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July 25, 2005
Yikes
The Toronto Sun's Peter Worthington shits the bed:
In Britain, police now shoot suspects. Good.
Good! No sir, it is not "good" that Mr de Menezes was killed by mistake. It is not "good" that it might happen again. It's tragically unavoidable, most likely, but not even remotely "good".
That could be chalked up to extraordinarily bad word choice and a complete absence of editing, I suppose. Of this, however, I can make neither heads nor tails:
We can't even get rid of al-Qaida-trained Hassan Almrei, now in his fourth year in the Metro Detention Centre awaiting deportation as a security risk.
Supporters such as the Trudeau kid want him freed, as he says he'll be tortured if returned to Syria.
Oh? Syria tortures al-Qaida people? Since when?
[UPDATE July 26. Damage control, Peter Worthington style:
Of course it's unfortunate that the man shot and killed by London police was not a suicide bomber but an innocent Brazilian electrician on his way to work.
No, Mr Worthington, you said it was "good" — there's no glossing over that ugliness. It warrants outright retraction, not explanation. But wait, there's more:
There's sorry irony in that possibly the only fame Joao Alves Menezes [who? –ed.] was destined to achieve was being killed as he headed for work that morning, with no reason to fear the police.
Sorry irony? Fame?! He wanted to make enough money to go home and run a cattle ranch, for Christ's sake.
Attention Peter Worthington: stop writing about this immediately. You are either incapable of expressing properly what you want to say, or you are senile, or you are a very unkind individual. Silence is your friend.]
Posted by Chris Selley at July 25, 2005 11:58 PM
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Comments
Of course it's good, in Worthington's eyes.
He's an old white man, who likely isn't physically capable of running from police (or anyone else for that matter), and doesn't take public transit since he's riding in what is most likely his chauffered Mercedes.
Anyway, I'd chalk it up to racism. What's another dead Muslim or Brazilian, right?
Posted by: Rob at July 26, 2005 12:16 AM
Rob: Let him who is without superfluous ageist, classist and racist comments, cast the first stone.
Chris: Thank you for reading the Sun, so we don't have to.
Posted by: JKelly at July 26, 2005 12:26 PM
No point in hand-wringing too much over this incident. He should have stopped. He shouldn't have ignored the police. It's the equivalent of running into a highway. Simple unstoppable forces at work. Once in a while one doesn't have the luxury of civil disobedience. You've got to see both sides. Had the guy been a bomber and killed 30 people while the police stood idly by, then it'd have been a lot worse. And like it or not, shooting is a powerful disincentive to police disobeyance, the guy is dead and it's a tragedy but the upside is that the message is that the cops aren't messing around.
Posted by: Bob at July 26, 2005 12:29 PM
Advisory: May not actually include an upside.
Posted by: JKelly at July 26, 2005 01:01 PM
There's always an upside Nestruck. What you covering these days lad? Still doing the Montreal beat?
Posted by: Bob at July 26, 2005 02:26 PM
The Australian reports that eyewitnesses dispute the police version that they shouted warnings:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16049700%255E2703,00.html
My comments at my place.
Posted by: Dr.Dawg at July 26, 2005 02:58 PM
JKelly: You're absolutely right. I went too far by calling him "old", and that I regret.
But I note that in Chris' edit of the post, he suspects that Worthington might be "senile"--which is an even harsher ageist term than "old"!
I guess all the same people (ie. me and Chris Selley) are on the same page, then.
Posted by: Rob at July 27, 2005 01:14 AM
typo: the first 'same' should be 'sane'.. perhaps God Almighty can edit it for me.
Posted by: Rob at July 27, 2005 01:15 AM
"Segundo informações oficiais, o nome dele era João Alves Menezes e ele era chamado
por seus amigos em Londres como Jean Charles Menezes."
www.radioeldoradoam.com.br/noticias/
Seems Worthington got this one right--the man was called Jean Charles by his friends in London, but João Alves Menezes was apparently his real name.
Posted by: Dr.Dawg at July 27, 2005 01:51 PM
Bob: Alas (or hoorah?), I am living and working in the T-dot. But I get home to Montreal quite often.
Rob: I just thought it was funny that in calling out P.W. as a racist, you inferred that it was his age, race, class, and sex that made him so. I only wished to make the esoteric point that equating old + white + rich + male with racist is not only racist, but ageist and classist and sexist. (Though, not shoot-'em-in-the-head racist, etc.) But, frankly, I was just being a smart ass and I don't actually care and I hate the word ageist.
The guy's a boob, clearly. See: We're the same! Sane! The same sane!
Posted by: JKelly at July 27, 2005 03:31 PM
Alrighty then!
Although if anyone's being "ageist", I think it's Selley -- I mean, "Peter Worthington shits the bed"! That's pugilistically ageist!
Posted by: Rob at July 28, 2005 02:10 PM