Bobbies with guns-what is the world coming to?

Particularly those fired by over-zealous bobbies who only got to wear a gun a week ago.

Wyatt Earp may have found the same problems. After all god fearing yanks were allowed to carry (and of course use) weapons of mass deceit (of course I would never fire it without due cause).

FROM THE GUARDIAN UK

It has now emerged that Mr de Menezes:

· was never properly identified because a police officer was relieving himself at the very moment he was leaving his home;

· was unaware he was being followed;

· was not wearing a heavy padded jacket or belt as reports at the time suggested;

· never ran from the police;

· and did not jump the ticket barrier.

But the revelation that will prove most uncomfortable for Scotland Yard was that the 27-year-old electrician had already been restrained by a surveillance officer before being shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder.

Mr de Menezes reportedly stopped & bought a newspaper (after not jumping the ticket barrier) before sitting down in the train. Apparently he was looking at the paper as the police hero sneaked-up to him & pumped 4 bullets into his head from a range of 12" (3 other shots missed & 1 hit de Menzes in the shoulder).

Doubtless the plod are busy "reconstructing their stories: oops, sorry the events". Maybe they'll suggest that the gun was discharged accidentally or that they were only firing warning shots but de Menezes leapt in front of the bullets or there was a picture of a bomb on the front of his newspaper or the gun "misfired" or they are searching for a "mystery sniper" - seen on the grassy knoll.

Anyway, things are looking-up around our way: we've cancelled our subscription to the Opera; our local neighbourhood watch is finalising its tender for AK-47s this week & my wife has just brought home my new spring collection of T-shirts, emblazoned with messages like: "It's the bloke next to me"; "I support insider-trading"; "deport all armchair critics"; "Telstra should charge more"; "bankers support social justice"; "freedom & democracy is a socialist plot"; "social hamony through ignorance, fear & blind conformity"; "abolish question time" & "John Howard is my hero".

We've put the terrorist hotline on "speed-dial" & so far this week, we've reported 88 suspicious number plates & a number of strange lights in the sky. The postman has been told not to approach our letterbox without taking his helmet off & my wife is restructuring her gentle exercise & pilates classes to bring them up to the School of the Americas standard.

And Spring is just around the corner.

It would appear that Mr de Menezes was shot 7 times in the head & once in the shoulder, with 3 other shots missing him AND the plod were not even sure he was their “suspect

The family's lawyer characterized these revelations as "shocking" & "terrifying

The Editor

Sydney Morning Herald                                                  August 19, 2005

Maybe it’s time we reviewed our definition of ‘terrorism’ (‘Wrongful killing whistleblower ‘suspended’’, Herald, August 19, 2005)?

It seems that the trigger-happy & anonymous plod can now judge & execute people in the UK with impunity; blame & defame their innocent victims; initiate cover-ups of their criminal negligence & compound their deceit through secret & prolonged enquiries: all in the name of protecting the public from ‘terrorism’.

But let a ‘whistleblower’ leak details of the truth to the public & they are promptly & unceremoniously dispatched with the same brutal efficiency as the original victim.

‘The UK government's case for identity cards has been dealt a serious blow on the day of a crucial Commons vote after the software giant Microsoft warned that the proposals could generate "massive identity fraud" on a scale as yet unseen.

In an article for The Scotsman today, Jerry Fishenden, the national technology officer for Microsoft, says the proposal to place "biometrics" - or personal identifiers such as fingerprints - on a central database could perpetuate the "very problem the system was intended to prevent". He says ministers "should not be building systems that allow hackers to mine information so easily".’ 

ID Cards Will Lead To 'Massive Fraud'

Some analysis of the biometric ticket proposals, in

How Clarke is fiddling the £30 'affordable' ID card

and

How do you like this Ruddockism, from the Home Office Minister -

"We are not knocking down doors at four in the morning with people booted and suited in riot gear. Most of the removals occur around half-five, half-six, seven in the morning."

The steady expansion of the "surveillance society" risks undermining fundamental freedoms including the right to privacy, according to a House of Lords report published today.

The peers say Britain has constructed one of the most extensive and technologically advanced surveillance systems in the world in the name of combating terrorism and crime and improving administrative efficiency.

The report, Surveillance: Citizens and the State, by the Lords' constitution committee, says Britain leads the world in the use of CCTV, with an estimated 4m cameras, and in building a national DNA database, with more than 7% of the population already logged compared with 0.5% in the America.

The cross-party committee which includes Lord Woolf, a former lord chief justice, and two former attorneys general, Lord Morris and Lord Lyell, warns that "pervasive and routine" electronic surveillance and the collection and processing of personal information is almost taken for granted.

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read more at the Guardian and see toon at top... and duck...