Joy Gardner |
There's
a reason why everyone in my neighbourhood in South London knows who
Trayvon Martin was.
A
few months ago, a local public meeting was held. The posters all
featured a photo of Trayvon. No caption, no explanation. But
everyone in this area knows that similar things happen here.
I
know Trayvon was not killed by the police, but his killing was sanctioned
by the courts.
BFI
London South Bank recently held a day on deaths in police custody, as
part of the African Odysseys ongoing film series.
Filmmaker
Ken Fero, director of numerous documentaries including the multi-award-winning Injustice,
spoke in the morning and screened clips from his films. In the
afternoon, two of those films were screened.
Injustice
chronicles the fight for justice of seven families whose members died
in police custody. None of the police officers involved in these
killings have been prosecuted or disciplined. Six of the families
are Black (African Caribbean), the seventh is Irish. An Irishman was
gunned down as he walked through Brixton carrying a wooden table leg.
The police stated they thought he was armed with a gun.
All
of these families are still continuing to fight for justice.
Injustice
has never been shown on UK television. When it was first released in
2001, every time it was due to be shown in cinemas, the police would
phone the cinema about 15 minutes before the screening was due to
start, threatening legal action. They claimed the film “might be
libellous”.
Ken Fero, filmmaker |
However,
as Fero explained at the BFI, the audience inevitably contained
someone who owned a business or ran a community centre or another
venue. So the audience would decamp down the street, and the film
would be screened.
Like
a lot of people, I was very keen to see the film, and I saw it in a
barbershop in South London. All I can say is, if you haven't seen
Injustice, you need to see it.
Fero
has made many other films about human rights abuses committed in
Britain and other European countries, notably Germany and France. It
was, frankly, disturbing to hear him say how many times he has filmed
some of the same families. For example, the family of Joy Gardner, a
Jamaican citizen who died in police custody in 1993.
Joy
Gardner suffocated whilst in police restraints. The press labelled
her an illegal immigrant and, as Fero pointed out, ignored the fact
that other labels could equally be applied to her. Like “student”
and “mother”.
He
also said that, between 2001 and 2011, another 1,000 people died in
police custody. This is an escalation, as more than 1,000 deaths in
police custody had occurred in the previous 30 years.
Fero
said he makes these films in order to inspire people and educate them
about how to take action. He told me that he doesn't want to
continue to make these films but, as I am sure he would agree, it is
vital that he does.
And
while we are collectively mourning Michael Brown, Eric Garner and
all the others, we are aware that these things also happen here.
Please
join us for the International Summit on Nonviolence today.
See
also: Deaths in Police Custody.
No comments:
Post a Comment