Friday, November 16, 2007

Words fail me (and that doesn't happen often)

Rachel has posted about an appalling incident that took place in Leeds the week before Jean Charles de Menezes was killed.

A diabetic man (Nicholas Gaubert) with a low blood sugar (hypoglycemic attack) lost consciousness on a bus.
Armed police were called to the bus depot.
A gun was held to his head.
Luckily (!) unlike Jean Charles the following week, this man was 'only' shot with a Tazer gun - twice.

It was only once he was in the police van that they saw the tag around his neck stating he had diabetes and took him to hospital.

Why has this only come to light now?
Because the Independent (sic) Police Complaints Commission are now handling the investigation after the Crown Prosecution Service has stated that none of the officers involved should be charged with any offense and that no offenses were committed under health and safety laws.

Oh and why did they think this unconscious man slumped on a bus might possibly be such a threat?
They said he looked Egyptian ...

You can see the full story (including a photo) here.

5 comments:

Saaleha said...

it starts to look like a witch hunt. and if you're Muslim in Britain, you're bound to be the hunted...

Debi said...

Wish I could reassure you, Saaleha. Sadly ...

And of course the incidents with Jean Charles and the one I've posted about here didn't even involve Muslims - just people who the cops reckon look a bit 'foreign'.

S. Kearney said...

Gosh! Again?

Anonymous said...

Jaw drops - shakes head. What a paranoid nation we're becoming.

Debi said...

The phrase about having nothing to fear except fear itself comes to mind, eh?