We may never know all the facts of the death of JEAN CHARLES DE MENEZES, shot at least five times in the head by BRITISH POLICE in the WAR ON TERROR.
In a time of tragedy, some will wonder who the heroes are and who the
villains. An inquiry awaits in the stiff lipped British style,
bloodless. Facts will be known, the necessities of a world wandering
in a wilderness of madness. Numbers will be recited, reports given and
argued. Such facts are a futile way to comprehend the world.
Imagination />
killed Jean Charles de Menezes as surely as any bullet. It was
imagination that gave the British the novel idea that shooting someone
before a bomb goes off would make people feel more safe. It is
imagination that sees threats before they fully emerge. So our minds
give birth to monsters. What fully emerges in this time of terror in
this new Bethlehem is no savior, but the deceiving demon of death.
Imagination can give birth to shadows more dark than night. The shadows
within us may hold all fear. Fear will hold us in a shivering pool.
But there is also light. May light caress the softly grieving heart.
i imagine i am the brazilian
they will call me the braziliani am jean charles de menezes
i imagine i am the brazilianunaware by choice of coats
i choose my deathi am jean charles de menezes
a brazilian in london an electrician,a brazilian i imagine my homeland
i imagine my father with cancer,my mother, my homeland
as i leave my flat and head to the tube.what comes for me will come in its time
i will live as i am, i am the braziliani am the brazilian on a london street
where a bus could be a bombbombs explode in a time of terror
but what time is not?some will say i am asian. he was asian
i am not an asian, i am the brasiliani imagine an explosion in my head
when it blows will i know?i imagine i am the brazilian
on a bus untouched by tragedy or tearssome will not ride the bus or take the tube
but i will not imagine life in feari get off the bus i imagine work
on the escalators and someone shouts halthalt the sound of bombs and trouble in the tube
i will not be caught by a bomber’s blastso i run to the train where i trip and i fall
i am falling down and they are on mewho is on me i imagine
i am the brazilianbut imagination ends
with the report of the gunmy heavy coat is my end
my blood a thin river on the ground
"imagining the brazilian"
joe ivory mattingly
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[GUARDIAN UK] Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian shot dead in the head, was not wearing a heavy jacket that might have concealed a bomb, and did not jump the ticket barrier when challenged by armed plainclothes police, his cousin said yesterday.
Speaking at a press conference after a meeting with the Metropolitan police, Vivien Figueiredo, 22, said that the first reports of how her 27-year-old cousin had come to be killed in mistake for a suicide bomber on Friday at Stockwell tube station were wrong.
"He used a travel card," she said. "He had no bulky jacket, he was wearing a jeans jacket. But even if he was wearing a bulky jacket that wouldn't be an excuse to kill him." [HAT TIP: GREEN KNIGHT ]
[GUARDIAN UK] In a clear indication of how terrorism not only destroys bodies but contaminates perceptions, fellow travellers say they saw an "Asian man" with "a bomb belt and wires coming out". What they actually saw was a young Brazilian in a Puffa jacket. The police saw a threat. To them De Menezes looked like another "clean skin" (a perpetrator with no history of previous terrorist involvement or affiliation) on the run and possibly about to act. Having cornered him and pinned him to the ground they pumped five bullets into his head at close range.
In a world where every brown skin is little more than a "clean-skin" waiting to happen, stop and search will inevitably become stop and shoot. The dominant mood that we are better safe than sorry is understandable. But after Friday's incident we are left with one man dead, nobody safe and everybody sorry. If there's one thing we've learned over the past two years, it's that a pre-emptive strike with no evidence causes more problems than it solves.[HAT TIP: YELLOW DOG DEM]
[KING OF ZEMBLA] So, to reiterate: 1) By promising humane treatment and due process to detainees, who may or may not be terrorists, we condemn untold numbers of innocent civilians to death at the hands of jittery subway cops. If, on the other hand, we subject our captives to torture, extraordinary rendition, and perpetual imprisonment, the practice of terrorism will immediately cease, and dusky bearded men in coats will be free to ride the tube with impunity. 2) The threat of summary execution serves as a powerful deterrent to suicide bombers, who might think twice about blowing themselves to smithereens if they knew that police were prepared to shoot them for it.
MORE TO FOLLOW
Linked to this. What surprises me is how many media accounts refer to him as "the Brazilian." In writing this elegy, you've given the man back his name. Thank you for that.
Posted by: Thom | July 28, 2005 at 08:15 PM
When'ee say 'An inquiry awaits in the stiff lipped British style, bloodless' you of course mean a trial, for when a police officer shots a man in this country, he is tried for murder. This is, as you will appreciate, a rather more riggerous inquiry than an officer migh undergo in another land, which is one of the reasons British amred police have the best shoot/don't shoot ratio in the world.
Posted by: The Alchemist | July 29, 2005 at 07:50 AM