Confessing Evangelical on Jean Charles de Menezes
England’s Confessing Evangelical blog posts a poignant piece on the Brazilian man shot last week.
The fallout from Friday’s shooting continues to dominate the news and opinion columns. Yesterday’s front-page story from the Independent was a powerful reminder of the human side to this tragedy:
Jean Charles de Menezes wanted to be an electrician from the age of 10. The blond-haired boy would tell his mother, Maria, that it was the way he would leave behind the poverty of rural Brazil for a better life abroad … By the time he was 18, Jean Charles had overcome the odds to complete his professional diploma. It was the piece of paper that would allow him swap a life of odd jobs in the crime-ridden ghettos of Sao Paulo for a home in London.
Such was his desire to make the most of the opportunity, the Brazilian had mastered English within four months of his arrival in Tulse Hill, south London, in March 2002 … He quickly adapted to British life. To relax, the 27-year-old would watch television - a favourite programme was EastEnders - or hang out with friends in a Brazilian bar close to Oxford Street.
In his thrice-weekly phone calls home, he told his mother he was safe and a happy in London - that the police did not even carry guns … Gesio Cesar D’Avila, 37, a friend and work colleague, told The Independent: “He was happy in London. He liked all the different cultures on his doorstep. He wanted to go home as a success.” Read on: Confessing Evangelical
My horrified sympathy for the Brazilian man was immediate and expected, upon learning that the police admitted a mistake, but for some reason I just keep wondering about the policemen involved. There must have been some kind of emotional strength in numbers as they hunted down and shot a man who they believed was about to kill many people.
I keep wondering about how those same officers are doing now, especially now that they are away from their “hunting” group and are facing the scorn of society. The other man is dead and his tragic end will not be forgotten. The police officers are going to have to continue living in their communities. Do they have families? What about kids who will be ridiculed? I hope you can understand that I am not forgetting about the Brazilian man’s unjust and terrifying death. We are living in a sinful, broken world and God still hates death.
These have been my thoughts the past few days. I’m glad John wrote about this very sad tale of war. It was right after this incident that it occurred to me (I’m slow) that the western world is, indeed, at war- that this is actually a kind of world war. I had never had that thought before.
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