Security and Civil Liberties
One argument commonly doing the rounds concerning the Menezes report and the extension of the detention period is that in times of greater security threats mistakes happen and more desperate measure are needed. This argument is partially persuasive, and one can accept that greater security measures may be needed during periods of terrorist threat. However,
1) In the case of Jean Charles de Menezes such an argument might offer an explanation for the initial shooting [I am rather sceptical, after all if he was such a threat why did they let him board the bus?]. Nonetheless, it offers no justification for the misleading of the public in the aftermath, nor for the attempts to deflect the blame from the police by tarnishing Menezes.
2) A severe limitation of this kind of argument lies in the fact that if taken to extremes it can be, and is, used to justify torture. I grew up in Latin America and for a long time the region experienced many brutal, US supported, military dictatorships. People were tortured and disappeared and all this was justified pointing to what was in many ways a genuine threat of communism.
Tags: British life, civil liberties
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