[lbo-talk] Shot dead in London

[Carl Remick]

>From: Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu>
>>
>James:
> > The WEEK
> > ending 24 July 2005
> >
> > Crime prevention and arbitrary government
> >
> > Following the execution of Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes
>in
>
>James, the secret of good writing is the opening line that makes people 
>want
>to continue reading (Orwell was quite good at that).  The problem with the
>above is that it does the exact opposite - it makes a person want not to
>continue.  Every normal person who understands the English language in
>general, and the meaning of the word "execution" in particular knows right
>away that the above is patently false when taken literally and used only 
>for
>inflammatory and propagandistic purposes - which makes most people hit the
>delete button.
>
>A better way of saying would be "Following the tragic/unnecessary death of
>Brazilian electrician..."  - since it was a tragic accident and calling it
>"execution" serves no purpose other than pissing people off.

That seems awfully prissy of you, Wojtek -- have you become the Miss Manners 
of state homicide?  De Menezes' untimely death at the hands of the London 
branch of the Keystone Kops was no "accident" -- it was the completely 
predictable result of Bush-Blair's criminal war on Iraq.

However, if you insist on being persnickety about terminology -- why don't 
we call this an "execution-*style* slaying"?  That's the term the NYC press 
uses whenever local Mafia affiliates stick a gun against somebody's head and 
blow it off.

Carl