One of the traps we should avoid after Genoa is the "oh it could not happen here" line. The day after Genoa, the Sun enthusiastically trumpeted this. They preferred to ignore the police shooting of a man armed with a replica gun in Brixton only days beforehand (he was shot six times in the back) or shootings in recent years in Hackney (of a man carrying a chair leg) and Sussex (of a man naked in bed). We got this report from Cheshire CW on the recent death of a man allegedly in possession of a samurai sword:

Merseyside Police shot dead a 37 year old schizophrenic man on the evening of 12 July. The mother of the man, Andrew Kernan, had calmed him down and was in his bedroom when police arrived at the family home in Wavertree. They ordered Andrew's mother, Marie, into a police car where she heard him scream, "mum, mum" before two gunshots rang out. At the police station she was told Andrew had 'passed away'. Andrew Kernan had no criminal record and was being treated by a psychiatric team from Broadoak, based at Broadgreen Hospital. The family solicitor Rex Makin said, "A doctor should have been there to negotiate with the police officers whose presence in body armour shielding must have scared the frightened man even more than he was." Greater Manchester Police have been asked by their Merseyside colleagues to carry out an investigation. No prizes on what the findings will be.

Within days, a mobile police incident unit had the word "killers" painted on it. On a wall was written in two foot letters: "12/7/01 MAN KILLED BY POLICE WHAT IS OUR SOCIETY GOING 2 B WHEN THE POLICE BECOME JUDGE + JURY RIP". Needless to say, the graffiti was quickly removed, but it is a question which will exercise the minds of a good many people in the light of the shootings of James Ashley, Harry Stanley and other victims of gun law on our streets.