doubleplus ungood

[rm]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050723/ap_on_re_eu/britain_underground

Well shit. If it turns out this guy had nothing to do with the two London attack days and wasn't up to anything that day either and it's just all some big mistaken identity (increasingly likely, although it depends when you look at the constantly edited news stories on the web) thing in a place where the cops usually don't even have guns -- well that's going to change the dialogue in a really weird way.

This is not your mother's dystopian future.

Holy shit.

Comments

[rahalia-cat.livejournal.com]

There are very strong rumours - unvoiced in the media - here that the men chasing this man weren't police at all; they were SAS.

[rm.livejournal.com]

This is Not Good.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

What is SAS?

[folk.livejournal.com]

Special Air Service -- UK equivalent of Delta Force and/or Navy SEALS. Highly trained military infiltration forces.

[rahalia-cat.livejournal.com]

Special Air Service; the British Elite Forces.

[orien.livejournal.com]

"...emerged from the same block of flats..."


That says it all, really.

[(Anonymous)]

*nodnodnod*

I wear a big parka from the time the temperature hits about 50 - 55 degrees, because I've terrible circulation and get really debilitatingly cold, and I'm thinking like, I waaaaay need to look into some less bulky high tech fabrics, so like I don't get shot!

[rm.livejournal.com]

Er, that was me, sorry.... this computer is weird.

[folk.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, but for Britain, it has been Hot and Muggy recently -- 70s+ and really humid. Not that I want to say anything on this, because I am part horrified and partly think that the police dealt with this as best they could, but still...

[rm.livejournal.com]

But they were in plains clothes and cops there rarely carry guns. Is there any reason that someone would actually believe they were police in that situation?

[folk.livejournal.com]

The thing is, nobody carries a gun in the UK unless they are (a) police or (b) a terrorist/criminal/IRA member. My default reaction to people waving guns at me would be to raise my fucking hands -- not to vault a Tube ticket turnstile, run down escalators and on to a Tube train, especially not in this bloody climate.

[rahalia-cat.livejournal.com]

I absolutely agree. That guy had something to hide; he was hardly a fare dodger :o\

[rm.livejournal.com]

You would think, but maybe not:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/story/0,16132,1535246,00.html

[buttler.livejournal.com]

oh no. horrible. it's the kind of thing i'd expect -- well, here.

[laurel]

My first thought when I heard someone was shot was "what if this person had nothing to do with the bombings?"

Hate to find out that my fears were justified.

[00goddess.livejournal.com]

Apparently, he committed the grave sin of wearing a padded coat.

Also, from what the witnesses say, the shooting itself was totally unnecessary. A witness said that they put him on the floor and THEN pumped five rounds into his body. This was just murder.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

My guess is that there will be a significant backlash against this in Britain. Thankfully for them, they haven't been nearly as terror-programmed as many US residents, and so I think the British public will react appropriately to this sort of horror. OTOH, if that happened in the US (and it's only a matter of time until is does) I would expect the authorities to try to keep the fact that they made a mistake far more quiet, and once it got out, I'm guessing most people would consider it an acceptable mistake (as long as the person killed was non-white).

[raaven.livejournal.com]

Most of the possible stories this could end up being are gruesome. I'll be interested to see which one they end up settling on.