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sound of da police livestream

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Below is the livestream video from the event : sound of da police 8th August 2017 STUN studio, Z-Arts

 

[https://youtu.be/MIc0MqzocoA]

How do we address police harassment, brutality and racism in a world where our Black and Asian communities are often considered ‘gangsters’ and ‘terrorists’?

Listen to our fantastic panel, drawing on the expertise of local academics, youth and community workers.

– Becky Clark, Senior Lecturer, Manchester Metropolitan University
– Patrick Williams, Senior Lecturer, Manchester Metropolitan University
– Akemia Minott, Moss Side Youth Worker
– CHAIR: Anthony Downer, Social Activist

This event is hosted by the Northern Police Monitoring Project (NPMP).
We are an independent grassroots organisation and we take no money from the state or the police.

Police legitimacy and accountability; a reflection on protest and rage.

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Dr Lisa Long

If rage had no capacity for producing change, then it would not be regarded as being as threatening as it is. With so much overt and covert racialized hatred and violence against black bodies, it is a powerful distortion of rage that the group on whom the oppression is imposed is seen as the one full of uncontrollable rage (Cohan, 2017: 38).

Edir Frederico Da Costa, a young black man and father died on Wednesday 21st June, six days after his arrest by the Metropolitan Police. It is reported that the arrest involved use of force and the deployment of CS gas. Da Costa’s family claim that they had been told by a doctor at the hospital that he had severe injuries which had caused him to convulse. The official narrative, as may be expected, is different. The IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission) sought to halt the spread of information regarding Da Costa’s injuries by releasing the conclusions of the preliminary coroner’s report on Friday 23rd June. The IPCC states that the coroner found no evidence to support the claim that his neck was broken on arrival at hospital and the coroner found no evidence of severe injuries (IPCC, 2017). Investigations are continuing into the cause of death.  Meanwhile, the IPCC has begun an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Da Costa’s death.

It is unsurprising that the family of da Costa and the local community want answers- as we all should.  On Sunday 25th June there was a planned ‘peaceful protest’ outside of Forest Gate police station in London. Later in the day, stories emerged on social media of protesters clashing with police and riot police being deployed to the area.  Some commentators on social media have already condemned the protesters as ‘barbaric’, as ‘black gangsters’ and Da Costa as a criminal who is to blame for his own death. The media focus is on the six police officers who, it is claimed, sustained injuries during the clashes.

This is business as usual. The rage of families and communities following a death in custody is frequently depoliticised through the relocation of blame on the victim and the community. The perception of black and brown bodies as threat is reflected in the discourses surrounding deaths in custody- ‘State Talk’ (Pemberton, 2008).  These discursive strategies legitimise the use of force and perpetuate the criminogenic image of the black male and increasingly other bodies of colour-most recently Asian men.  This is not just a police problem, the media construct and reproduce images, the state and law enforcement agencies respond to them and the racialization of crime becomes a fact that the police respond to legitimizing harsher policing strategies (Hall et al., 1978).

In the midst of terrorism fears, the National Police Chief’s Council is to debate offering guns to all frontline officers (Dodd, 2017). A terrifying prospect taking into account disproportionality in restraint related deaths in custody. In 2016, Janet Hills, the President of the National Black Police Association expressed concerns over the proposal to roll out tasers to all police officers (Asthana and Grierson, 2016). She was right to do so, people of colour are disproportionately on the receiving end of a taser discharge – 40% of cases where tasers have been used since 2014 involved black or black mixed-race ‘suspects’ (CRAE, 2017). This includes children; according to the CRAE, 70% of all children tasered by the police were from ethnic minority communities.  Taser is not a soft alternative to guns, it is a potentially lethal firearm linked to a number of deaths including that of retired black footballer Dalian Atkinson in August, 2016.  

There were a total 510 ‘BME’ deaths in custody (police, prison and mental health detention) between 1991 and 2014. This includes 10 unlawful killing verdicts at inquest. However, there have not been any successful prosecutions in this time (Athwal and Bourne, 2015). If police accountability is ‘constructed’ in order to maintain state narratives of accountability (Baker, 2016), rather than to hold the police to account for their actions, it is inevitable that both the police and the mechanisms for investigating their mis/conduct, including the IPCC, will not be viewed as legitimate.  In the absence of a trusted system for securing accountability, protest is a legitimate response.  Protest is not ‘barbaric’. It is the reaction of communities in pain; communities that are subjected to systemic racist violence on a daily basis. As Cohan argues above, rage can produce change; in the face of systemic inequalities sometimes rage is the only power we have.   

 

Dr Lisa Long is a Senior Lecturer of Criminology at Leeds Beckett University, her research addresses race, racism and policing.

This piece is her first blog post and a response to the widespread social media condemnation of Forest Gate protesters in the wake of the death of  Edir Frederico Da Costa following his arrest by the Metropolitan Police.

 

References

Asthana and Grierson (2016). Leader of black police officers warns against taser rollout proposals. The Guardian. 16th August [online] www.theguardian.com

Athwal, H and Bourne, J (2015) Dying for Justice: IRR:London [online] http://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wpmedia.outlandish.com/irr/2017/04/26155052/Dying_for_Justice_web.pdf

Baker, D (2016) Death after police contact: constructing accountability in the 21st century. Basingstoke:Macmillan-Palgrave.

Cohan, D (2017) Rage and Activism; The Promise of Black Lives Matter chapter in Weissinger, S.E, Mack, D.A and Watson, E. Violence Against Black Bodies: An Intersectional Analysis of How Black Lives Continue to Matter. London:Routledge.

Children’s Rights Alliance (2017). CRAE Press Statement on increase in Taser officers. [online] http://www.crae.org.uk/news/crae-press-statement-on-increase-in-taser-officers [accessed 23.06.17]

Dodd, V (2017) Police chiefs to discuss offering guns to all frontline officers. The Guardian. 23 June. [online] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/23/police-chiefs-to-discuss-offering-guns-to-all-frontline-officers?CMP=share_btn_tw [Accessed 23.06.17].

Hall et al (1978) Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order.

IPCC statement following the death of Edir Frederico Da Costa, IPCC, June 23rd 2017  [online] https://www.ipcc.gov.uk/news/update-ipcc-statement-following-death-edir-frederico-da-costa

Pemberton (2008) Demystifying Deaths in Police Custody: Challenging State Talk. Social and Legal Studies Vol 17(2) 237-262

 

In Memory of Deyika Nzeribe (1966-2017)

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Deyika Nzeribe was one of the founders and main organisers of the Northern Police Monitoring Project. His hard work and creativity made many of the events and services that the NPMP have offered in the past, possible. However, Deyika’s work transcended NPMP. He was a tireless campaigner, a friend, a father, a brother and an inspiration to all those whose lives he had touched. But it was the humilty, that informed all of his work, that made what he did infinetely more admirable.This short piece, written by Tanzil Chowdhury, was originally read out at as a eulogy at his funeral.

There is something interesting about the humble giant. She, or in this case he, gives themself selflessly to their family, friends and their community. Their presence in those peoples lives is persistent, positive and enriching. They always are there to help us if we need them, to lean on. Yet though we benefit from them and our lives are nourished by their selflessness, the humble giant remains quiet. His work is almost always behind the scenes, never done for any public praise or gratitute, but exclusively motivated just to make the lives of others better.

They are an oxymoron, for their presence in our lives is so notable and benevolent but they remain the unsung hero. Deyika, was one such person. You may not know it, but whatever is better and good in your community, was most likely because it was in someway touched by this great brother.

When Deyika was ever involved with something, it gave one the comfort and confidence that anything was possible. There is a story I’ve told many others, that one night a few months ago, Deyika texted me out of the blue and simply said ‘Tanzil, we need to Free the Black Panthers from jail.’ Had anyone else said that, I would have replied with sour realism. But with Deyika, anything  was a possibility. It is no surprise therefore, that my last interaction with this titan of a man, was trying to free political prisoners.

Rest in eternal Power Deyika. Keep an eye on us all from above.