Kerblam! by Christopher

Monday, July 25
As the truth of the shooting emerges

We now know that the man shot on the Tube was in fact a Brazilian man, in his mid 20s, who (from reports) had overstayed his student visa and was working illegally (as an electrician, I believe). While it's a great shame that this man died unnecessarily, I don't believe that it is the fault of the police officers in question involved in the chase - the man was acting suspiciously, he was running away from police officers (!), he refused to stop or heed the warnings of the officers to stop and he was working illegally, having avoided deportation and therefore having no legal right to stay in this country. While I am not against immigrants per se, I do believe that it is the man's fault for making the choices he did, culminating in his illegal status in this country and the turn of events which led to him believing the police were after him. If he had only applied for a work visa, this may well have never happened.

The police must NOT stop taking their hardline stance towards suspected terrorist individuals, as this would undermine their ability to police this country and result in a grossly-inadequate state of security in this country. While people say they are outraged at the shooting and the unfortunate death of this individual, somewhere or other the line has to be drawn and the police given the power to take more proactive steps towards policing, such as the shoot-to-kill-to-protect orders, especially still with the 4 (possibly 5, after the bomb was found in the London park close to one of the Tube stations) bombers at large. Don't think me unsympathetic, but the Brazilian guy did bring it on himself for a large part. Wrong place at the wrong time, yes, but if he was a legal resident in this country and had nothing to hide, he would've had nothing to fear. It's his fault.

In other news, police are now surmising that the batch of explosives mixed in the Aylesbury bathtub (which isn't too far from where I live, my Dad works in Aylesbury) went off because, due to its volatile nature, the mixture was left too long after being mixed together - and due to it going off (off as in out of date), when the detonators were triggered, the triacetone mixture wasn't volatile enough to explode.

Now that's what you call a lucky escape due to inept bomb-making abilities.

... Oh, I also finished reading Harry Potter ('Episode 6', heh) today. It's formulaic, Harry-centric and drags a little at times, but what disappointed me most was the weak ending. I don't know if it was a carefully-constructed anticlimax by Joanne Rowling to make us want to read the final book more (and hell, I want to), but after all the action and excitement of the previous chapters, she could've finished it off with a little more flourish... But oh well, seventh book'll be along in two years' time and then we can find out what happens...

...And, as a final PS for now, hurrah - five days before I go on holiday, my PC decides to start completely stuffing up and disappearing up its own backside and stop recognising anything plugged into some of its USB ports....... And my graphics card is playing up as well. Bloody hell... That means more money to spend to upgrade it (so that it works) as SOON as I get back from America! Great.

Dragged out of Christopher's memory and pasted
into his blog at 7/25/2005 08:13:00 PM. Roughly.
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