Arrest number 20
On 2 July, one of the few warm Sundays of this year, Delroy Lindo was washing his car outside his home with his little daughter. When he walked round the corner to the local garage for more oil, he saw police in the process of arresting a black man and removing the number plates from his car. Delroy stopped and observed, noting the time on a piece of paper. The police officers noticed him, abandoned the arrest and turned on Delroy. Within seconds he was detained, handcuffed and bundled into the police van. Arrest number 20 had just taken place! This time it was to be different. As soon as his wife Sonia was informed of the arrest by a neighbour she alerted the telephone tree that had been set up after the last court case, which we will call Court Case 19.
Court case 19 and the lies
The last issue of FRFI carried Delroy Lindo’s call for support at his forthcoming trial at Haringey Magistrate’s Court from 31 May to 1 June. Delroy was about to face the latest of the 19 charges brought against him by the local police in the Hornsey and Tottenham area of London. He was accused of violent assault and described by PC Aldridge as ‘the most violent man I have encountered in 11 years policing’. Aldridge then attempted to demonstrate how he was violently assaulted by Delroy who was being held face down on the ground with a policeman holding onto each arm and leg at the time. Despite the evidence under oath of the four police officers, the magistrates dismissed the case.
In response to Delroy’s call for support there were four journalists in court over the two days of the trial and so many supporters that the court was full to bursting each day. The Defence Campaign banner was put up outside the court and supporters spoke over the megaphone about the police frame-up of the Lindo family. The police told their usual lies but the court was left in no doubt about the public concern for the truth. The verdict was welcomed with joy and relief.
The telephone tree
Following this success, FRFI set up a telephone tree as a simple but effective way of passing round instant information in the case of arrest. Each person on the tree contacts at least two others and passes on news about the arrest, charges, place of detention and need for a picket. At a recent Reclaim the Streets meeting nine more people agreed to join the Lindo Defence Campaign telephone tree.
‘Sucking his teeth at the police’
After the collapse of Court Case 19 supporters really believed that the Lindo family would be left alone. But no! Arrest Number 20 took place two and a half weeks later. The telephone tree went into action. It took over an hour to find out where they had taken Delroy, partly because the police had driven him round for some time telling him that ‘You lot need to be taught a lesson’.
The telephone tree phoned local police stations until Delroy was tracked down at Tottenham Police Station where the Custody Officer grew increasingly abrupt as enquiries were made about Delroy’s welfare and the charges. A fair-sized picket formed, food was sent in to Delroy, the hours passed, the local and national press and radio stations were informed. At last it penetrated the thick skulls of the police that Delroy Lindo was not alone, that there is a world of angry people out there who are sick of racist policing and injustice and who want something done now. After five hours Delroy was released without charge on police bail to reappear at Tottenham Police Station on 4 August at 2pm. He was told that he had been arrested for ‘sucking his teeth’ at the police.
The independent inquiry
Within hours of Delroy’s release the state was on the defensive. The next day there was a meeting with Peter Herbert, Chair of the Society of Black Lawyers and Lee Jasper, member of the Greater London Assembly, who both promised support. Perhaps it was they who prompted Lord Toby Harris, chair of the new Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), to act. An inquiry into Delroy’s history of arrests, headed by Divisional Area Commander Tarique Ghaffur, was announced by Scotland Yard, two days after his last arrest. Media coverage of the police harassment against Sonia and Delroy Lindo increased and some excellent articles have appeared in The Guardian, The Independent and the local Haringey press.
Lessons of the fightback
Over the last four years in particular, the campaign of police harassment increasingly dominated the lives of the Lindo family. They refuse to give up and have organised the scrupulous defence of their legal rights which has led to their acquittal of every charge. It is difficult for even Delroy and Sonia to keep up with the catalogue of charges against them. Charges have been brought and dropped or changed into lesser charges. There have been arrests and releases with no charges, detentions without charge and so on. They submitted their case to the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) but it was dismissed in June. Most of the agencies in Haringey have known about the Lindo case for years, Haringey Racial Equality Council, Haringey Council Equalities Unit and various Haringey Councillors, including the former leader, plain Toby Harris as was. None of them responded until the people demanded action. Now Lord Harris of Haringey says:
‘Let me reassure the black community and other minority ethnic communities in London, that where police action may appear inappropriate or heavy handed, and the action is brought to my attention as chair of the MPA, I will take every step to ensure that the Met investigate the case thoroughly and take the necessary disciplinary action where the complaint is established.’
We do intend to call his lordship’s attention to police racism and injustice. We plan to picket Tottenham Police station on 4 August at 1pm.
No justice! No peace!
Four days after Delroy’s release four plainclothes police delivered a letter to Delroy’s house which said that there will be no charges arising from Arrest Number 20 ‘in the public interest’. We ask what is this ‘public interest’? For us, ‘public interest’ is to fight back in an organised way against police harassment. Public interest is ‘Don’t walk on by’. Public interest is saying the picket must go ahead nevertheless. There is a lot of unfinished business between the Lindo Campaign and Tottenham Police Station, not least the five hours’ false imprisonment of Delroy Lindo, the distress of his daughter left sitting outside the house, the trauma of Sonia Lindo waiting yet again for her husband to be released. We want to hear no talk of young cops being a bit ‘overkeen’ or ‘out of control’. We want accountability and justice. There are organisations like the Haringey Police Consultative Group that year after year have ignored repeated requests for support from local campaigns like the Lindos’. People in the community find it dispiritingly difficult to seek redress for bad experiences by the Metropolitan police. The institutions that exist supposedly to guarantee the democratic rights of the community are often dominated by opportunists and careerists who treat with contempt those who have been abused. We know that the Lindos’ fight for justice is far from over. Now is the time to keep up the pressure and make sure that those who have ignored injustice and racism for so many years are called to account. Delroy Lindo told FRFI: ‘We must show that it is possible to organise the fightback and win. We are fighting not for ourselves alone but for justice for all. The police must accept that everyone has the right to observe their operations and they must respond appropriately when any citizen chooses to exercise this right.’
Susan Davidson
Delroy Lindo is a lifelong friend of Winston Silcott who was gaoled for the murder of PC Keith Blakelock during the 1985 uprising on the Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham, north London. Winston Silcott, Engin Raghip and Mark Braithwaite – the Tottenham Three – were eventually found to have been framed by the police and found not guilty on appeal. Winston is still in prison on a previous conviction for the killing of Anthony Smith which he maintains was self-defence. He was actually bailed on this charge in 1985 because the evidence against him was so flimsy. Delroy Lindo set up the Winston Silcott Is Innocent campaign immediately following his arrest for the Blakelock murder and worked tirelessly for the release of his friend. He was fully vindicated when Winston was cleared of the murder charge and received £50,000 damages for wrongful arrest and imprisonment. The police vendetta against Delroy Lindo and his wife Sonia began 15 years ago when the defence campaign was first set up and accelerated dramatically when Winston Silcott won his appeal and was awarded damages.
The killing of Roger Sylvester
Roger Sylvester was a young black man who died in January 1999 after a week on a life support machine. He was brutally arrested and restrained outside his home in Haringey by 8 police officers from Tottenham police station. Within hours he was fighting for his life on a support machine. No police officer has yet been charged and there has been no independent inquiry into Roger’s death. We will remember Roger and demand justice for his family at the picket on 4 August.
Don’t walk on by
Winston Silcott had long been a target of police hatred because of his habit since boyhood of standing up for justice in his local area. He had adopted the ‘Don’t walk on by’ strategy for many years. This is the practice of observing and making notes when the police are arresting on the street. It is particularly important in areas where the police make frequent use of whatever is the current ‘stop and search’ legislation, whether this is the sus law or Operation Eagle Eye. In the Metropolitan area of London 45 people per 1,000 are stopped and searched each year with various degrees of aggression. The black population, particularly young men, is disproportionately affected. Delroy Lindo has been in the forefront of the ‘Don’t walk on by’ protest in his area.
FRFI 156 August / September 2000
