who was jean charles de menezes?

i have wanted to write about jean charles for quite some time.
his story has been going round my head since i first found out about his death.
in fact, when news first broke that he had been killed (22 july 2005) i was pretty shocked about people's attitude to his death.
otherpleasespecify is set during this time.

who was this man? and why did his death affect me so much?

there is a lot of information on him already on the net. to research for the play, i googled his name and found information about him on the bbc website, on wikipedia as well as on a website set up by his friends and family.

suffice to say, jean was killed after the july 2005 bombings in london by the police in a tragic case of mistaken identity. it was mooted that he had been involved in terrorism and that he was about to strike again. however, the next day the metropolitan police issued a statement saying they had indeed made a mistake.

before the true facts of the shooting were revealed, i remember general popular opinion being that it was somehow jean's own fault for looking suspicious - have a look at the bbc discussion board for some of the comments. jean, it was commonly said, was a casualty of war. the police were the real victims here. i was so furious (this is the only time i can recall shouting at my mum ever in my life).

as time went by more and more details were revealed: no - jean wasn't wearing a bulky jacket, no - he didn't jump a turnstile to enter the underground and no - the police had not challenged him at any point.

numerous attempts were made to discredit him: the home office leaked his immigration status and some random woman came forward after his death and claimed that he was a rapist (later disproven by dna testing).

the shooting was such a blantant act of random violence against a person looking 'foreign' (apparently jean was positively identified because he had 'mongolian eyes' - i kid you not) i just didn't understand how the british public didn't see it.

my play isn't about jean, although i have seriously thought about dedicating it to him.
ultimately it's about the reality of looking and being out of the place - sometimes it can literally kill you.

jean, rest in peace.