Category Archives: UK

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

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Block party policing is racist: Covid laws excuse by riot police to terrorise London estates


Updated 14:38 BST

Black community leaders on the ground in London say an uprising is inevitable if police and their political masters continue with their oppressive policing of young black people at block party gatherings

A series of incidents across London are seeing tensions between the community and the police boils over.

One law for Black youth, another for middle-class white people

This comes against the background of mounting concern about the racist nature of the contrast between how black youth are dealt with in the Covid pandemic as opposed to white sunbathers on beaches, or mostly white people gathering in large numbers in cramped conditions in and around pubs, such as in Soho Square in London’s West End yesterday.

In those locations there is not a policeman to be seen but as soon as black youth organise their own cheaper forms of entertainment there’s a visit from the Metropolitan police’s Tactical Support Group (riot police).

In addition to the panoply of stop and search laws the police already use to harass black people – such as under PACE, Section 60 and anti-terrorism legislation, there is a new weapon in their locker: the Covid Act.

This was made clear not long into the pandemic when black people were soon shown to be disproportionately more likely to be stopped and fined by the police.

“There’s an explosion coming if the police carry on like this with the TSG”

Ken Hinds

Ken Hinds, who runs a police monitoring group based in Tottenham, north London told BLMM: “Why don’t they come and talk to the community and the elders so we can supervise our own events instead of sending in riot police?”

“There’s an explosion coming if the police carry on like this with the TSG [Tactical Support Group].”

The rising tension has seen young people push back against police intimidation and wanton violence.

Block party clampdown: a “general anti-police conflagration” coming?

BLM activist Gary McFarlane echoed those sentiments: “After weeks of being told by the Tory politicians and others who should know better, that there was nothing to be fighting about here in the UK concerning racism – we see on display in this racist policing of block parties the full extent of the institutional racism of the police, and the government and politicians who encourage them.

“This comes after numerous cases of police racist violence and profiling, such as around the death of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry.

“Then there’s the appalling treatment of Andrew Boateng and his son and the most recent outrage that has just come to light of Ryan Colaço, who has been repeatedly stopped by racist police -– one time after coming back from a Channel 4 interview about police harassment. Enough is enough.”

McFarlane continued: “The Met should know that more of this brutal discriminatory policing will see localised fight backs turn into a general anti-police conflagration across London. Is that what they really want?”

BLM fuels Black youth fightback

After months of being confined in flats with no gardens and with little money, the Black Lives Matter movement has given black (and white) working-class youth greater confidence to challenge racist policing practices.

Parties have been held in Streatham, Brixton, Tottenham, Kensal Town to name just a few areas of London, where videos of riot police have gone viral.

Police running riot on an estate in Hammersmith last night

However, if you are a middle class white person partying and spending £5 on a pint of beer in Soho in crowded conditions that break all Covid social-distancing rules, that’s just fine. Not a cop in sight.

From Michael in Croydon – This is how the police shut down block parties at majority working class black estates. But it’s ok for everyone to be out on the piss at pubs all weekend.
Former Olympic sprint gold medalist takes Met police to task. The cops are bent on stoking an uprising. 

Raise your voice against the criminalisation of Black youth

Make a complaint to the Mayor’s Office For Policing and Crime (MOPAC)

Complain direct to the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and Independent for Police Conduct (IOPC):

MPS 
Directorate of Professional Standards 
Complaints Support Team
22nd Floor, Empress State Building
Lillie Road
London
SW6 1TR

IOPC
Independent Office for Police Conduct
PO Box 473
Sale
M33 0BW

This story will be updated throughout the day

Labour’s Starmer attacks BLM and then apologises to black journalists

updated Monday 6th July 13:45 BST: A picket of the Labour Party NEC meeting to call out the leaderships racism has been called for Tuesday 7th July at 10am. More details here.


Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, a former state prosecutor, has gone out of his way to ingratiate himself with the establishment and the media in this country.

In addition to bashing the left in his own party, he has been showing to the powers that be that they have nothing at all to fear from a Labour party led by him.

The Starmer way: soft on the Tories, hard on the left and anti-racists

This is what explains the Labour party’s supine response to the government mishandling of the pandemic response.

In fact at one point the Labour leadership was calling for the lifting of the lockdown even before the Tories were.

But the attitude that Starmer (who is after all pretty much a member of the establishment given that he is a knight of the realm) has taken to Black Lives Matter has shocked many in the black community.

Starmer when asked about the movement basically said BLM was a bit of a joke, that the issues were all about the US, inferring that all was good here in the UK in respect of racism, and that the movement wasn’t a movement at all and, again by inference, would presumably soon be over.

In case you missed the full horror show of an interview, watch and listen carefully carefully chosen words of the lawyer. His reversal of the oft-quoted remark of protesters that his is a ‘movement not a moment’ is reversed by Starmer.

Labour alienating black supporters

The remarks from Starmer come on the back of his refusal to tackle racism in the Labour Party of to discipline staffers who racially abused black women MPs

A report by the Huffington Post (see link below) recently drew attention to the tin ear the warmed-over Blairite leadership has when it comes to racism against its black members:

Exclusive: Labour Is Losing Black Members Over Allegations Of Anti-Black Racism

The Labour party has already done a good job in alienating a fair chunk of its working-class support and now it is in danger of driving away a key constituent of hitherto loyal support.

Starmer’s comments haven’t sat well with many of his own MPs.

Another Labour MP, Florence Eshalomi, said his “choice of words [was] wrong”.

That probably explains why Starmer is now on a belated damage limitation operation.

Yesterday he did e a Q&A with black journalists at which he said: “This is not a moment for not standing with the Black Lives Matter movement and the injustice that is being exposed.”

https://twitter.com/The_Crox/status/1278689948275703808?s=20

Thanks for that Keir but the damage has been done.

Starmer visited Tottenham not so long ago and a Labour Party member sent us a photograph of the gathering of locals – remember this is Tottenham.

Here’s a game to play with your Blairite friends: spot the black person.

Actually Starmer was proud of his work in Tottenham – he posted it on Facebook. Again, remember, this is Tottenham!

A pic from Keir Starmer’s Facebook account

You can send complaints to the Labour Party at the emails below (yes we could complain to the Conservative Party about their racism too but, seriously, why bother):

Labour East – laboureast.org.uk
East Midlands Labour – eastmidslabour.org.uk
London Labour – labourinlondon.org.uk
Labour North – labournorth.com
Labour North West – labournorthwest.org.uk
Labour South East – laboursoutheast.org.uk
Labour South West – laboursouthwest.org.uk
West Midlands Labour – westmidlandslabour.org.uk
Yorkshire and the Humber Labour – yorkshireandhumberlabour.org.uk

You can fill in the complaint form here:

#TakeTheKnee events from around the UK – pics and reports, Wednesday 21 July

First BLM protest in Wallingford, Oxfordshire.

50 to 60 people took part in Take the Knee event outside Notts County Council offices.

Led by SUTR and supported by the Labour Group with an excellent turnout of Councillors

Wanstead flats Newham, East London

Islington Town Hall, London

Swansea Cwmdonkin Park before an online rally took place

Cambridge

25 NHS staff joined the #TakeTheKnee event at Littlemore hospital, Oxford, to say #BlackLivesMatter

London Police beat cuffed black youth for possession of small amount of cannabis

If you were distressed from watching the video of a defenceless child being brutally assaulted by Detective Constable Kevin Rawley of the Metropolitan Police and want to make a complaint, plz see below and link to the complaints form.

How to make a complaint about this police violence

The procedure for submitting a complaint is a simple process. Feel free to adapt the template below:

“When did this happen?

23/04/2019

Approximate time or additional details about the time of the event.

Late afternoon

Please describe the event and what happened in as much detail as possible.

I have been adversely affected by the conduct of a police officer that involves a serious assault” I was traumatised and
appalled by watching a video of Detective Constable Kevin Rowley carrying out a violent unprovoked assault using his baton on a defenceless young man who was in handcuffs. This is not the sort of service we expect from our police force.

This officer needs to be reprimanded and firm action taken as an example to the rest of the Metropolitan police force that such brutal assaults on defenceless citizens is NOT ACCEPTABLE!!

Do you have a reference number linked to this complaint?

Not given

What do you feel would be a suitable outcome from this complaint?

Removal of Detective Constable Kevin Rowley, the officer involved in carrying out the assault as he is a danger to society and a rotten apple in the police force.
https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/complaints-and-appeals/make-complaint

Information to make your complaint: Jason Gwillim is the Tri Borough Commander for the area and Andrew Rosindell is the MP for Romford!!

Thanks to Sista Shanice

Police case collapses as IPCC reveals no drugs swallowed in Rash Charles killing

 

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has admitted that there was ‘no controlled substance’ in Rashan Charles’s throat.

In a statement last night the IPCC states: ‘The object did not contain a controlled substance.’

This confirms the suspicions of family and campaigners that the police made up the initial story.

Nevertheless, the IPCC still repeats the police claim that there was something in Rashan’s throat but the package has now turned into an ‘object’.

The IPCC state that they have ‘received results of forensic analysis’ of an ‘object’ but, in another alarming and distressing lack of transparency, fail to disclose what it is.

Weyman Bennett, co-convenor of Stand Up To Racism, said: ‘This is totally outrageous and deepens the anger in the community. All the police officers involved must be suspended immediately. The IPCC statement throws up more questions than it answers and the family and community will want urgent clarification.

‘Why has the IPCC failed to reveal the nature of the claimed object in Rashan’s airways? Why are the police officers involved in his death still on duty?

‘We demand that the IPCC holds an immediate press conference and provide full disclosure of what they know. The reality is that far from “helping” Rashan as the police account claimed, the officers’ forceful arrest resulted in his death.

‘Are the IPCC failing to disclose the nature of the object in order to help the police sustain their line that by putting Rashan in a headlock and another kneeling on his back they were somehow trying to clear his airways?

‘As was said by family and campaigners from the beginning, and as everyone can see for themselves in the video, the police were doing no such thing. Their actions killed Rashan.

‘There must be accountability now. Three black men have been killed by police in the space of a month. Are the police trying to start a community uprising?’

The IPCC statement drives a coach and horses through the attempted justifications for his death.

Of course whether Rashan had been swallowing drugs or not his death would never have been justified but now attempts to explain police actions look even flimsier.

In recent weeks three young black men, Edson Da Costa, Darren Cumberbatch and Rashan Charles have died while in contact with the police.

In Birmingham one black man is in a comma after being shot by police while plain clothes officers were filmed kicking a young Asian man.

All this happens almost to the day of the sixth anniversary of the death of Mark Duggan.

Recently published figures show that while BME people are 13 percent of Londons population they were 36 percent of those he faced the use of force by police.

Bennett added: ‘What we are seeing is institutionalised racism working its violent way though police operations with the end result more dead young black men’.

Rashan Charles killing: police now judge, jury and executioner in fake ‘war on drugs’

The mainstream media is going into overdrive to try and justify the police killing of 20-year-old Rashan Charles. The story seems to go like this – he was a drug dealer so what did he expect. We had the same concocted story when the police killed Edson da Costa a few weeks ago. We had the same story when they executed Mark Duggan in August 2011; this year is the sixth anniversary of Mark’s death and it will be marked by a protest in Tottenham on 5th August.

The London Evening Standard is running a story today with a still from CCTV claiming it shows Rashan swallowing a package. But even if this interpretation is accurate, since when did the police in this country get the right to be judge, jury and executioner on our streets?

Rash was much-liked in the community and tonight’s protest will be well attended for that reason. Anger is growing at the police’s callous disregard for the lives of young black men in London. No police officer has as yet been suspended let alone charged. Is the Met police importing the tactics deployed by the militarised police of the US where their ‘war on drugs’ has led to daily killings of black people and a massive increase in the prison population from 300,000 in the 1980s to over two million today, despite there being no significant increase in the crime rate. As in the US, here in the UK drug use is the same across different ethnic groups. In fact it is likely higher among white people. the number of those involved in dealing are similar also. But it is poor black and working class communities that are targeted, not the cocaine users in the City of London or on Wall street.

If Rashan had swallowed something, putting him in a headlock and strangling him is not going to retrieve the alleged package. Neither is the full weight of a policeman kneeling on his back likely to ‘help’, in fact it probably had a direct bearing on his death, as did the strangulation.

One thing though is crystal clear from Saturday’s police killing: when people in the community see the police arresting someone, intervention is a necessity. It might save someone’s life.

If the police think they can act with impunity because of the cover-ups of the IPCC, then they will continue to do precisely that. Given the mounting death toll, we have no choice but to start to police the police. Tonight’s protest is a start.

If there is no justice for Rash and all the other dead then there will be hell to pay. As Martin Luther King – ‘a riot is the voice of the unheard’.

No justice, no peace. Justice for Rash!

 

Hackney police kill young black man Rashan Charles

Twenty-year-old Rashan (Rashman) Charles was killed by police on Kingsland Road, Hackney, in the early hours of Saturday morning. A video posted on Twitter shows Rashan being taken to the ground and held in a headlock by a uniformed officer, followed shortly after by a plain clothed policeman who ‘assists’ his colleague by kneeling on Rashan’s back.

The police as always have got their cover-up story out early, claiming that Rashan was trying to ‘swallow an object’ and that the uniformed policeman was  trying to prevent Rashan ‘from harming himself’.

The killing of Rashan by police follows hot on the heels of the death of Edson da Costa at the hands of police in Newham a month ago. In that case the police also came out with the line that the person they killed was trying to swallow something, although Edson’s family says there is no evidence of this. Likewise, the video of Rashan’s killing shows no package being swallowed and there is no discernible attempt by police to remove the mystery package.

Far from ‘preventing harm’ the police are clearly seen killing Rashan. The police claim that Rashan was ‘taken ill’ during the encounter. Even after Rashan stops moving the police keep him in handcuffs even though he is likely dead at this point. The plain clothes officer continues to kneel on his back even after this point.

Rashan was initially in a car being pursued by police before he ran into the shop.

From Twitter:

This is the video of officers that work for the @metpoliceuk killing a young black man in Hackney and no news have covered it @linkuptv


The police officers involved in the killing must be arrested. At minimum they must be suspended from duty immediately. Instead all we have is the IPCC opening yet another inquiry into racist police killers from which nothing will come – unless we mount a ferocious campaign for justice for Rash, for Edson and all those who have died after coming into contact with police officers.

Justice for Rash!

No justice No peace

Racist police killers off our streets!!

Self-defence is no offence!

One solution, revolution!

 

Racist Met cop openly admits to racial profiling of black DJ in car stop

The police seem to be intent on starting more riots with their brazen racism.

From the Guardian –

The police watchdog has launched an investigation after an officer pulled over a DJ driving a Bentley in central London and told him that black people driving in “gangster-style clothing” are more likely to be stopped.

DMO Deejay, 27, who plays weekly at the Dstrkt nightclub in Leicester Square, posted a video on YouTube, taken in early January, of him being pulled over by police while driving a Bentley GTC convertible in Piccadilly.

In the footage, the Metropolitan police officer tells the DJ: “This isn’t racist, it’s a fact. Predominantly, the criminal profile of people who do it [commit robberies in the area] are black people.

“So, naturally, if you see a car full of black lads, maybe dressed in gangster-style clothing or whatever, when they’re driving down there, they’re getting stopped.” more