Here’s some good advice from the venerable Chris Rock on http://www.ifilm.com/player/?ifilmId=2458063 How to NOT get your ass kicked by the police.
Yes, I understand that it’s a tragedy that an (assumed) innocent man was killed after he ran from police in the London Underground the day after other men physically similar to him tried to blow the place to hell. Yes, I understand that a man of said physical characteristics walking around in the summer heat wearing a heavy jacket does not automatically make him a terrorist, although I would remind the viewer of the aforementioned attempted bombings, the similar physical characteristics of the bombers, and the (in no way unexpected) heightened level of security following said acts or barbarism. I would also remind the reader that the (deceased) (assumably) innocent man did not stop when told to, and continued to act like the terrorist asshole he was assumed to be at the time of his demise.
No, I don’t feel sorry for him. I do feel sorry for the police who will no doubt have to take more chances with their own lives and give more opportunities to terrorist assholes because some (assumed) innocent civilian was too stupid to realize that his behavior was an invitation to “suicide by police”.
Or maybe that was his plan all along.
It’s sad that you don’t feel bad for the loss of innocent life (asshole or otherwise). That actually makes you no different than the terrorists. That same disrespect for innocent life is what MAKES them terrorists.
In a big city like London with millions of people, I’m sure that at any one point in time there could be hundreds of people stirring around wearing unusual clothing and who would be frightened by men chasing them with guns drawn. By your reasoning it’s OK for cops to shoot them all (innocent or not).
I’m a 58-year-old middle-class man and respected by my peers but I’ll be honest with you. I’m becoming much more frightened of being abused or injured by the police than I am of being harmed by a criminal.
All things in perspective, dizzy…
It’s a tragedy that an innocent man died (I opened my statement acknowledging that).
I do not feel sorry for him, considering the facts of the incident. He ran from the police. He ignored the verbal warnings. He, being a resident of London, knew damned well what has been happening in his town.
You need to learn to read, not simply leap at what your kneejerk, reactionary mental processes perceive to be an invitation to the use of lethal force against innocent civilians.
Bottom line – when police are actively hunting criminals known to be deadly threats to the public, the public had better be **helping** them. Running away, jumping the turnstyle at a train station, and ignoring verbal warnings are the actions of a guilty man, and the "innocent man" played a very real role in his own demise.