Saturday, July 23, 2005

• So after the events of Thursday we then get reports yesterday of a man being shot and killed on the tube! I still can't get used to seeing our police armed, its just not something we're used to in the UK. To then hear that someone has been shot and killed on our transport system is unprecedented. These things just don't happen here. Apparently the guy was running away from plain clothes officers, ran into a tube station, hurdled the barriers, belted down the escalators and leapt onto a train that had just pulled into the station. He was followed seconds later by some officers who reportedly pushed him to the floor and unloaded five shots into him. They had very strong reason to believe that this guy was a suicide bomber. Later in the day there were reports of armed raids in other areas of London, and there are now two suspects in custody.

  Since September 11th apparently our security forces have been authorised to use deadly force against suspected terrorists. If the guy who was shot was a suicide bomber he could have caused a huge loss of life. In that scenario the use of deadly force is surely justified? But what if, as the current reports suggests, he wasn't carrying any sort of explosive? Obviously if he wasn't guilty of some criminal activity he wouldn't have been running from armed police officers and would have complied with their orders, but does that justify lethal force? In any event, the shooting of this man yesterday is raising some very serious ethical questions and rightly so.

  • 11:04 AM
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