Brazilian police makes ours look like saints

I was down at Stockwell tube station last Sunday. Outside I noticed a memorial to Jean Charles de Menezes, the young Brazilian shot dead by SO19 in 2007 in a case of mistaken identity. The police thought he was the terrorist who lived in the same block as Charles. I also read in the London papers that London Underground have agreed to allow a permanent memorial to Charles.

I feel sorry for the poor guy, and his family. The Brazilian expats living in London had a lot to say about the British police in the aftermath. After all, they did screw up their operation and killed an innocent man.

But today I read that Brazilian police murder three people a day, according to a UN report. Kind of puts poor Charles's death into perspective. Our cops are saints compared to Brazil's. If I were a SO19 cop I would have liked to think I wouldn't have made such an error. But I probably would have. When I worked at Scotland Yard as a civilian worker I met some of them and guess what - they're human. I was on the tube when bombers targeted it on 7/7 and I wanted them hunted down and killed, or slung in jail. I still do.

Perhaps Brazilians should campaign against their own trigger-happy cops, many of whom moonlight as members of death squads, instead of worrying about our lot. The police that day thought they were saving lives, and they did their best. Those who got it wrong should be thoroughly investigated, but the imperfect information they had on the day, and the context in which that day's events occurred, are very important. It was a horrible decision, whereas people who blithely criticise it never have to make a harder decision than what to have for their breakfast.

Brazil's image of salsa and football hides a very ugly reality. I would have thought that 48,000 murders a year in Brazil would encourage a sense of perspective.