Tube Shooting

Speaking of the shooting by London police of Jean Charles de Menezes, who apparently had nothing to do with terrorists, London Mayor Ken Livingstone said, "This tragedy has added another victim to the toll of deaths for which the terrorists bear responsibility."

On the one hand, this is clearly passing the buck for the actions of London police. ON the other hand, though, it's clearly correct. It also counts as a clear victory for the terrorists. When police start fatally shooting unarmed "terror suspects" who are completely unrelated to terrorist actions, the terrorists have gone a long way toward more than disrupting our way of life, but toward undermining our commitment to due process and the rule of law. Despite the mewling fears of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders, the terrorists do not pose an existential threat to us. The best they can hope for is to paralize us with fear and get us to turn on ourselves. Those who are willing to jettison our constitutional safeguards to combat "terror" serve the terrorists.

(Update: Ah, I should have known better. As too often happens when I stray into areas like this, King of Zembla already covered this point, more thoroughly and better.)