Police state

According to a recent bulletin from the Reuters press, the 27-year-old man who was shot by police in London yesterday had nothing to do with the most recent bombings. The man was identified as Jean Charles de Menezes, a citizen of Brazil.

We can all empathize with the terror and pressure that the police in the UK must feel over the last two attacks: the death toll, the destruction, the massive injury list, the fear and anxiety that this may happen again and again. No one would fault the Bobbies for being vigilant but the public assassination of this innocent man is a tragedy.

It will be difficult to strike a delicate balance between the appropriate degree of alertness and readiness to respond to attack, and an overreaction, which may lead to racial profiling, arresting and imprisoning the wrong person, or the worst-case scenario -- killing an innocent man.

My heart goes out to the Brits during their time of grief and fear, but I hope that this terrible injustice will encourage law-enforcement officers everywhere to think twice about a knee-jerk reaction.

Sigrid Macdonald