Topic: Politics
On page 15 of yesterday's Evening Standard Yasmin Alibhai-Brown scrapes the bottom of the barrel with a piece titled 'With this shoot-to-kill policy I'm terrified for my son's life'.
It starts 'For all the Asian and Arab families I know, this blast-to-kill policy is more scary than the bombs.' That's a stunning statement when you think about it. The number of people killed by suicide bombers on 7th July was 53. The number of people killed by the police in a shoot-to-kill prevention of a suicide attack is 1.
She tries to present her pro-police credentials by telling us that she's had dinner with the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair and that she abhors 'the demonisation of the Met by people who never have to take the risks or responsibilities taken by officers', but that is merely to soften us up for the one-two punch combination that follows:
1) 'But it isn't comforting for Muslims to know that the shoot-to-kill trick was learned from Israeli marksmen'.
Really? Well that might be because Israel has more experience of suicide bombers to pass on than Barbados and Finland. Who knows? She neglects to mention that some of the Israeli Defence Force is Arab. In fact, in the case of the prosecution of an Israeli marksman for killing a member of the International Solidarity Movement, it was a Bedouin Arab soldier who shot him, not a Jewish one.
But more annoying is the selectivity of mentioning Israel at all. When I heard Sir Ian on the radio talking about the shoot-to-kill policy, he stated that it was based on the experience of the Sri Lankan authorities in tackling the Tamil Tigers, who started killing civilians in suicide attacks long before the second intifada.
But that is just the sucker punch to set us up for the upper cut:
2) 'I have a son, a young man just married and at the start of his career as a barrister. He is tall, much darker than I am, with proud eyes and a temper. I am a wreck, worrying ceaselessly about what could happen to him in the present volatile climate'.
Note the mention of his dark complexion. It's clear that she feels his skin colour could get him killed. Now look at a picture of the man whom the police did shoot.
If he looks black or Asian then so do I.
_ DY
at 1:13 AM BST
Updated: Friday, 29 July 2005 5:34 PM BST
