Hindsight is a beautiful thing

A few days ago Jean Charles de Menezes was shot by mistake by the UK Police.

This is obviously bad thing.

A very bad thing.

However, my understanding is that he was ordered to stop by Policemen pointing guns and instead of doing so, he jumped the barrier and got onto a train - all this whilst wearing a thick coat, and at a time when London appears to be under siege

Obviously condoning what the Police did is not an option (I can only begin to imagine how I'd be feeling if this had happened to my daughter) but their actions can be understood.

What if he had been another bomber and had then killed 30 people standing on a platform? The Police would then have come under attack for not taking action.

I heard a commentators yesterday say "we need to do a full investigation into how this occurred" I totally disagree. This is just political correctness gone mad.

To pay for a full investigation is just fool-hardy. It happened because the UK is under attack, because he was running away whilst being ordered to stop, because he ran into a train station (where many of the bombs have gone off) and because he was wearing a strangely thick coat.

The error of judgment is not soley laid at the feet of the Police. Jean Charles also made some bad decisions that day; ones that ultimately cost him his life.

I see it a little like pulling out a plastic gun, pointing it at a Policeman and then complaining that they shot you before you could explain it was only plastic.

It's not a satisfactory outcome, but I am certain that this scenario will do a re-run if anyone else were to take similar action and I think to order the Police not to take the sort of action they did in a similar situation would be a mistake.

I thought this article was interesting

Basically, if a Police officer is pointing a gun at you ordering you to stop and put your hands above your head, stop and put your hands above your head.