Ahead of the 20th anniversary of the murder of Jean Charles de Menezes by police in London, his execution is being used for propaganda purposes to justify the de facto shoot-to-kill policy currently in force.

That’s the gist of a two-part Channel 4 documentaryShoot to Kill: Terror in the Tubeshown as part Posts The series is on November 10 and 11.

De Menezes, a young Brazilian worker living in London, was shot dead after being mistakenly identified as a terrorism suspect on 22 July 2005, the day after a botched terrorist attempt on the London Underground. The four men placed backpacks filled with explosives that did not detonate.

More than seven months before the anniversary, the screening of the documentary this week is part of heated debate at the highest levels of government. Channel 4 concluded that the time to show this was just weeks after the acquittal of the police officer who killed an unarmed man named Chris Kaba in Streatham, London, in September 2022. This decision led to a massive attack by the police, government and media, who in effect demanded that the police should no longer be held responsible for the deaths of civilians.

In September 2023, hundreds of Metropolitan Police officers staged a riot, surrendering their weapons to protest the unprecedented announcement of murder charges against a firearms officer, later known as Martyn Blake, for the shooting of Kaba. Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has asked then-Conservative Home Secretary Suella Braverman to make it much harder to bring criminal charges against police officers over shootings. Braverman duly obliged, creating a review to give armed police de facto immunity from future investigations.

Just days after Blake’s acquittal, this campaign saw Labor Minister Yvette Cooper confirm in Parliament: “When civil servants act on behalf of the state in the most dangerous situations, it is vital that these officers and their families are not put in further danger in any subsequent circumstances .” legal proceedings”. As a solution, the government will now “imply a presumption of anonymity, up to the point of conviction, for firearms officers who are subject to criminal prosecution following police shootings in the course of their professional duties.”

Blake’s defense in court focused on insisting that Kaba, an unarmed man, posed an imminent danger to the lives of his Met colleagues and should therefore be killed.

Shoot to Kill: Terror in the TubeHe takes the same stance, in an even cruder form, regarding the police execution of a civilian in recent British history. The documentary includes the following statements: “This two-part series, which gives unprecedented access to the firearms officer who pulled the trigger at Stockwell Tube Station and appears on camera for the first time, tells the story of the shooting like never before, with input from eyewitnesses who were at the center of the operation.” field officers and then Prime Minister Tony Blair.”

Mistakenly mistaken for one of the four bombers in the failed series of attacks on July 21, De Menezes was pursued by counter-terrorism officers after leaving his home for work. They attacked a subway train in London, cornered it and shot it to death.

The case became famous for the misinformation campaign about De Menezes, the despicable treatment of his family and the attempt to cover up the Operation Kratos “shoot to kill” policy that Britain secretly adopted two years ago. It was revealed that firearms officers had been interviewed before writing their statements, key CCTV evidence had been lost and surveillance footage had been altered.

Although a 2006 Independent Police Complaints Commission report declared that De Menezes was killed due to avoidable mistakes and identified a number of possible crimes, including murder and gross negligence, by the officers involved, no action was taken. In the following years, the De Menezes family’s numerous attempts to obtain justice were thwarted.