Am I the only one who thinks that the Menezes situation is not all the fault of the police? Accepting for the moment the crass actions of the chain of officers leading to the shooting, nevertheless the point stands that Menezes did act in a highly questionable manner on the day, at a highly charged time and despite warnings. The actions of the officers were actionable in themselves - that is so and yet ... and yet ... Menezes cannot be held non-culpable for his. And dearly he paid for them.

Yes, you may be the only one. Menezes did not act in a highly questionable manner on the day - that was the story spread by the police and confirmed by Plod Blair. It was later retracted. What he did was to leave his home, walk to the bus stop, get on the bus, go to the underground station, got off, collected a copy of the Metro and then went through the barrier. When he reached the platform, he was suddenly yelled at by the police officers who had been calmly following him until then and not managing to keep in touch with each other, pushed to the ground and shot. No, he did not leap over the barrier and he did not have a heavy jacket on him. It was a major cock-up and an even more major attempt at a cover-up afterwards.