Press questions police action

2005-07-25 07:22

London - The British press on Monday questioned the police handling of investigations into the bomb attacks on the London transport system in the wake of the fatal shooting of an innocent Brazilian man.

Editorials focused on the shoot-to-kill policy of the police after 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead on Friday by police who mistook him for a suicide bomber.

"Now public trust in the police in ethnic communities, which holds a key to identifying terrorists, has understandably been badly shaken," The Guardian said in an editorial.

"It was silly for Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, to deny yesterday that this was not a serious setback for the police."

The Daily Telegraph reflected growing public anxiety about the failure of the police, despite a massive manhunt, to catch the suspected Islamic extremists who tried to blow up three trains and a bus on Thursday.

Intelligence

"We have their images on camera as well as the bombs they left behind. Our intelligence services have had years to concentrate on infiltrating Islamist groups ... Yet, at the time of going to press, all four bombers seem to be still on the loose," it wrote.

Metropolitan Police (Met) Commissioner Ian Blair has said the investigation is advancing quickly and has apologised for the Menezes shooting.

But the Daily Telegraph said "troubling questions" hung over the police service.

"We ask whether the Met is getting the leadership it deserves," it said.

Late for work

De Menezes may have run from the police because he was afraid they were hoodlums, or simply because he was late for work, his friends told Brazilian newspapers in articles published on Sunday.

Gesio de Avila, a co-worker, said Menezes had called him when he entered the station to tell him he would be a little late for work. The two were to install a fire alarm in a building in northwest London, Avila said.

"If he ran, it was simply because he was late," Avila told O Estado de Sao Paulo from London.

Menezes' family earlier said he was on his way to work when he was killed.

Fausto Soares, who lives in London and was a friend of the victim, told O Globo newspaper that Menezes probably ran away from the plainclothes officers because he thought they were attackers.

"He was assaulted by Englishmen (two weeks earlier) and because of that he may have been scared," said Soares, who is Brazilian.

Police initially said the victim was linked to Thursday's failed suicide attacks in London's transportation system, noting that he was wearing a thick coat on a warm summer day, prompting fears he could be carrying explosives.

British police described the shooting as a "tragedy," while the Brazilian government demanded a full investigation.

"My cousin was assassinated in cold blood, in an irresponsible act against an innocent person," Menezes' cousin Alex Alves Pereira told the daily O Estado de Sao Paulo.

- AFP