Grow Up Brazil
UPDATE: Many of the facts available when I originally posted this story have now changed. Jean Charles de Menezes did not, in fact, do anything that should have placed him under suspicion (running towards subway, jumping the ticket barrier, etc). He was followed by plain clothes police officers because he looked like a suspect and these officers received (erroneous) confirmation from their home office that Menezes was the terrorist in question. You can read an extensive summary of the case here.
Atenção: O título “Cresce Brasil” é dirigido acima para o governo de Brasil, não em povos maravilhosos de Brasil. Eu espero que este explique o que eu disse.
The man shot on the London subway wasn’t involved in the bombing investigation, but was a Brazilian citizen.
Scotland Yard admitted Saturday that a man police officers chased and shot to death at point-blank range in front of horrified subway passengers on Friday had nothing to do with the investigation into the bombing attacks here.
Senior investigators and officials of the Metropolitan Police said the man was believed to be South American; it was not known whether he was Muslim. No explosives or weapons were found on the man’s body after the shooting, police officials said.
However…we know that he was being watched by police for hanging out at a house that was under observation because of suspected links to the recent failed bombing.
“Nevertheless the man who was shot was under police observation because he had emerged from a house that was itself under observation because it was linked to the investigation of yesterday’s incidents.” the Friday statement said.
“He was then followed by surveillance officers to the station. His clothing and his behavior at the station added to their suspicions,” the statement added, apparently referring to reports that the man was wearing bulky jacket on a summer day.
Besides “looking” suspicious, the dude ran from police and jumped a turnstyle to make his way to a train.
Proving yet again that Brazil is a nation of petty and ignorant politicians they have released the following statement:
“The government expects the British authorities to explain the circumstances that led to this tragedy…”
How about this: your citizen was dumb, dumb, dumb. You’re in a foreign country, STOP for the police! Don’t run like, gee I dunno, a suicide bomber would: straight for the subway train.
It is a tragedy that someone died. But one can hardly blame the police for trying to protect the British populace after the horrific bombings of 7/7. A man under observation after exiting a suspected “terrorist house” who runs from police toward a crowded train car with a heavy jacket in summer should not be questioned, he should be shot.
31 Responses to “Grow Up Brazil”
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I have never seen a more stupid and dumb post in my life. You mean that now, anyone can be shot dead if they start running from the police? This is exactly the same kind of argument used to invade Iraq: weapons of mass destruction. For sure… might be… ooops, so sorry, not there. And whoever choses to believe in it gets a certification of Dumb of the year. WEll, guess most of Americans got that one. And a couple of Brittish, too. And more lives are taken, more hatred is built, more ignorant people feel they have a stupid opinion to gather believers. Thank God for intelligent life, or the few that still exist.
I wholeheartedly agree, Doug.
There’s only so many ways you can say this in plain English.
I’d say it in Spanish pero yo no sé cómo decirlo en español.
I’d learn to say it in Portugese, but, why bother, they apparently won’t hear the voice of reason—they’re too busy samba-ing to worry about international terrorism.
p.s. why do you not have a trackback system in place?
Well, they say that the guy did not listened to the police. That’s all they say. Were you there to make sure this really happened? They must say something consistent to shut up people, speacially because involving a foreign guy. What if he was an american citizen? I guess would be really bad, right? Of course you will say that americans will not run away in a case like that! I guess you would say something else, then the British government will apologize so much. But, of course, no white american citizen would be shot, because they wouldn’t seen as suspicious. People thinking the way you think is very depressive. Wake up you, dude.
Voice of reason…who has the reason? Those that think anyone is a terrorist and shoot away? Give me a break. What a waist…I am glad that not every american think like you. Too bad, too poor.
Actually, it wouldn’t matter to me whether it was an American citizen or not that ran away and was shot.
If you disobey a police order to stop then you have to expect there will be some inevitable consequences.
Maybe that’s not something you Brazilians are used to—law and order–in the favelas of Rio and Sao Paolo and other cities with your crooked cops and narcotraffickers…oops. Same thing.
And don’t use the “Were you there to make sure this really happened?” line of logic because it is absolute crap. You can apply that to ANYTHING you EVER read in the news!!! Your anti-American “this was a conspiracy” sentiments just ooze from your comments.
¿Pensas que eu sou americano? (And what makes you think I’m an American?)
wake up…
the cops were in normal plain civil uniditified clothes…
if you were in his place, with aleatory people in normal clothes pointing guns at you, i bet you would run too…
Kyer,
What made us think you are american is the fact that you seem to be sure that Brazilians speak Spanish.
What if he was an american citizen? I guess would be really bad, right?
No. I don’t care what nationality the person is. A U.S. citizen acting in the same manner should meet the same fate. Unfortunately that is the world we live in today.
I’m from the Washington, DC area. We have a great subway system, and I would feel much safer riding it if I knew that the police would act in the same way given the same set of facts.
“F” - Hey genius, remember this part?
“I’d say it in Spanish pero yo no sé cómo decirlo en español.
I’d learn to say it in Portugese, but, why bother…”
Meaning, I speak a little Spanish and I often blog or comment in Spanish. I don’t know Portugese (Brasil’s language…) and I said “I’d learn..but why bother?”
Nice try on the “ignorant American” stab. No cigar.
Karenin, Zila, Porcelaine and F.
Go back to sleep, dhimmis.
Doug: I had to come back here because Kyer said I am an anti-american. He is wrong. My children are americans, my husband is and I live and respect this place where I live and when I see people being disrespectful to my people, I can’t shut my mouth. Your post was in my opinion kinda aggressive, specially when you write: “your citizen was dumb, dumb, dumb. You’re in a foreign country, STOP for the police! Don’t run like, gee I dunno, a suicide bomber would: straight for the subway train.” He could be. For add some information, these three police guards were in civvies, but with guns. I would run too. I would get scared too. Doesn’t matter why that happened, was a mistake and I can take it. What I cannot accept is when I look for news and find blogs like yours that just talk like we do not deserve any explanation for that. I’ve seen some really bad comments on the blogsphere just like the ones left here from Kyer. Of course in Brazil are a lot of social and economical problems that we, people have to deal with and survive with. The way you wrote seems that just because that guy is from Brazil (he could be from any place in this earth) his family, pretty humble as well, living in a really poor house in the country side, doesn’t deserve anything better than this: “Was his fault, he did not stop for the police, whatever.” At least arrogant, don’t you agree? Unfortunately he is dead and he can’t say why he did not stop. In fact what I heard is that they grabbed him, dominated him and he did not have time to say anything. They shot him on his back at the neck. People do mistakes. We, brazilians are not better than anybody else. Americans, canadians, mexicans, etc, either. We are all people. I don’t agree with people being shot right way. I understand there is fear. What I don’t like to see, as I said is arrogance, intolerance and disrepect within people in this world. I still think if that man was an american or either european, would be different. Maybe you don’t see that, because maybe you don’t care.
For Kyer, I did not say you were an american, but seems that Doug is and I meant to say that for him, not for you. Actually only the 3 last lines of my comment above were for you. Maybe I should make it clear, because you couldn’t understand it.
Glad my husband and a lot of american citizens are much better than you are, Kyer. Have a nice day.
Oh, yes, and nice try talking about favelas in Rio and Sao Paulo…. It is so amazing that when people have no reasonable argument under theis sleeves that they go off the subject trying to pull out something to attack who has disagreed with them. hohohohoho, mister, nice try, but no, didn’t work. Having favelas in my country does not take any reason out of me. For your information, as I believe you are not well informed, did youknow that in England police officers do not have guns at all? Well, so you just imagine, when you know this and you are screamed at by people with guns, in civilian clothes on a subway? Guess that if that happens overthere, in the States, somebody screaming at you with a gun on the hand,that you would just stand still? Good luck, then. I guess tha even in the States, shooting is the last option when pursuing a person on the street, specially if that person is unarmed. How many police officers have met prison because of shooting at unarmed people? Even if they had just committed a crime, such as stealing? What kind of non-sense is this, shoot first ask questions later? Well, I just hope for your sake that none of the people that suround you will ever meet this end, being shot at just for being scared. So sorry, but not only your arguments are full of flaws but also, replying with a non-argument but an attack that has absolutely nothing to do with anything just proves how weak your argument is.
By the way, have you seen Bowling for Columbine? No, woth having a look. I think it will much enlighten you on the subject of firing arms and violence. And, the danger state that Americans are made to believe they are constantly in.
by the way, have you seen spellcheck? woth having a look.
made to believe by the seemingly unending threats and terroristic suicide bombings on innocent civilians everywhere? yeah, the western world has really got to chill out and stop thinking crazy bombers are out to get them. that’s so 2001.
“by the way, have you seen spellcheck? woth having a look.”
Haha. Sooo childish way to make you feel smarter. So, she made a mistake. And your point is? It isn’t a matter of spell. It is a matter of arguments. And so far as I can see, she is winning.
I don’t know why the hell the guy ran from the police. Yes, he did make a mistake. But let’s NOT become hysterical, it will undoubtedly let the police to an anxious and erratic behaviour. I am sure nobody wants that. We want the police to be effective and thoughtful, not “shot to kill” when in doubt. Now they feel they *have* to show some action. This action should be seen BEFORE 07/07.
And pleeeease, sweetheart, mentioning favelas to try to put brazilians down only show that you are a narrow-minded, prejudiced kind of person. Keep in mind that prejudice and considering other people as second class citizens just because of their origins and social background is one of the reasons why there are so many racial tension in UK, and that will keep terrorist acts going. Have a good day.
Complex case here, but pro- Brazilian guys have a point, check this out:
Plain unmarked clothes for policeman
Witnesses have confirmed that police had never identified themselves
So what we got here are 5 armed guys in dodgy clothes chasing a man.
Can we really blame him? Who wouldn’t run?
To aggravate the case, British police are not used to even carry weapons, unlike most countries, is undeniable they were under most dramatic adrenaline rush then most, being then error prone.
Don’t be so opinionated if you were never held at gun point, you don’t know what if feels like. The self preservation instinct kicks in and you do everything in your power to get out of this. (I’ve been there, done this, bought the T-shirt)
If Americans don’t run from police what is that shite every week on TV?
World’s Wildest Police Videos, where American police officers do the right thing and chase a suspect for hours if needed.
Well well well. Its good to know that a man is worth being shot because he is dumb. I would like to know if that was one of your friends, relative or loved ones killed in such matters that would justify it.
I am a brazilian girl living in London. We know the facts the news as they come almost in real time.
Today we read a witness (an english guy by the way) saying that the cops didnt shout once identifying themselves. They didnt shout once they would shot if the guy didnt stop. They were in plain clothes. The only thing they did was to put their baseball caps saying POLICE when the guy was already running and with his back on them.
I am not comdeming the Yard. But I think we need to serioulsy know the facts before only judging whoever and whenever. That is growing up.
Not only finding who to blame for, but learn with our mistakes, take the blame completely and correct what goes wrong.
Again, for those just blaming the INNOCENT brazilian (ok, he was guilty of being wearing a jacket, is that a crime now??????) , please ask again what would you do, if three strange ARMED UNINDENTIFIED guys started run after you ?
dear offended brazilians (all of you coming here from http://www.chili-pepper.net/, http://rateyourmusic.com/yaccs/commentsn/blog_id=3189940_and_blog_entry_id=1122242535, http://www.livejournal.com/~un_lovable/83752.html, & wherever else to which your offendedness may spread):
i am here to offer you one of my classic half-apology half-insults in an effort to get you to stop leaving your poorly-edited rants on this thread.
i understand that it may appear to you that we do not like brazilians, or that we think we are better than you, or whatever ideas you have manufactured in your minds because of your anger.
we can understand this (while you seem to struggle with it) because we are very far away (emotionally) from this incident.
but do you not realize that you are knee-jerk defending the brazilian just as knee-jerkily as you accuse us of knee-jerk defending the london police.?
here is the closest thing to an apology that you are going to get from me: we are not happy that your friend was killed. we are not happy with the police’s actions. in fact, if the man they were following had, indeed, been a bomber, we wish they would have stopped him before he got to the subway. since he was not a bomber (only acting like one, briefly) we wish the police would have been able to interrogate him peacefully. if they had only arrived at the house a few minutes earlier and caught him before he left…if he had only stopped when they had called him…if only the muslim suicide terrorists hadn’t placed bombs in a dozen london subway cars & buses in the last couple of weeks…if only the brazilian was aware enough of the tense climate in london following the multiple suicide bombing attempts this month, and acted accordingly…if only he didn’t have to be one more innocent death in the war on terror…
this is all very sad, and quite the work of many rare and unfortunate events all leading up to his death.
but can you imagine the suffering, death, & outrage that would have followed if he had, in fact, been a suicidal muslim terrorist, and all he had to do was pull a cord once he entered that subway to end many, many other lives? someone commenting above said,
this, it seems, was to be the original purpose of doug’s post. his title, “grow up, brazil” referred to the statements of the brazilian government (both which seemed premature to any investigation & ignorant of the already known facts) in condeming the police’s response. he details the actions of your slain countryman, not to disrespect or demean him, but to show how silly the statements released by your government appear to be. someone commenting above said,
unfortunately, that seems to be a tough standard for you people (commenting here) to live up to.
??? before 7/7? you know what? i bet if scotland yard had the same time-travel device you have, they would go back and do something! the accusation quoted above strikes me as incredibly ignorant.
as i see it, here were the options for the police in this case:
TRAVIS’ OFFICIAL ANALYSIS OF LONDON POLICE THOUGHT PROCESSES
best case scenario for shooting: we kill one evil person and spare dozens, perhaps hundreds of other lives.
worst case scenario for shooting: we kill one innocent person.
best case scenario for not shooting: no one dies. his bomb is either a dud or is non-existent. if he’s a terrorist we bag him, if he’s just a turnstyle hopper, we fine him and release him.
worst case scenario for not shooting: everybody in the tube station dies. london is the target of more terror attacks because police are seen as wussies afraid to enforce the law, even in the most illegal-looking circumstances. terrorism spreads around the world because stupid people think that a person’s right to act however they want, in whatever situation they want, in the presence of whatever foreign country’s law enforcement officers is a fundamental right more important than slightly modifying behavior so as to survive a changed world due to the ever-present threat of suicidal muslim terrorism.
i hope you can see that i’m sincerely sorry that your friend was shot. i hope you can also see that i am disappointed by your stupidity.
In regards to your very extensive analysis above I have just one thing to say: the Brittish police made a mistake, and I am not crucifing them for it. All I say is that I believe they own an apology, which, by the way, will not bring anybody back alive from the dead. Grow up Brazil? Interestingly enough your point does not mention grow up Scotland Yard, and may I ask why not? Very simple and very basic. Is it asking too much when the government requests the clarification and explanation of what happened? You seem so certain about the events that happened that I wonder if your there yourself! Up to now there are many misrepots and misunderstanding about the circumstances in which he was shot. Should he be a Brazilian, a Chinese, an Ethiopian or an American, I would feel the same. And who exactly should learn from this incident, SY that has made a mistake or the Brazilian Government that is asking for the clarification of the events (which, by the way, have NOT until now been fully explained)?
Disapointed by our stupidity? Hum… that’s very interesting, specially coming from someone who has just tried to defeat an argument with a missing r… Yes, yes, we must be very, very stupid, as we are only asking for clarification of the events. It would have made us much smarter to aplaud Scotland Yard’s mistake and agree with it, just as yourself. Certainly.
And, to sum it up, try, just try to put your opinion out there opened for a second thought. Think inside your box if you want, but if you insist on doing that, please, do us a favor, leave the ones that are willing to question the events out of it.
PS> just read my text again and for the record, there are missing r’s and even missing verbs! If you want, we can continue this in Portuguese, Spanish, French or Dutch, pick your language if you think my English skills are not up to your spelling check standards.
I don’t like getting involved in arguments in the Internet. Mostly because I don’t really feel it’s worth the aggravation. I came here as most of us Brazilians, through a comment someone wrote about this post in someone’s blog. But some of the things written in here are so incredibly prejudice.
I think what happened is very sad, and very tragic. And the Government of my Country Brazil has all the right to ask questions on the matter, specially because I’m sure that poor guy’s family wants to know. I think it’s incredibly sad for all sides involved, because after 2 bombings in a roll, England must be in complete State of panic. It’s a lot of pressure on their Police to try and keep the place safe. They are going against fearless, loveless (even for their own lives) terrorist. And then in the other side there is this guy (who none us really know much about it, yet) failing to stop. Policemen in unmarked clothes should at least suspect that in times of terror, if you don’t identify yourself, people must be carrying the same sort of suspicions as Police is. Which could very well be the reason why the Brazilian man ran away. He could be thinking exactly the same way “hey, I don’t know who these people are, asking me to stop”.. Let’s at least wait the development of this case and see if we all can find out what really happened there, before accusations are made left and right.
Now, I do think it’s funny that some guys here were so quick to point out misspelled words made by some of us Brazilians, when in the same token they were writing things such as “I’d learn to say it in Portugese” - the word is PORTUGUESE!
Sao Paolo - The correct word is SAO PAULO
Another thing, there is no perfect country free of corruption and criminality. We all have our problems, so let’s not start a discussion by point out the Favelas of Brazil. That’s weak and it only proofs that you might be in denial about your own issues. America has plenty of criminality too. And Fox channel that thinks it’s cute to advertise that in COPS.
“dear offended brazilians (all of you coming here from http://www.chili-pepper.net/, http://rateyourmusic.com/yaccs/commentsn/blog_id=3189940_and_blog_entry_id=1122242535, http://www.livejournal.com/~un_lovable/83752.html, & wherever else to which your offendedness may spread):”
You write whatever you want, but your comment box is public. Internet is spreadable. Did you think you could hide from people? Nope my dear. I found you on Technorati.com, unfortunately. Most of times, when I read things that I do not like or agree, I close the browse and go away. But here, you talking like that about our people, I couldn’t resist. I could just leave anonymous comments. But it’s not a shame for me to be a brazilian citizen. You make your writings and did not think that sometimes people would get offended or mad about it? The Internet is open. If you can stand a discussion, close or blog or your comment system.
“i am here to offer you one of my classic half-apology half-insults in an effort to get you to stop leaving your poorly-edited rants on this thread.”
poorly edited, yeah…we still can speak more than one language, while you, thinking that English is the only and needed language in the earth. How selfish. I don’t think you would learn portuguese. Too difficult, too rich for some people.
I have always been one to own up to my mistakes, and my favela/”samba-ing” comments were out of line and irrelevant and therfore, I apologize.
I do agree with Travis’ “worst case/best case scenario” explanation. It is clearly rational and logical and I stand by it, still.
I realize Bobbies don’t carry guns but some law enforcement officials DO. Undercover/plain clothes or not, it has been purported that the plainclothes officers shouted for the man to stop—one Brasilian cited that one witness said not a word was spoken. All I have to say is this, to quote Zilá, “Were you there to make sure this really happened?”
I disagree with whoever asserts that it would have made a difference whether it was an American/European that was shot, and I resent such a assertion, nevertheless, you are entitled to think that if you so desire. Plenty of non-American/Euros think we consider ourselves to be the only people entitled to justice on this planet.
You could not be more wrong.
I did not make any comments regarding your poor English grammar and spelling. I know well enough to recognize when English is not someone’s native tongue. I speak English first, and speak a little bit of Spanish second. Yes, I mispelled Sao PaUlo and PortuguEse incorrectly out of haste, but make sure you direct your attitude towards the person who made the language quips first.
I posted extensively on the shooting of this Brasilian man both on my blog and on a group blog where I am a member—-however, upon further reflection and upon trading barbs in this thread, I decided to reassess my position and I deleted my posts.
I am not an “ignorant American.” I dedicated my entire college career to studying Latin America (yes, and a little bit of time on Brasil, too.) and the developing world. Where I believe my brash tone and sarcasm originated from was this incident.
I have yet to get past this incident that occurred in Iraq. While it is my own problem, I have been extra sensitive in my blogging/commenting to attacks on innocents both in my homeland and in the lands of beloved allies like the Brits or the Aussies.
So, whether your accept this explanation for my biting comments is up to you. While I stand by my initial premise on the issue of the shooting, I do offer a full apology for the manner in which I conveyed my opinion.
It would be nice to isolate this incident and analyze it by itself, but in order to understand what happened you have to think of it in context. This came right on the heels of a major terrorist attack. Of course the police were on edge. Maybe this guy was on edge himself.
We don’t know why he ran - whether out of fear or out of anger or what his true intentions are. I think the saddest thing to come out of this whole thing is the fact that the British and the Brazilians are warring words over it, when really who is to blame?
Is it the guy’s fault? He probably shouldn’t have run, but who knows how we’d react given the same circumstances.
Was it the police’s fault? Perhaps they should have better identified themselves and been more sure of at whom exactly they were shooting before firing a fatal bullet.
But really aren’t the terrorists to blame? It is truly unfortunate, to be sure, that anyone would have to suffer the same fate as this unlucky Brazilian, but why turn our anger against each other when the whole reason this even happened is because we’re not working well enough together to eliminate evil terrorism.
Terrorists around the world must laugh when they successfully accomplish their suicide missions AND get us to turn on each other.
boy, you infantile ‘tards are really contributing to a better understanding of the situation! let’s all make sure we meet our quota of hatred for today!
Nice work!
a substantive comment…[followed by a description of its intent?]
for TRAVIS….
by the way, have you seen spellcheck? woth having a look.
“And, the danger state that Americans are made to believe they are constantly in.”
well…last time I did spellcheck on your sentence it said…
by the way, have you seen spellcheck? WORTH having a look.
Maybe you should use it as well dear Travis!
wow, are you telling me you don’t get the joke?
i can honestly say that i have never seen a group of people get so hysterical at having their spelling skills challenged.
I did not know the police in England shoot people dead when they run. Could they have at least shot the guy in the leg?
I think the brazilian goverment and his family deserve an apology.
This whole article and comments generates nothing but prejudce and racism. It’s pointless!
The guy was innocent a mistake was made, the police and the country should apoligize out of consideration for the life lost! It’s an act of humanity!
Brazilians felt sorry when the lives of hundreds was taken by the bomb attacks in England, I know because I saw all over the news and on the net.
Why can’t you understand that was a life too and innocent, who cares about his place of birth? What makes you think he deserved that?
Kyer, I do understand your explanation and I must compliment you for being a true gentleman. Nothing like a person that knows to recognize when exceeding. And in that sense, I apologize as well for picking on a soft spot. However, I must say that this is exactly what terror intends to do, bring people such fear that everybody starts questioning what is reasonable and accepting things that under normal circumstances they wouldn’t. Such as shooting an innocent person. In my view, this means that the other side is winning, not ours. No innocent blood should be spilled and nothing should justify it. Distorting our principles because “the circumnstances” require is exactly what terror intends to inflict and I strongly refuse to acknowledge it.
I live in Europe and therefore I am more exposed to any threat than you guys living in American soil. I have friends in Madrid and once I heard of the bombing, I called to check on them. The same with London, a place filled with people from all over the world. I have many friends there. On the day of the attack I called each one of them to make sure they were all well. And, most of my friends attitude is “life goes on, life must not stop. And, they trust that people that have the skills and are properly trained will address the issue as it should be addressed. It is not a matter of blaming, it is a matter of acknowledging a mistake and as I said before, making sure they recognize it, first step to be able to improve, to make it better.
so, in that sense, I still disagree with the analysis. SY or MI-5, their job is to protect, not kill innocents. using the argument of a possibility of threat, well, they must be damn sure that the threat is really on its way before shooting people dead on subways. If we endorse this kind of thing, nobody will feel safe anywhere, as not only one can be an innocent victim but also an innocent suspect.
Brad, it is a good point the one you made, however, we can start this going back on the “blaming” and we might end up in the Roman times, as the origin for all this mess seems somehow to be related to Middle EAst history. Therefore, I ask again, let’snot try to justify what is wrong with something that is worse. That is not the point. The point is, amistake was done, recognize it and then try to find answers to what can be done and what are the lessons learned so that this does not repeat in the future? Let’s not justify one wrong doing with another. Let’s try to make it better. And, as I said, no blaming. Just acknowledging the fact.
And Travis, just for the record, you continue to ignore my last comment or are you just playing dead? Before you qualify other people’s comments as “substantive” let’s not forget that you started the “substantive comments” chain yourself.
Cheers to all.
i think you should apologize for that racist (probably) and insensitive pun immediately. [/sarcasm]
anyway, here is my response to what i recall was your comment:
no, but the particular message from the brazilian government only assumes some sort of racism or prejudice on the part of the london police. brazil was officially “shocked & perplexed” by the shooting. their statement immediatly struck me (and many others) as odd, since they asked that britain explain the circumstances that led to the tragedy, the same circumstances that were clearly reported in 10,000 newspapers. forensic evidence led the police to the house, and then some odd things about the victim’s behavior led police to believe he was something other than innocent. unfortunately for him–whatever his motivation–he behaved exactly as the police thought a suicide bomber would behave…right up to running into a tube station.
this explanation was not acceptable to the brazilian government, since everyone knows white people value the lives of dark skinned people much less than their own (i think that is the explanation brazil was looking for). only, this isn’t true.
none of this really dawned on me until i read one of the last comments in this thread calling this post racist and implying racism in the shooting:
if anything, his odd behavior–not his place of birth. what is so hard to understand about that?
now, i would personally like to apologize to all of the brazilians, portuguese, and other international readers of this post. i have several brazilian friends, and i do not wish any of them or you to die.
i have friends abroad, too, in london, milan, & frankfurt. i pray that no more innocent people die as a result of this maniacal islamic terrorism. i pray that the world will be a peaceful place where our children and grandchildren can all coexist as friends.
“All Londoners will wish to offer their condolences to this man’s family and friends (…). The police acted to do what they believed necessary to protect the lives of the public. This tragedy has added another victim to the toll of deaths for which the terrorists bear responsibility.” _ Ken Livingstone, mayor of London.
Al-Qaeda finally got what they so badly wanted: to outsource terror to the western security forces. Smart move.
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