bomb alerts and stuff

I bet you can already get these in either Topshop or New Look.

on the bus to the FAP last night - a 55 - the driver told anyone who wanted hackney road they would have to walk from the far end of it (it is long - a good 25 mins walk min), as he was being detoured via bethnal green road, and therefore cambridge heath was his last offical stop before old street --- so lots of ppl grumpliy got out

then when he detoured via bethnal green road, he in fact made lots of i guess "unofficial" stops!! (the people who got off could have walked much less far, HR and BGR are parallel to one another)

(so maybe the point is just annoying disruption) (i totally don't blame bus drivers for being testy and not helpful btw --- after they're on buses, ie potential targets, all day, when you and i get on and off much sooner and are mostly NOT on buses)

i'm not sure if they've said where the bomber got on. at waterloo? the whole thing fucked up anyway, but i don't think it was meant to be a pseudo-bombing: his backpack had plenty of bomb in it; it's just that the detonator failed to set it off. maybe he spent the journey from waterloo trying to detonate it and gave it up as a bad job once the bus had emptied around hackney.

but um we're not being told *shit*, really, so that's half-hearted speculation.

martin: the tube explosions were roughly simultaneous about 12.30pm -- the bus explosion was reported an hour later.

re: why in hackney -- also, why at lunch? not exactly the busiest time.

Yeah, this has really confused me. The 'have your say' on the BBC website has loads of people talking about this, but the news has not said anything happened there. Was it just hysteria on the train?

This thread, which at some points was running ahead of news media, is now way behind. The major story on BBC and Guardian sites is now that the man killed in Stockwell had no connection to the bombings. It was a "tragic mistake".

he panicked

(my second point was that Momus is engaging in political exaggeration. But that's not that unusual, I guess)

His death is being investigated by officers from the MPS Directorate of Professional Standards, and will be referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4711021.stm

"Both London's mayor, Ken Livingstone, who thought a shoot-to-kill policy could have been necessary, and the local MP, Kate Hoey, defended the police shooting. She rightly warned against a rush to judgment when the police were dealing with suspect suicide bombers."

Some ambiguity there. Was she warning the police against a "rush to judgement" or people commenting on the actions of the police? One difference is that the police have their fingers on triggers, whereas people commenting are shooting mouths, not guns.

After hearing this news I feel more sick than I did on 7/7. Much more.

Because when you have a fucking hammer, all you see is fucking nails. Obviously this is a complete tragedy, but if anything ought to bring a debate on whether the police should be able to shoot to kill to the front of the national consciousness, this is it.

http://images.thesun.co.uk/picture/0,,2005331384,00.jpg

'Man Shot for Maliciously being a bit Asian looking in a public place'

A man killed by police in south London was unconnected to Thursday's attacks and is thought to be Brazilian.

'Man Shot for Maliciously being tanned in a public place'

http://www.express.co.uk/pixfeed/express.gif

Funny you should say that.

My uncle who is a retired immigration officer(passport control etc) who said immediately that the guy was a somali when his pic was shown on the news.

I don't think it's a race thing. The guy was no darker skinned than you or I, Ed. The police had been following him since he left a house they had under surveillance.

The Metropolitan police named him as Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, an electrician from Minas Gerais who was living in Scotia Road, Stockwell, with three cousins. He is an innocent victim of a new "shoot to kill" policy under which officers have been told to shoot at the head if they believe they are confronting a suicide bomber.