Tuesday, July 26, 2005

The Rule of Law

A real conversation:

XXX: "Hey, they shot the guy responsible for the London bombings!"
Mark:"Really? How did they know it was him?"
XXX: "They had his picture and he ran when they tried to stop him. Must be him."
Mark:"One doesn't know that. Besides I didn't think the Brits carried guns"
XXX: "Some do. And they aren't afraid to use them. He would have gotten death anyway if he'd been convicted. This saves time."
Mark: "If they got the right guy..."
XXX:"Must be him, he ran!"

Obviously, it was the wrong guy. This was one conversation which neatly wrapped up my views of our efforts on terrorism and on extra-constitutionalism.
XXX is a brit ex-pat I work with.

1 comment:

Brian Dunbar said...

I myself was going to refrain from an opinion until we knew what happened.

Wrong guy, not even close to being a terrorist. Plus 5 rounds when the fellow was already being grappled with by John Law?

All else aside the coppers don't get nearly enough firearms training.