Londoners safer with Kratos? More at ease? White?
The end doesn't justify the means
db: The introduction of a shoot-to-kill policy on mainland UK was a decision taken by someone other than the Prime Minister, or so he claimed in a televised press conference a few days after the slaying of Jean Charles de Menezes. Mr Blair asserted that the issue 'never crossed his desk'. This is a staggering admission, given that the decision gave a green light to the 'preventive' assassination of British subjects [and/or other nationalities].
In effect, a decision was made to reintroduce a form of state execution - free from all safeguards that the law can provide and with no scope for appeal. Not only that - as we have already seen, this form of summary 'justuce' is prone to error - and as proud as we apparently are of our great police service - and all it's militaristic ski-mask wearing offshoots - they are never going to get good at this because London is unlikely ever to become Baghdad in terms of a training ground where mistakes can be made with impunity and the opportunity to practice comes daily. For our police to get good at this stuff a lot of innocent people will have to die first.
The decision to introduce this reckless formula onto the streets of London puts at risk the lives of all innocent people in the wrong place at the wrong time. Regardless of the argument that 'Kratos' serves a greater good - which is a numbers game - the fact is it could be 'you' next.
That such an enormous decision could have been made without crossing Blair's desk is beyond belief. It is not as though shoot-to-kill is unknown to British SIS, SAS, former FRU etc - the difference is that operation Kratos is not a secret and it isn't taking place out of sight in someone else's back yard. Short of the sovereign promoting it in the Queens speech, official endorsement of this policy could not have been clearer. And yet the issue did not cross Tony Blair's desk.
Reading the leaks concerning the events preceding the killing of Mr de Menezes one is struck by the mundane uselessness of the Stockwell operation - where a policeman 'relieving himself' can contribute to a massive failure leading up to the death of an innocent man on the pretext of protecting 'us' - that group of the population that isn't lying dead, a victim of the greater good. Blairs instinct tells him to claim that the issue 'never crossed his desk'. He is, no doubt, just playing with words.
The Metropolitan police made a significant effort to gain acceptance of an Orwellian description for the method by which Jeam Charles de Menezes was killed - 'shoot to kill to protect policy'. Thankfully this is not America and the name never caught on.
db: The introduction of a shoot-to-kill policy on mainland UK was a decision taken by someone other than the Prime Minister, or so he claimed in a televised press conference a few days after the slaying of Jean Charles de Menezes. Mr Blair asserted that the issue 'never crossed his desk'. This is a staggering admission, given that the decision gave a green light to the 'preventive' assassination of British subjects [and/or other nationalities].
In effect, a decision was made to reintroduce a form of state execution - free from all safeguards that the law can provide and with no scope for appeal. Not only that - as we have already seen, this form of summary 'justuce' is prone to error - and as proud as we apparently are of our great police service - and all it's militaristic ski-mask wearing offshoots - they are never going to get good at this because London is unlikely ever to become Baghdad in terms of a training ground where mistakes can be made with impunity and the opportunity to practice comes daily. For our police to get good at this stuff a lot of innocent people will have to die first.
The decision to introduce this reckless formula onto the streets of London puts at risk the lives of all innocent people in the wrong place at the wrong time. Regardless of the argument that 'Kratos' serves a greater good - which is a numbers game - the fact is it could be 'you' next.
That such an enormous decision could have been made without crossing Blair's desk is beyond belief. It is not as though shoot-to-kill is unknown to British SIS, SAS, former FRU etc - the difference is that operation Kratos is not a secret and it isn't taking place out of sight in someone else's back yard. Short of the sovereign promoting it in the Queens speech, official endorsement of this policy could not have been clearer. And yet the issue did not cross Tony Blair's desk.
Reading the leaks concerning the events preceding the killing of Mr de Menezes one is struck by the mundane uselessness of the Stockwell operation - where a policeman 'relieving himself' can contribute to a massive failure leading up to the death of an innocent man on the pretext of protecting 'us' - that group of the population that isn't lying dead, a victim of the greater good. Blairs instinct tells him to claim that the issue 'never crossed his desk'. He is, no doubt, just playing with words.
The Metropolitan police made a significant effort to gain acceptance of an Orwellian description for the method by which Jeam Charles de Menezes was killed - 'shoot to kill to protect policy'. Thankfully this is not America and the name never caught on.
posted by exoplanet at 10:53 PM
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