A great row about killing has broken in the British media and among a large number of Labour MPs. The 'terrorist appeaser' as the Daily Mail called the new leader of the Labour Party said that he was not happy with a state policy of 'shoot to kill'. The demand has now been raised more generally that he must not attend the Stop the War Coalition Christmas fundraiser on December 11 as that might signal that he doesn't want to kill terrorists enough. The British State's 'shoot to kill' (constantly officially denied) policy has a terrible history. But Jeremy Corbyn has a noble part in it.
The May 1984 Stalker enquiry noted that at least 5 Irish Republicans had been killed by British Special Forces without legal reason. The European Court of Human rights (1982 -92) echoed the lack of legal basis for 14 separate British killings. The Bloody Sunday Report (June 2010) meant that Prime Minister Cameron had to apologise to the Irish people for the exercise of a 'shoot to kill' policy by the British Paras on the streets of Derry. Corbyn fought long and hard for these enquiries, for the families who had lost their members, against the braying, jingoistic media, the legions of Tory and Labour MPs who's reaction to critical questions was to wave their union jacks more vigorously than ever and bellow 'hear hear' to the bellicose pronouncements of a string of pumped up Defence Ministers.
So, it turns out that Britain's 'shoot to kill' policy has nothing to do with the police defending people when someone is shooting at them. A moment's thought makes that clear. Even if the police were inclined to act in that way, it is virtually impossible that they would find themselves in the middle of such an incident. No. It is, in effect, the right of the state to kill people that it thinks might be dangerous to its interests without any evidence that could stand up in a court. (Hopefully when no-one else is looking.) Almost by definition the shoot to kill policy could only apply after a terrorist attack or worse, before a 'suspected' terrorist attack.
Sadly (for the police) the last time they applied the 'shoot to kill' policy in a 'suspected terrorist' situation they shot and killed Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian student at Stockwell Tube Station in July 2005, just after the 7.7. bombings - in front of everybody.
Next: more on Britain's political leaders and 'terrorism.'
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