Quote of the show

[shewhomust]

"" (Watch on YouTube)

"Folk music has always been the raspberry seed in the back tooth of the Establishment." - Chris Wood, accepting the Best Original Song award for Hollow Point, on the function of folk music in keeping alive our memories of events which it might be convenient to forget. The BBC website describes the song as an "affecting ballad", which I think rather proves his point.

Comments

[cellio]

I hadn't heard of Jean Charles de Menezes before watching this video. *shudder* Have the police improved their processes since then?

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Have the police improved their processes since then?

How can we know? If they have, there'll be no repetition; if we're lucky, they won't be put to the test. Most likely, I suppose, they won't make the same mistakes again, but they may make different ones. There's a level of fear of terrorism which pushes them into this sort of response, and I don't see that abating.

The initial reaction of the police was to deny everything, which is never a good sign, so I'm pessimistic. Here, for balance, is the Metropolitan Police summary of investigations (http://www.mpa.gov.uk/scrutinies/stockwell/) and a helpful Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jean_Charles_de_Menezes). Which is probably more than you want to know, but a convenient place to put the references.