Suspected suicide bomber shot at Stockwell station.

[cori]

Have just heard an unconfirmed report on the radio. Anyone else?

He did have some previous- but years and years ago and not bad stuff. It was a case of using it to muddy the waters. It was completely irrelevant to the "irish bloke in a pub" business anyway.

Probably is reassuring that it was special forces. Harry Stanley was a big cock up followed by a big cover up. I like to be quite pro police though so I hope it was just unusual

I was told what the previous was, actually it might have involved firearms so it might have been serious, can't remember though- I can ask. It was something like 20 to 30 years before though. He was not a crim.

I thought it was firearms too. DP was busy earlier, big things happening in Walthamstow tonight. Will see if I can ask him.

here's the bbc on it

I have a feeling it was armed robbery- so something that could be used to muddy waters quite easily. But it was a long time ago and irrelevant to that day (especially as the police called that day would have had no idea that he had previous convictions). I suppose it stacks up the system against you, even if it is wrong to shoot an unarmed man in the back in broad daylight iyswim. I think in this case the police would have done better to admit that mistakes were made.

I could be completely wrong about armed robbery btw- I can remember the conversation about it, but I was drunk (it was xmas!) So memory hazy.

DP is stuck in hospital with a suspicously 'suddenly' ill prisoner, and can't remember. Stuck on his own so no-one else to urm, remind him Am fairly sure it was an armed offence though, although I have no idea how far previous it was.

About the suspect shot "5 times in the head" today. He was shot by special forces - SAS. The reason he was shot five times in the head was because people have been known to survive up to 3 bullets in the head, and if the most important thing on the guys mind was to detonate the bomb he was carrying, if he were to survive any shot to the head he would be likely to attempt to detonate the bomb.

There are so many protocols the special forces have to abide by in these situations, it is highly unlikely they would be in this situation with a mere suspiscion.

My thoughts are with everyone in London affected by these dreadfully tense times. I hope all Mnetters and their families are well and safe.

My DH has to go to London tomorrow (he works there - luckily not central), so I am with you all in spirit.

xx

Blu, can I just say a HUGE thank you for your post. I was woken up by the baby at 5am and lay in bed feeling extremely upset that I might have offended you (and others) and feeling absolutely in knots that some people do seem to think I am racist. I do hope I have managed to make myself a little clearer.
I can see why people might think it was a racist thing to say on a superficial reading, but I can assure you it was never coming from a racist mindset. FWIW, I'm really, really jumpy on public transport anyway. I'm prone to panic attacks on the tube under normal circumstances (claustrophobia, fear of someone pushing me onto the rails, severe fear of being trapped underground with no loos!) and wild horses wouldn't drag me there atm. I am lucky to have that choice.
Didn't really want to resurrect this thread, but it was preying on my mind. I'm now going back to bed with my baby.

Flossam- the years and years ago is the only bit I'm sure of...

I havent read all this - far too long but I have found it upsetting in a way. My dh's friend was stabbed a couple of days ago as he was going to work. The blokes who did it thought he was a Muslim and his lunch box was a bomb! He is okay as it was a slash across the face. Still I guess the scar will make him even more scary looking for people. Sadly he has to catch the bus to work.

My dh is asian and my son is now nearly 10. Should I make sure they dont take rucksacks on the bus so as not to worry people?

Should the asian kids in my school who are 15/16 and have to have a black bag as part of the uniform stop taking their school books to school in case they worrry someone?

This really makes me want to move away from london.

Sorry, just read your post, aloha. I know there are loads of people who feel the way you do and I dont suppose you are racist for a moment but it does worry me that people think this. I look at my son know and worry as he has no idea about all of this and no matter how much I prepare him for the big wide world people will still make assumptions about him because of how he looks.

I have no fear of a lone asian man in a carriage maybe because all the asian men I know are lovely (apart from bil). Perhaps I'd feel differently if I wasnt married to an asian.

What a sad thread this is - accusation and counter accusation, slurs and insults. A little broadening of the mind wouldn't come amiss.

Let's not forget what the bottom line is here - 50 odd innocent people have died in a horrific way and more may do so yet - staying vigilant seems eminently sensible to me.

Hercules, I have been thinking of your dh's freind since you posted it the other night, and referred to it lower down this thread.

DP, asian, said that yesterday he was unable to feel himself in any public space because he felt totally self-conscious under so much overt and covert scrutiny. Then late last night, walking home close to one of the affected tube stations, his heart dropped to the floor with fear - he was the only person on the street, and a police car sped along the road and came to a stop right by him. In fact, they were stopping to take a radio call, he thinks, as they sped off in the opposite direction. But still, life has changed.

I have said throughout this thread that I understand people feeling a moment of fear, and have avoided automatically linking it with racism. If DP and DS were in a world where all of a sudden, their type was the 'profile' for a criminal, it would be 'one of those things', but I think the reason the currency is so high is because they are not entering this phase from a neutral position - they already have an experience of DS being called 'chocolate face', etc etc, or like Slink's family who had a dead pig thrown through their window. So it's harder to hear that, and perhaps it's harder to feel under public scrutiny if your previous experience leads you to believe that you are already unwelcome, alientated and misunderstood.

By the end of the day yesterday afternon, I felt that this thread was getting closer to some clarity and understanding, and hope we can listen, listen to each otehr getting emotional about emotional issues, but not take things too personally.

I meant 'it's harder to hear that people react to you with fear'

Oh god, I typed a massive ramble about all of this and then deleted it all. Bullet points instead:

• I despise racism in all its forms.
• I hate that Blu's dh and hercules's friend and many others feel/know their lives have changed for the worse.
• I don't discriminate or scrutinise.
• I don't think the accusations of racism on this thread have been helpful, appropriate or justified.
• People are nervous, they're trying to be logical, they've simply admitted that sometimes they're not.
• Rhetoric and 'bravery' and good old British stiff-upper-lip is all very well but now and again our faltering humanity pokes through.
• I don't believe that the terrorists have won if I get a cab to Selfridges next week.

Chin up

go the snaf.

@ getting a cab to Selfridges

wise words snafu

Bit of wishful thinking on my part, Enid, but didn't think "pushbike to Tesco's" had quite the same ring...