conservative press are also engaged in the same game. As a regular reader of the 'Daily Mail', 'Mail on Sunday', 'Daily Telegraph', 'Sunday Telegraph' and 'Sunday Times', I have seen no reference to de Menezes' immigration status for several weeks.
What I have to ask them is, why not? Are they working in the great traditions of their newspapers, which historically have stood up for the interests of British citizens, or are they working to serve the ideologies and commercial interests of their proprietors, who might see the fact that mass migration keeps wages down, admitted three months ago by the Governor of the Bank of England, as being in their interests?
If the de Menezes family sues the Metropoiltran Police for compensation, they will be suing the British taxpayer. If they are seeking to use British law to try to make money in respect of the death of someone who deliberately chose to live outwith the terms of British law then any such claim should be resisted fiercely and no compensation should be paid.
It's our money they want - but they shouldn't be allowed to use our history to get it.
posted by Martin at 7:37 PM
7 Comments:
Mr K,
Just because you get a few spammers on your main blog, surely a new one is not required???
Seriously, you seem to have a bee in your bonnet about this one. Unless some seriously heavyweight evidence comes to the fore, the Met have a lot to answer for. Atmosphere and panic notwithstanding, they seem to have buggered up big time. If you say it's ok to shoot anyone under these circumstancs, any idea of any kind of natural justice or historical integrity flies out the window.
It seems like a no-win situation. He shouldn't have been here, but they shouldn't have shot him either.
D,
This is an extra project - just something to keep me diverted from going back to have a go at Steve Sailer and his new theme, the sexuality of female golf pros...
I sure have a bee in my bonnet about this, just as I have about possibly having been infected with tuberculosis for no other reason than going to my work.
Do not for a second think I am trying to give the police a free pass - quite the contrary. Each and every time lethal force is used by the police, it should be fully investigated.
Right now the Fourth Estate is doing an admirable job of that part of the story.
But what has really got under my skin about this is that the people to whom we give money are not looking after my, and your, interests by telling us the whole truth about Mr. de Menezes.
To contextualise this, if a wee lassie from Raploch falls prey to smack, goes into prostitution to feed her habit and then ends up getting slashed by either her dealer or one of her tricks, the British state says she is not entitled to compensation because of her 'criminal lifestyle'.
If Jean-Charles de Menezes was deliberately flouting the law by staying in this country illegally, and had possibly aggravated that conduct by having a forged official stamp on his passport, then that is the classic definition of a 'criminal lifestyle'.
We have rights in this as well, D.
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Is it not hypocritical for Brazilian officials to descend on London in a blaze of publcity demanding "Justice"?. It has become THE buzzword in Brazil, I gather, as the press has been featuring very little but this story. The loud demand comes from a country where police shoot hundreds every year, use "throwdown" guns to indicate resistance to arrest, destroy evidence and rarely ever respond to demands for nvestigations. 1,100 were killed in 2003 alone.
So we have ONE admittedly tragic incident at a time of high tension as we're threatened by terrorists and they're vociferously up in arms! Would we dare to demand the resignation of THEIR Chief of police in Sao Paolo?
OF course it's a heaven-sent diversion for the government as the impeachment of President Silva on corruption charges looks possible.
I had originally thought possibly money was playing a prominent part. The family lives in a very rural area where the average monthly wage is $64 a month. The £500,000 compensation originally whispered would make the family dollar millionaires! Not many of them in Brazil!
At the weekend I mentioned to a friend that the intensive press coverage was taking on the appearance of a co-ordinated campaign.
The following day it appeared I was correct. The Stop the War Brigade and Galloway are banding together with other Far Left groupings. The spokesman is the adviser to Galloway's "Respect" Party. All ties up nicely, huh?
Kuandika,
Of course it ties up nicely.
There are some that say he was, in fact, legally in the UK. Is this true? Somehow, I doubt that.
Interesting blog, though. The points about his being hailed as some kind of martyr are spot on. And considering Brazil's reputation for police corruption and murder, it seems bizarre that so many appear to be against the police on this.
Jack,
Given the left's domination of discourse, it's not surprising at all.
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