On being brown-skinned in Britain...
this ips article adds some perspective to the events since the july 7 london bombings...
rightly or wrongly, consciously or unconsciously, the first things we notice about someone are skin and hair color, the presence or absence of facial hair (for males), and mode of dress... that leaves most people (again, males in particular) from the near east, north africa, the middle east, south asia, and even the balkans and a good chunk of latin america and the caribbean, open to the possibility of "looking" like an islamic terrorist...
an open question in my mind is why did the brazilian man, electrician jean charles de menezes, run from the police...? however, i truthfully cannot say what i would have done had i been in his shoes... Submit To Propeller
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The police have now openly declared a shoot-to-kill policy, and declared that they can shoot to kill just on suspicion. And that suspicion arising not from reliable intelligence or anything like that, but from just how someone may behave somewhere.
Until the other day everyone thought that a Brit licensed to kill was a character in a James Bond film. Now that is official British policy.
London's police commissioner Sir Ian Blair expressed ''regret'' -- and no more -- over the death of Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes. That ''regret'' was accompanied by the remark that there could be more such killing of innocent people.
Ian Blair said the police had a shoot-to-kill policy to stop suspected suicide bombers. ''This is not a Metropolitan (police) policy, this is a national policy and I think we are quite comfortable that the policy is right, but of course these are fantastically difficult times...there are still officers having to make those calls as we speak. Somebody else could be shot.''
Not many police chiefs of cities around the world who carry the responsibility of protecting their citizens would say this. The chilling message is that right or wrong, if an armed policeman is suspicious of your movements, it is okay, in fact required by national policy to instantly shoot to kill.
rightly or wrongly, consciously or unconsciously, the first things we notice about someone are skin and hair color, the presence or absence of facial hair (for males), and mode of dress... that leaves most people (again, males in particular) from the near east, north africa, the middle east, south asia, and even the balkans and a good chunk of latin america and the caribbean, open to the possibility of "looking" like an islamic terrorist...
an open question in my mind is why did the brazilian man, electrician jean charles de menezes, run from the police...? however, i truthfully cannot say what i would have done had i been in his shoes... Submit To Propeller
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posted by profmarcus at
7/27/2005
