More on ITV revelations. posted by Richard Seymour

Well, I'm having a hard time believing some of this. Let me give you a run-down on what's on the ITN News Channel:

1) On the day, a senior firearms officer had said that if they had the opportunity to challenge anyone emerging from the block of flats, and there was non-compliance, it would be appropriate to intervene with a fatal shot.

2) No subject coming out of the address should be allowed to run. (Incidentally, the only reason the address was identified was because one of the would-be bombers of 21/7 had the address of a gymnasium there in his bag).

3) De Menezes was observed, after the intelligence officer had finished taking his piss, walking to the bus station in his blue denim jacket, carrying no bags. His description and demeanour were noted, and it was agreed that he matched the profile of an alleged suicide bomber. How? ("Mongolian eyes", I suppose).

4) Gold Command, on the basis of this, gave the okay to shoot-to-kill.

5) Having taken the bus from Tulse Hill to Stockwell, he walked to the tube station, entered at "walking pace", picked up a Metro, and walked through the ticket gates with his Oyster card. He walked across the concourse and began "slowly descending" the escalator steps.

6) He only ran to catch the tube as it arrived, entered the carriage, looked right and left, then took a seat facing the platform.

7) Here is where it gets strange. He is supposed to have been shot after having been chased and wrestled to the floor. But an intelligence officer's statement says he followed Menezes down the stairs and onto the tube. He was apparently beckoned by police, who did at that point identify themselves. "He stood, and walked towards me", the intelligence officer said. He grabbed Menezes, pulled his arms behind his back and pushed him back into the seat. "I heard a shot in my left ear". The intelligence officer said he was pushed to the floor at that point. A number of officers shot him in the head, seven times. Three bullets missed. One went into his shoulder.

Split-second decision? That is murder in cold blood, following the procedures laid out in the shoot-to-kill policy.

What was also disgusting was the performance of a former Metropolitan Police officer, some kind of bigwig named Peter Powers. That fucking animal of a man did everything he could to justify the killing, saying how terrible it was for the police, a decision made in the space of a few minutes etc. Then he said "I don't know for sure whether we can say that Mr Menezes was totally innocent". Probed about this by a bemused news anchor who noted that the police had already admitted that he was totally innocent, Powers said, "I just find it difficult to believe that he would be shot for ad hoc or whimsical reasons. And I, er, don't want to prejudice the enquiry that is ongoing."

It isn't enough that the police have consistently and persistently lied about Menezes with the effect of smearing him - first as a suicide bomber, then as someone whose behaviour made him a likely one. This prat has to add to it by implying, baselessly, that he might be guilty of some suicide-bombing-related-activity after all.

If there was any justice, the shoot-to-kill policy would have died with Mr Menezes on that tube. But no. You have to "destroy the brain instantly, utterly". They did that alright.