'unfortunate'

[mrph]

"A man shot dead by police hunting the bombers behind Thursday's London attacks was unconnected to the incidents, police have confirmed.

A Scotland Yard statement said the shooting was a "tragedy" which was regretted by the Metropolitan Police."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4711021.stm

From the initial news report on the shooting, the eyewitness description:

"One of them was carrying a black handgun - it looked like an automatic - they pushed him to the floor, bundled on top of him and unloaded five shots into him"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4706787.stm

Combine the two and you've got a very unfortunate PR incident for the police. And a tragedy for the poor bastard they shot and his family, of course.

Comments

[zarbi.livejournal.com]

A better comparison might be, say, shooting down seven passenger planes, on the basis that they weren't sure which ones were hijacked, but knew they were out there and had a rough idea where. Still damage limitation, but a little more questionable?

I think is more more like knowing that hijackers are out there, and then shooting down a plane that seemed to be acting if it was being hijacked, such as not responding to requests to change course or land.

The only things that aren't, IMO, arguable is that there's a dead guy who had nothing to do with the terrorists and that this situation is not good for the police, whether or not they acted correctly.

It's bad for all of us. The suicidal nature of terrorists changes everything.