Theresa May Supports Shooting Innocent Civilians

Jeremy Corbyn has made clear that, whilst it is obviously correct for police to be able to shoot to kill, in situation such as that in London, at the weekend, where someone is posing an immediate threat to the life of other citizens, he does not support a blanket shoot to kill policy.  In other words, he quite rationally does not support police being able to simply go out and shoot someone they think may possibly be going to commit some lethal act at some point in the future, as happened with Jean Charles De Menezes a few years ago, or the sanctioning of state sponsored assassinations, as happened with the killing of Republicans in Gibraltar some decades ago, and as happens currently with drone strikes in far off countries.  Nor does he support a shoot to kill policy against ordinary protesting civilians as happened with Bloody Sunday in Ireland.  Theresa May has repeatedly emphasised that Corbyn does not support a shoot to kill policy, and that she does.  We can only assume that she, therefore, supports all of these instances where it is innocent civilians who are killed.

Jean Charles De Menezes was an innocent civilian.  He was followed, and shot several times, whilst posing no threat to other citizens, whatsoever.  Jeremy Corbyn says he opposes a blanket shoot to kill policy that leads to the shooting of people like Jean Charles by the state.  Theresa May says she disagrees.  Presumably, she thinks that it is a "price worth paying", as Tories, in the past, said in a different context, that innocent civilians like Jean Charles should be shot by the police in order that the police might also be able to shoot actual terrorists and killers.  She should try telling that to the family of Jean Charles.

Jeremy Corbyn says he opposes a blanket shoot to kill policy that leads, for example, to the murder of thirteen innocent civilians in Ireland, on Bloody Sunday, by British soldiers, and which led to a multi-million pound investigation into those killings.   But Theresa May says that she disagrees with him, and that she supports a blanket shoot to kill policy, which thereby vindicates the actions of those soldiers in killing those innocent civilians.  She presumably thinks the millions of pounds spent on the Bloody Sunday Inquiry was, therefore, a waste of money.  She should tell that to the families of all those murdered by British soldiers on Bloody Sunday.

Jeremy Corbyn says that he opposes a policy of state sponsored murder - assassination - of its opponents, which was the result of the shoot to kill policy of British Special Forces in Ireland, against Republicans, and as was described in the ITV documentary Death On the Rock, about the murder of Republicans in Gibraltar, by British Special Forces.  Theresa May says that she disagrees with him. We can only conclude, therefore, that like other "strong and stable leaders", she supports such state sponsored terrorism.  Perhaps that is what Liam Fox meant when he talked to the butcherous dictator Duterte, in the Philippines about their shared values.

And, of course we know that May and her team do believe in such state sponsored terrorism.  That is not just true in their links to dictators like Duterte, or Erdogan, or the Saudis, it is manifest in their policy of assassinating opponents in foreign countries using drone strikes.  Yet, it's clear that some individual, no matter how obnoxious they might be, does not pose an immediate threat to life and limb of people in the UK, if they are thousands of miles away!  On what basis, therefore, is it legitimate to simply assassinate such a person using a drone strike, rather than subjecting them to due legal process, via a trial, before imposing an appropriate sentence on them?  And, given that Britain, along with all civilised countries has abolished the death penalty, how can it be right to execute someone in this way, without trial, in a foreign country, when that penalty would not be imposed on them were they tried in Britain?

Jeremy Corbyn says quite rightly says that he opposes such state sponsored terrorism and assassination, especially as quite often these drone strikes hit the wrong targets, kill surrounding innocent civilians, and thereby act to provide the jihadists with additional propaganda  material to recruit additional forces.  But, Theresa May says that she disagrees with him.  So, she must support state sponsored acts of terror and assassination such as that, and must see the deaths of innocent civilians caught up in the strike, once again as mere collateral damage, as again "a price worth paying".

What is clear is that what Theresa May means by strong and stable leadership is that she is taking Britain further and further down the road of those dictators which she and her Ministers hob nob with.  She is taking Britain down the road of butcherous dictators such as Duterte, Erdogan, Putin, and the Saudis.  Theresa May's Tory Team, her basket of deplorables, has swallowed UKIP whole, but it is the racist, xenophobic, ultra nationalist, autarchic policies of UKIP that now dominate the Tory Party.  The support for and defence of acts of state terrorism and assassination, of a blanket shoot to kill policy being pursued by Theresa May is simply an extension of that authoritarian police state that all such strong and stable dictators have to build to keep themselves in power, and suppress the opposition of the majority of society.  UKIP already calls for the return of the Death Penalty. In the US of Theresa May's best friend, Donald Trump, the death penalty already exists.

Theresa May's support for state terrorism and assassination, of a blanket shoot to kill policy, is merely the prelude to the Tories following their UKIP agenda and reintroducing the death penalty in Britain, which they will then also use to cow their opponents.  It is another reason they are desperate to leave the EU, and the European Court of Justice, so that they can be free to implement this lurch back into reaction, along with all of the other reactionary policies of removing workers rights they seek to push through