Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No. 153, February/March 2000
The ‘All-London march against racist police, frame-up and murder’ took place in north London on Saturday 22 January with a rally outside Tottenham police station. The protest, called by Movement for Justice, Police Crimes against Civilians (The Lindo Campaign) and Duwayne Brooks and supported by other campaigns against police brutality, was born out of anger at the continuation of the old pattern of police crimes.
The Metropolitan police seem licensed to kill and criminalise people with impunity. No trial by jury for us — but no trial at all for them! Almost a year has passed since the Macpherson Report into the murder of Stephen Lawrence found the Metropolitan police to be ‘institutionally racist’; despite the promise of change, in practice it has been used as an excuse for doing nothing. It is as though the ruling class just shrugs its shoulders and accepts this as a fact of life. The week following the Report the Crown Prosecution Service announced that there would be no prosecution of the police officers involved in the violent deaths of Shiji Lapite in Hackney and Ibrahima Sey in Ilford, even though coroner’s juries had returned findings of unlawful killing in both cases.
In January of this year, Metropolitan police stopped and questioned Stephen Lawrence’s father about a robbery; they also stopped the Bishop of Stepney, John Sentamu, on suspicion of carrying drugs. Both are middle-aged men. Statistics show that police stop and search 10 times more black than white men in London. Recent propaganda by Paul Condon as Head of the Met suggests that the police are ‘afraid’ to stop and search ethnic minorities for fear of being seen as racists with the result of a new surge in street crime. This should act as a warning to us that stop and search will soon reach new levels and that official abuse and harassment on the streets will have the backing of Jack Straw, whose vicious legislation against the poor has already made him the most oppressive Home Secretary ever.
The Lay Advisory Task Force on Racism that was set up in response. to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry has already been shown as a fraud. The head of the Commission for Racial Equality and the so-called ‘community leaders’ who were supposed to ‘restore confidence’ in the Met Police have quit. Their complaint is that they were not listened to but in reality the Home Office is not interested in what is being said.
Last January, Roger Sylvester, a young black man, died at the hands of the Tottenham police. In August, Sarah Thomas, a young black woman died only hours after being arrested by an armed response unit in Hackney and, in September, Harry Stanley, a white man, was shot dead at 50 yards because the police in Hackney wrongly suspected he was armed.
Roger Sylvester
During this period Duwayne Brooks, the friend who was with Stephen Lawrence when he was murdered, has been the victim of new attempts by the Met to criminalise him. He has been charged with carrying offensive weapons (in fact, his work tools). At the time of the Lawrence case, police mounted a campaign to discredit him as a witness, and Duwayne has taken out a civil case against 15 police officers, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Condon. Duwayne is not a passive victim of racism but an active fighter for justice and this has made him appear particularly threatening to the racists.
Meanwhile the persecution of Winston Silcott continues with the targeting of his friend Delroy Lindo and his family. Indeed, since Delroy first established the campaign to defend Winston Silcott against the charge of police murder in 1985, he has been harassed ruthlessly by the Tottenham police. Delroy and his wife Sonia have faced six prosecutions with a total of 15 charges in the last two years. Every single charge has been defeated in court.
The hounding of the Lindo family reached new heights after Winston Silcott received £50,000 damages from the Metropolitan Police. On 13 December 1999 their 15-year-old son was subject to a racist attack in the street. Delroy was charged with assault on the police when he stopped the attack on his son — while the police took no action against the attacker.
Now is the time to get involved and defend those under attack from the police and the state.
Demonstrate at the trial of Duwayne Brooks: Monday 7 February, 9.30am, Woolwich Crown Court, Belmarsh Road, SE28. Next to Belmarsh Prison, nearest rail stations Plumstead and Woolwich Arsenal.
Support Harry Stanley’s brother who is standing for the Greater London Assembly elections as an independent candidate on an anti-police brutality platform in May 2000.
Susan Davidson
