Hate Crimes Soar in Britain as Police Defend "Shoot to Kill" Policy

In London, civil rights groups are condemning racial profiling and anti-Muslim hate crimes following the July 7 subway and bus bombings.

The family of Jean Charles de Menezes, the 27-year-old Brazilian man shot and killed Friday by London police investigating the bombings, may sue over his death. Menezes was on his way to his job as an electrician on Friday morning when plain-clothes police officers in an anti-terrorism unit chased him into a subway station and shot him five times at point blank range.

Immediately after the shooting, police announced Menezes had ties to the July 7 subway and bus bombings. But a day later they admitted they were wrong and Menezes had no connection to the bombings. Police chief Sir Ian Blair apologized to Menezes's family, but stood behind the new "shoot-to-kill" policy.

Menezes's Cousin Maria do Socorro told BBC Radio "You would think the British police would be prepared, but they are panicking and seeing everyone as a suspect. If you are going to have a war on terror, you have got to use brains to fight it not just brute force."

Menezes had been living in London for more than three years and was sending money home to pay for his father's cancer treatments.

Meanwhile in England, hate crimes targeting Muslims, Arabs and South Asians have risen by 500 (five hundred) percent since the July 7 bombings. The Guardian of London reports that more than 1,000 (one thousand) race and faith-based attacks have been reported to police across the country since the bombings, though community leaders believe the actual number of incidents is at least four times higher.

* Ajmal Masroor, Spokesperson for Islamic Society of Britain.

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