Shots Fired

[thessalian]

So a man tries to board a Tube wearing what looks like a 'bomb belt'. Not sure how much damage it'll do, not sure how it's going to be triggered. And the police chase him onto a crowded Tube train, pin him to the floor (according to the news reports dodgyhoodoo is watching) and shoot him five times.

When the almighty fuck did summary executions become a part of the justice process in this country? Besides that, it was unsafe. You do not shoot people in front of that many civilians in that enclosed a space if you can help it. He was subdued, he wasn't going to trigger anything, and if it was on a timer, well, they'd have been screwed either way. And let's not talk about what would have happened if they'd missed and hit the bomb belt ... but then again, we're assuming the shots weren't at close range, which I guess is kind of stupid. He could have been disarmed, but no one tried.

I don't even want to hear the excuses for this one.

Comments

[lokean.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I'd say it was justified even then. Warranted, perhaps but to say it is justified is to imply that it was, ethically, the right thing to do. Tactically and reasonably it might have been right to shoot the victim but, personally, I cannot even begin to consider it just to kill somebody in anything resembling those circumstances. Not that I wouldn't do it, if the alternative was the possibility of killing many people I had promised to protect and injuring many more. I wouldn't think it was right though, I'd think it was wrong but necessary.

[gf2e.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry. My choice of words was poor. What I really meant was, "I would not be calling for the prosecution of somebody under those circumstances."

It's hard for me to really argue nuanced levels of right, justified, warranted, etc. without much more detailed scenarios. Small details can change things enormously.

I think the biggest problem is the level of certainty. It's fairly easy to speculate about what to do if you KNOW that somebody has a properly wired up bomb. It's a lot harder to decide what to do when you're, for example, 90% sure they do.

As I mentioned, I am uncomfortable with what I've heard, but I'm not ready to support or condemn anything until I hear more facts. Regardless of the facts, I am sad that somebody died, and I am disappointed that they were not able to be questioned by the police.