New police powers plus racial profiling lead to execution

UPDATED JULY 29: London police now admit they shot Jean Charles de Menezes eight times, not five as originally stated. His cousin, Vivien Figueiredo, charged at a press conference that key elements of the police story were false. She said the young Brazilian was not wearing a bulky jacket when police attacked him, had not jumped a turnstile, and did have legal documentation to work in Britain. "He used a travel card," she said. "He had no bulky jacket, he was wearing a jeans jacket. But even if he was wearing a bulky jacket that wouldn't be an excuse to kill him." (Guardian, July 28)

When the British Empire morphed into the British Commonwealth, it was with the promise that the colonial oppression of the past would be replaced by a free association of mutual benefit to all—hence the word “commonwealth.”

Some of the former “colonial subjects”—especially those with the money to do so—would have access to Britain’s universities and, if they decided to settle there, would find it easier to immigrate than people from countries not in the Commonwealth.

The British population gradually became more multinational, attracting people from South Asia, parts of Africa and the Caribbean.

But the wave of anti-immigrant bashings since the July 7 London bombings, followed by the police execution of a young Brazilian who reportedly ran away from undercover cops into a subway car, has illuminated the special problems faced by people of color in Britain. And these problems will grow worse once new laws now being instituted are put into place.

First, there is the danger of violence from the state and the far right, which is all too real.

When Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, an electrician who moved to Britain from Brazil three years ago, realized he was being followed by a group of white men on July 22, he had every reason to be frightened. In the days following the July 7 bombings, hundreds of attacks on immigrants had been reported.

Most were directed at Muslims, but racists also went after many other people of color, like de Menezes, who were not from the Middle East and not Islamic.

The tabloid press had helped whip up a frenzy. When concerns about the consequences of arming more London police became an issue, the Daily Express had a front-page headline: “Shoot All Bombers.”

Menezes was chased into a subway station by what turned out to be a squad of undercover police. They said later he looked suspicious because he was wearing a large coat.

The young man dashed into a subway car and fell. The squad pounced on him and fired into his head and torso, killing him instantly.

A shocked eyewitness told the BBC: “They pushed him onto the floor and unloaded five shots into him. ... He looked petrified.”

Had he really been carrying a bomb, what would have happened to the people on the subway as bullets raked his body? How could this police atrocity be regarded as helping secure “public safety”?

Police Commissioner Ian Blair’s first state ments, however, were totally in support of his underlings. Menezes was “dir ectly linked” to the earlier bombings, he said.

If Menezes had been from the Middle East, maybe the police could have made this false assertion stick. But when his identity became known, they had to admit it had all been a “mistake.”

One day after he was gunned down, an unnamed Metropolitan Police official told The Times that Menezes was “not believed to be connected in any way to any of the London bombings.”

Even then, however, the police refused to make a formal apology. Nor have they admitted that he was the victim of racial profiling—a technique begun in the United States that doesn’t catch “criminals” but does focus the armed might of the state on people of color.

After the July 7 bombings, the initial reaction of London Mayor Ken Livings tone, a left Laborite who had gained office with much support from the oppressed communities, wasn’t much better. He immediately endorsed a new police “shoot to kill” policy. It was evidently under the new police guidelines that Menezes was shot to death.

Now the British capitalist state wants to use the issue of terror to implement much more repressive laws—ones that could be used against supporters of national liberation movements and anyone who says the oppressed have a right to fight back.

Many of these laws and new policies echo the repression put in place by the Bush administration over the last few years.

For example, the British police are seeking the right to hold “terror suspects” in jail for three months without charge. The British Guardian reports that Prime Minister Tony Blair is likely to allow them 28 days.

A new banking regulation says that banks have to turn over to the government information on any cash transfers involving foreign banks, no matter how much money is involved. Many immigrants send or receive cash from their families abroad.

The Sunday Times reported on July 17 that “Charles Clarke, the home secretary, is reviewing his powers to deport foreigners and impose specific conditions on asylum seekers. A separate consultation is just ending on whether imams coming to Britain should have a professional qualification and understand English.

“A counter-terrorism bill due in the autumn will create a new offense of ‘glorifying or endorsing’ terrorism. Two further offenses being drawn up by the Home Office will mean extremists who provide or receive terrorist training would face prosecution, as would those committing ‘acts preparatory to terrorism,’ such as fund-raising or providing safe houses.”

None of these measures address the underlying problem, and are doomed to fail. The revived aggression of British imperialism in Iraq and Afghanistan, in partnership with Washington, and its support for Israel against the Palestinians, are deepening the antagonisms begun during colonialism. But everything today is global and the ensuing struggle cannot be confined to the oppressed areas of the world.

The key to any real solution lies with building an anti-imperialist movement that combines the solidarity of the multinational working class with the struggle against war, racism and oppression.