The Brasilian Man Shot Dead in the Tube

On Friday morning, London police shot dead an innocent Brasilian man after they suspected him of being a suicide bomber. I still don't know how I feel about this. On one hand, I feel sorry for his family, for the people in the Tube who witnessed his "execution", for the rest of us who are now at the mercy of nervous police officers; if a bunch of plain-clothed cops pointed a gun at me and asked me to stop, would I obey or would I think I was being mugged (and therefore run away?) If I lived anywhere near Brixton (like he did), the second option would have been more likely.

On the other hand, the Brasilian man had been living for three years in England, was supposedly a legal worker (and thus probably knew English fairly well) - why didn't he understand the orders to stop (I'm assuming the cops identified themselves as they pointed a gun at him.) Could there be another reason why he ran over the turnstiles and jumped into the train? Could his VISA situation in England not be as straightforward as they think at the moment? And what about the policemen who were surveilling the building he came out of, and who had to make a decision as to whether he was a terrorist or not? Do we want the police to make that kind of decision if it means that it might save the lives of countless other people on a train?

There are roughly 100,000 Brasilians living in London. Most of them live here illegally and don't understand a word of English. I've met many of them working in University canteens, or as janitors; they practically fill up the number 18 and 6 buses during rush hours, with their conversations about overcrowded houses they have to live in so they can pay cheap rent, the things they have to do in order to avoid getting caught and sent back to Brazil.

I once got a phone call from the lesbian ex-lover of a cousin of mine. She had arrived in London and she needed help with finding a hostel. She didn't even know how to say "thank you" or "please"; she'd somehow managed to "fool" customs officers into believing she was here on holiday. Soon afterwards, she got a job as a cleaning lady in a 5-star hotel; a few months later, I heard that she became the head of the cleaning staff and was living in the hotel (she saved a lot of money this way since she didn't have to pay for food or rent.) As soon as she made enough money, she went back to Brasil and bought herself some land. She's now "teaching" English in Cambui.

The way she managed to stay for that long in England was by getting herself a fake Portuguese I.D. It's something many Brasilians do so they can get work (though many places hire Brasilians illegally as well.) I wonder if the Brasilian guy who was shot was also working here for three years with a fake Portuguese document (eventhough his family has said he was legal here), and thus thought the police were there to kick him out of the country. It might be another reason why he desperately tried to run away.

(no subject)

The cathedral's doors came down, trapping the congregation with the vampires. The doors rolled down, with bloody spikes that entered the ground - it would be impossible to break them down. The vampires then began closing all the windows, pulling curtains across them and filling the cathedral with darkness. As the sunlight disappeared, their skeletal bodies gained in strength and size. They smiled with hunger at us.

In a room upstairs, I found an open window. The vampires attacked but, just as they struggled to grab me, rays of light coming through the window burned their skins. As vampires poured into the room, I snuck out and shut the door. I pressed a button and the ceiling opened to reveal a giant skylight; the room was a greenhouse; sunray poured in from everywhere, burning the vampires. They flew around the room, hitting the walls and scratching the door; they screamed as their bodies disintegrated.

In the dark hallway outside, more vampires rushed at me.