Man Shot on London Subway Unrelated to Bombings

From the Los Angeles Times:

LONDON -- The man shot and killed on a subway car by London police in front of horrified commuters apparently had nothing to do with this month's bombings on the city's transit system, police said today in expressing their "regrets."

A day earlier, the police commissioner said the man was "directly linked" to Thursday's attacks, in which bombs on three subway trains and a bus failed to detonate properly. No one was injured.

"For somebody to lose their life in such circumstances is a tragedy and one that the Metropolitan Police Service regrets," a police spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity.

The man, whose identity has not been released, was shot Friday at a subway station in the south London neighborhood of Stockwell. Witnesses said the man appeared to be South Asian and was wearing a heavy padded coat when police chased him into a subway car, pinned him to the ground and shot him in the head and torso.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said on customary condition of anonymity that the man was unconnected to the incidents of Thursday, in which bombs placed on three subway cars and a double-decker bus failed to detonate properly.

The spokesman also said the man was "probably unconnected" to the July 7 subway and bus bombings that killed 56 people, including four attackers.

Okay, now I'm angry and disgusted at the British police. I'll admit that the man was acting suspiciously, and that he left a house that was under suspicion for the terrorist attacks in London. And I'll admit that the British police had a right to arrest and question him regarding the terrorist activities. But when the British police chased him into a subway car, pinned him to the ground and shot him in the head and torso--SHOT HIM WHEN THEY HAD HIM PINNED TO THE GROUND--that is murder! Plain and simple murder by the British police.

According to the New York Times:

No explosives or weapons were found on the man's body after the shooting, police officials said.

So he had no backpack of explosives, nor were explosives on his body. He did not have a weapon, nor did he brandish any weapon at the police. There was no reason to use deadly force in this incident. The man probably wasn't even a Muslim. This is not the way to engage in the public's trust to root out terrorists--especially among London's 1.6 million Muslim community. According to the NY Times:

The incident sent shock waves through the country's 1.6 million Muslims, already alarmed by a publicly acknowledged shoot-to-kill policy directed against suspected suicide bombers. And it has dealt a major setback to the police investigation into suspected terrorist cells in London.

"This really is an appalling set of circumstances," said John O'Connor, a former police commander. "The consequences are quite horrible."

Azzam Tamimi, head of the Muslim Association of Britain, said: "This is very frightening. People will be afraid to walk the streets, or go on the tube, or carry anything in their hands."

Of course, the British police have their little response to this debacle. They are certainly worried about suicide bombers and are willing to use deadly force against these bombers. In the LA Times:

Heavily armed officers patrolled with clear instructions to stop suicide bombers -- if necessary, with a shot to the head.

"If you are dealing with someone who might be a suicide bomber, if they remain conscious, they could trigger plastic explosives or whatever device is on them," Mayor Ken Livingstone. "Therefore, overwhelmingly in these circumstances, it is going to be a shoot-to-kill policy."

The big problem with the British police is that they are not trained in using deadly force. According to the NY Times:

Except in Northern Ireland, at airports and nuclear facilities, British police officers are not routinely armed. A small percentage of officers - roughly 7 percent in London - have weapons training, which is also required for the use of Taser stun guns, available to nearly all police forces. As routine weapons, officers carry a baton and a tear-gas-like spray. Of more than 30,000 officers in London, around 2,000 are authorized to carry weapons, a Scotland Yard spokesman said, speaking anonymously under police rules.

The more you arm British police officers, while not providing adequate weapons training, and then set them loose in a city that has already been frightened with two sophisticated bombing attacks in less than two weeks, the more likely you're going to see more of these "unfortunate incidents." The British are giving the terrorists a victory--not only are the citizens of London going to be frightened of the terrorists bombing them, but they're also going to be frightened of their own police suspecting them to be terrorists and shooting them.

That's not the way you win the war on terrorism.