Category Archives: news
Roberts brothers Darren and Darrell and Osime Brown – 3 steps for justice
| Table of contents | |
| Roberts brothers and Brown cases | Stop these deportations |
| Step 1: Read more about it | Step 1: links to background |
| Step 2: Find your MP | Step 2: MP lookup |
| Step 3: Write a letter template | Step 3: letter template |
| The Windrush Betrayal | Get the book, watch video |
The Home Office plan to deport UK-born Darrell and Darren Roberts to countries they have NEVER been to. Due to failures of social services they have never received UK citizenship. Despite serving their time, they face deportation due to short prison sentences.
Darrell and Darren “were taken into the care of social services when they were 13 after the deaths from cancer in quick succession of their mother and later of the uncle who looked after them when she died. Their father had moved abroad before their mother’s death and they have had no contact with him for decades.” (The Guardian)
The Home Office similarly plans to deport Osime Brown, a 21 year old autistic man, to Jamaica (a country he left when he was 4 and has no current family connections with). He has been in the UK for 17 years. He was wrongfully incarcerated and has been sent a deportation notice.
These injustices demonstrate failures of social services and the Home Office, underscoring the evident systemic racism that lies within.
The following link is a call to action, urging people to educate themselves on these stories and write to their MP (including an email template). Unfortunately, the official UK parliament petition website does not allow petitions about individuals, and Parliament does not acknowledge or recognise petitions from other websites.
Step 1: Read more about it
Darrell and Darren Roberts’ case
The National Autistic Society’s response to Osime Brown’s case
Background on deportation and Windrush Scandal
Step 2: Find your MP’s contact details
Click here!
Step 3: Write to your MP
Feel free to write your own words or use the following template:
Dear _____________ MP,
My name is ______, I am ______ years old and have been constituent of ______ for _____ years. I am writing as I’ve recently read of a few similar stories that have completely angered me (though not completely shocked).
Today I read the news that London-born twins Darrell Roberts and Darren Roberts are facing deportation to countries they have never been to. Due to indisputable failures of Ealing social services, these London-born young adults, never received UK citizenship.
Similarly, an autistic 21-year old man named Osime Brown faces deportation to Jamaica, which he left when he was 4 years old – he has no family connections there. He too was terribly failed by the social care and education system. Here is a link to the National Autistic Society’s response to this injustice, as well as their letter to the Home Secretary.
As your constituent, I am urging you to take action, revoke these deportation notices and stop these deportations. These stories demonstrate failures of social services and the Home Office, underscoring the evident system racism that lies within.
Please use your position of power and influence to stop these deportations, along with the many others I have not mentioned today, and push conversation and action in parliament to address the Home Office’s horrible history of deportation of Black UK-born or raised residents.
I look forward to hearing back.
The Windrush betrayal
The Roberts brothers and Osime Brown are just the latest victims of the WIndrush scandal.
When former prime minister Theresa May introduced her infamous ‘hostile environment’ regime it led to many people from the Windrush generation and their descendants being caught in the Home Office’s unfair and draconian measures to hunt down ‘illegal immigrants’, even though these people were originally invited to the UK by the British government.
Many who came to the ‘Mother Country’ did not regularise their status by seeking British citizenship or a passport.
Then when they accessed public services under the new regime, they were unable to produce documents proving citizenship and one thing led to another.
People lost their jobs, were billed massive amounts for health care services, were deported and some went on holiday and were then refused re-entry to the country.
Tragically others committed suicide or were drive to despair and mental illness by the constant worry of the knock on the door from immigration authorities.
Journalist Amelia Gentleman has written the definitive investigation of this continuing scandal and you can order your copy here:
Watch her recent talk at the Bookmarks bookshop:
Bianca Williams police say sorry but accused of lying to excuse racial profiling
London police have finally apologised to British sprint star Bianca Williams after the racial profiling outrage perpetrated on her and her husband Ricardo dos Santos – and their baby three-month old baby – at the weekend.
The pair were stopped and handcuffed for the ‘crime’ of being black while driving a luxury vehicle – a Mercedes.
Sorry is definitely the hardest word for the Metropolitan Police Service. Getting the apology out of them was like pulling teeth.
The cops apologised yesterday – apparently after pressure form the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.
And their boss, Commissioner Dame Cressida, apologised again today in parliament before the Home Affairs Select Committee.
But the apologies are hardly just recompense for the vicious racial profiling, which is why the Met is facing the prospect of being sued by Williams.
Police accused of lying to excuse actions against Bianca Williams
In an attempt to defend their actions, the police appear to have made up a story about Bianca Williams driving at speed on the wrong side of the road. Here’s what they said, in part, in their statement:
Officers witnessed a vehicle that was being driven in a manner that raised suspicion, heavily braking and accelerating which included driving on the wrong side of the road. They indicated for it to stop but it failed to do so and accelerated off. The officers caught up with the vehicle when it stopped on Lanhill Road. The driver initially refused to get out of the car.
“That is false, we were never on the wrong side of the road. We were driving down through single-width roads,” insists Williams.
“We only found out about us driving on the wrong side of the road once they tweeted.
“This isn’t the first or fourth or fifth time, it must be about the 10th. It’s getting ridiculous.
“We are planning on taking it down the legal route. I feel very hurt by their actions, and to witness my partner being taken away and for me to be taken away from my son, my heart hurts .”
Police racial profiling on the rise?
This is just the latest in an avalanche of such encounters. Whether it is the heightened awareness following the BLM protests or the police actually becoming more racist in their practice is hard to say, but either way it is pouring fuel on the fire.
The police have now also been forced to refer themselves to the Independent Office for Policing Conduct. (IOPC)
The IOPC was set up to replace the discredited Independent Police Complaints Commission. However, nothing has changed at the new rebranded institution apart from the name.
The IOPC is still very much a case of the police investigating the police, so don’t expect any relief to come via that route.
Ban Section 60 stop and searches
Bianca Williams’s trauma resulted from a police search in Maida Vale west London that seems to have been carried out under Section 60.
This law, in which the stop and search powers were reinstated in August last year, now allows police, from the rank of inspector upwards, to put in place powers over large areas to stop and search without providing a reason.
Section 60 powers can be enforced borough-wide, and even on a number of adjacent boroughs, on the flimsiest of pretexts, such as the suspicion that a knife was about to be used to commit a crime or such a weapon was seen in the hands of someone on the streets.
Campaigners are gearing up to ban the use of Section 60 searches.
The prevalence of stop and search has no proven effect on either deterring the commission of a crime or detection.
BLM protests continue to take place around the country, with two planned for London this weekend – on Saturday and Sunday.
Picket Labour Party NEC over anti-black racism and in solidarity with BLM – Tuesday 7th July
*Reminder: Raise *your* voices*!
Labour Black Socialist & Allies
‘Black Members Matter!’
In Solidarity & Unity with BLM
Come and join our Labour NEC Picket against Institutional & Systematic Racism in the Labour Party
ARE YOU:
ANGRY about the Lack of Opposition to Anti Black Racism (BAME) in Labour Party & Treatment of Black Members?
FRUSTRATED about the Labour Party’s SILENCE on All forms of Racism including Afriphobia, Islamaphobia?
OUTRAGED about Racism in the leaked Labour Report?
WORRIED about a Whitewash Leaked Report Inquiry?
FURIOUS at Starmer’s Dismissal of the BLM Uprising, their demands and Global Historical Importance.
Root out anti-Black racism in Labour
This is OUR MOMENT to Make Our Voices Heard
AT: LABOUR PARTY NEC EQUALITIES MEETING
Labour HQ 105 Victoria St, Westminster, London SW1E 6QT
ON: Tuesday 7th July 2020
AT: 10 am
#BlackLabourMatterMatter #BlackLivesMatter #RootOutRacismInLabour
In Solidarity & Unity with BLM,
Sophia, Liz and Joyce.
If you are interested:
- Join our Socially Distanced Picket
- Wear Masks
- Bring Banners, Flags.
For more info contact Joyce Reid: Jasjr272001@yahoo.com
Birmingham City fans march against racism and for Trevor Smith shot dead by police
From I Am Birmingham:
The anti-racist march was held to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, and in honour of local man Trevor Smith, who was tragically shot dead by armed police last year.
Despite the number of attendees estimated at around 300 by reporters and 2,000 by organisers, the event was a peaceful gathering of BCFC supporters from all backgrounds who joined forces to voice their solidarity against racism and hate.
Marc Gauntlett, who led the march with friends, hopes it will bring together football fans and former ‘hooligans’, “uniting people of all backgrounds against hate.”
Gauntlett was active in The Zulu Warriors hooligan firm which supports Birmingham City Football Club, and has left behind a life of violence related to hooliganism. Now reformed, he wants to show that football fans must rise beyond racist attitudes and challenge racism in the sport.
Pic Lensi Photgraphy
