THE brutality of the killing of 27 year old Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes on 22 July was matched by the scale of lies: within hours of his murder on a London underground train the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Ian Blair, told the media that the dead man was a suspect in the failed bombings of July 21st. In fact, his only ‘crime’ was to be seen walking out of an apartment building which the police had under surveillance. And this week it emerged that, contrary to police claims, he was not wearing a padded jacket which could have concealed an explosive device, nor did he leap over the ticket barrier while entering Stockwell underground station. In fact he walked calmly into the station, even pausing to pick up a free newspaper from a stand. And while Ian Blair claimed that the police were implementing the disturbingly termed ‘shoot to kill to protect’ policy by killing Jean at point blank range without issuing any warning to prevent him from potentially detonating a suicide bomb, a member of the police surveillance team has now testified that he had grabbed hold of the victim in his seat and had his arms pinned before other police officers pumped seven bullets into Jean’s head and one into his shoulder.
Not only did Ian Blair act at once to try and prevent an independent inquiry into the killing, which would normally have been routine, but it has now emerged that his deputy assistant commissioner, John Yates, flew to the small town of Gonzaga in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil three weeks ago to make an offer of £ 15,000 to Jean’s family. His parents, Maria Otoni de Menezes and Matozinho Otoni da Silva, impoverished small peasants, rejected the offer as an insult, saying ‘We will not be bought off. We will not be silenced. This is not about money, this is about justice.’ Maria de Menezes told journalists, ‘I wanted them to explain why they had killed Jean. But nobody explained anything. It has been lie after lie after lie’.
A campaign demanding justice for the family has spearheaded calls for the resignation of Commissioner Ian Blair but the government has demonstrated its contempt for the lives of ordinary people, particularly people of colour. It has proclaimed its determination to stand by Ian Blair and has confirmed that the ‘shoot to kill’ policy will be retained with only minor changes. This is in line with a number of proposed changes in the law that signal a move to a far more authoritarian state.
Under these the government will have the power to deport people (in contravention of Britain’s Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights) to countries that are known to practice torture. It will also be able to close places of worship, strip citizenship from existing naturalised citizens and widen the criteria for banning organisations. While the offence of ‘indirect incitement’ is already being considered, the government’s latest proposal extends this to ‘justifying or validating’ the use of violence.
‘The concept of what will become a crime’, says Tony Bunyan of the civil liberties group Statewatch, ‘seems to be slipping dangerously…Does this mean that anyone seeking to understand - without condoning - the use of violence will be classified as ‘justifying or validating’ it? If so, it will constitute a major threat to the freedom of expression and the freedom of the press.’ In fact those who oppose the ‘war on terror’ in the most moderate terms will be vulnerable to persecution, particularly if they are Muslims. Even ‘good Muslim’ leaders who had been nurtured by the government are finding their position increasingly untenable.
As Gareth Peirce a leading civil rights lawyer commented on Tony Blair’s proposals: ‘This is a statement of dangerous self-delusion, deliberately ignoring history, legality, principle and justice.’ Perhaps, though, this is only to be expected as Britain’s domestic policy shapes itself around Bush and Blair’s ongoing project of imperialist war.
– Kalpana Wilson